Services Performed by the Invalid Corps – 20th Regiment

These posts are part of a larger series highlighting the contributions and accomplishments of the Invalid Corps/Veteran Reserve Corps during the Civil War. This post only captures some of the activities of individual regiments. Clearly, this is an area ripe for additional research.

20th Regiment

Organized at Baltimore, Md., January 12, 1864, by consolidation of the 60th, 69th, 82nd, 99th, 104th, 127th, 185th, 188th, 199th and 226th Companies, 1st Battalion. Mustered out by detachments June 15 to November 21, 1865.

Commenced the year at Point Lookout, Md., guarding the rebel prisoners there in conjunction with the Eleventh Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps and the Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry. Eighty men as mounted patrols, 40 as artillerymen in a battery, 140 as provost guard, 43 on other detached service as clerks, orderlies, Ac; only 321 present with the regiment. Men on duty every other day; frequently detailed the very morning they were relieved; many detachments to escort exchanged prisoners. The sick list ran as high as fifty-two in consequence of the constant duty and the exposure to winter weather. Average number of prisoners present about 16,000; no escapee reported from guards famished by the regiment. Since the close of the war the Twentieth has been divided among various posts, performing everywhere as much duty as is ever demanded of able-bodied men.

Reference:

The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies – https://archive.org/details/warrebellionaco17offigoog/page/n578