
The 28th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an Irish-American volunteer regiment infantry of the Union Army which was active from 13 December 1861 to 30 June 1865 during the American Civil War, serving under the command of Colonel Richard Byrnes. It was raised in Boston from Irish immigrants and was dispatched to join Benjamin Butler's campaign in North Carolina in 1862, later being reassigned to II Corps as part of the famed Irish Brigade under Thomas Francis Meagher. The regiment fought in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the Siege of Petersburg, ending the war at Appomattox. Most of its members returned to Massachusetts when their enlistments expired on 1 January 1864, but many re-enlisted as "veteran volunteers" and served until the end of the war. It was deactivated at Readville, Massachusetts on 30 June 1865.