Recruited in Worcester county, and left the State November 1, 1861. It went to Annapolis, and thence with the Burnside expedition to North Carolina, arriving at Hatteras Inlet on February 6, 1862. It was in Foster's (1st) Brigade, and was engaged at Roanoke Island with a loss of 6 killed and 44 wounded. It remained in North Carolina--in the Eighteenth Corps--until October, 1863, when it moved into Southeastern Virginia. In the meantime, 432 of the men reenlisted, and in February, 1864, the regiment returned to Massachusetts on a veteran furlough. In April, 1864, the corps joined the Army of the James, and on May 5th landed at Bermuda Hundred. Fighting soon commenced, and on May 9th, at Arrowfield Church, the regiment lost 16 killed, 60 wounded, and 69 captured or missing. At Cold Harbor it sustained its heaviest loss, its casualties amounting to 24 killed, 142 wounded, and 49 missing, a total of 215 out of 300 reported for duty that morning; six of the officers lost their lives in that action, and the missing ones were nearly all killed or wounded. The brigade was withdrawn in September, 1864, from its position in the Petersburg Trenches, and ordered to New Berne, N. C., on garrison duty. It was mustered out October 20, 1864, and the men remaining in the field were consolidated into a battalion of four companies, which served in North Carolina until the close of the war.