The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry and Its Chaplain 

Born in Barnstead, New Hampshire, in 1828, Alonzo Hall Quint was educated at Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary. In the spring of 1861, he was appointed as the sole chaplain of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry.

At the request of The Congregationalist—his denomination’s weekly newspaper—Quint began submitting regular commentary on his experiences during the Civil War. These dispatches were later collected and published in 1864 under the title “The Potomac and the Rapidan.”

Reverend Quint once wrote:

“The less a chaplain assumes to be a military man, the better. His influence is that of a Christian minister. Men expect that, but they do not expect a mere preaching officer.” 

He added:

“A General once told a minister applying for office, ‘You have a higher office than is my power to bestow.’ So has a chaplain; but it is not a military office; it is that of friend, adviser, and helper, to both officer and private alike. With such material as ours a chaplain feels no lack of rank or show.”

After serving in the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862, Reverend Quint and the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry fought in the Battle of Cedar Mountain that summer and later took part in the Battle of Antietam on September 17. Among the wounded at Antietam was Capt. Robert Gould Shaw, who would later command the all-Black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment—dramatized in the 1989 film Glory.

On July 3, 1863—the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg—the 2nd Massachusetts was paired with the 27th Indiana Infantry and ordered to attack Confederate forces at the base of Culp’s Hill, near Spangler Spring. Vastly outnumbered and facing a superior enemy position, the order was widely regarded as one of the most ill-advised of the war. When 23-year-old Lt. Col. Charles R. Mudge, the regiment’s commander, received the command, he is reported to have said, “Well, it is murder, but it’s the order.” Minutes later, he was struck just below the throat by a Confederate bullet and killed instantly. The regiment suffered 137 casualties in the charge.

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