DESCENDANTS ASSOCIATION
SIXTH REGIMENT OF MARYLAND INFANTRY
DESCENDANTS ASSOCIATION
The Sixth Regiment of Maryland Infantry Descendants Association announces its decision to dedicate a monument to the men of the Sixth Maryland Volunteers on the Breakthrough Battlefield near Petersburg, Virginia
This regiment was made up of men from the farms, villages and cities of Maryland who fought and died from its formation in 1862 until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The monument will be enshrined on the spot where the Sixth Maryland Volunteers made their pre-dawn attack and led the Sixth Corps breakthrough of the main line of Confederate fortifications at Petersburg in the early morning hours of April 2nd, 1865.
This major breakthrough of the defenses of the Army of Northern Virginia at Petersburg led to the withdrawal of all Confederate forces on the Petersburg and Richmond front. A week later, the retreating Confederate forces were surrounded by pursuing Union forces at Appomattox Court House where Lt. Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to the Union commander, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
Major Clifton K. Prentiss led the Sixth Maryland’s in its gallant charge and was mortally wounded. Sgt. John E. Buffington of the Sixth Maryland Infantry Regiment was awarded the Medal of Honor for being the first Union enlisted man to reach the Confederate entrenchments. The men of the 6th Maryland Infantry were in the forefront of the massive 6th Corps assault of some 14,000 men. These same men fought at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna River, Cold Harbor, marched across the James River to encircle Petersburg and were called on to defend Washington, D. C. when Confederate forces threatened its outskirts. The regiment started with approximately one thousand men in Baltimore in August of 1862 and ended up with less than three hundred survivors when it proudly marched through the streets of Washington City in the Union Army’s Grand Review in June of 1865.
The site of the historic Breakthrough Battle at Petersburg is now part of Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier. The park is a 422-acre historical campus that features a world-class museum, antebellum homes, a historic Civil War battlefield, a slave life exhibit, costumed living history demonstrations, educational programs and special events. It has been called “the new crown jewel of Civil War sites in America” by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson of Princeton University.
Pamplin Historical Park has also been recognized as a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior. The park encompasses original Confederate fortifications that may be viewed from the Breakthrough Trail.
This is a fitting place for the granite and bronze monument that will be dedicated to the brave men of the Sixth Maryland Infantry . . . those who fought on this hallowed ground and all soldiers who served honorably in the regiment at any time during the war to end the rebellion and reunite our great country.
This is an artist’s rendering of the finished monument made of granite with engraved lettering and a bronze plaque depicting the battle. Dimensions will be approximately 4 foot tall by 6 foot wide. (The lower stone is also darker granite . . . the gray coloring was done just to show the lettering in this depiction and will not be used on the actual monument.)
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Copyright 2007. The Sixth Regiment of Maryland Infantry Descendants Association
Updated 17 April 2007
