Massachusetts Line - 1777 Establishment - 2D Massachusetts Regiment (1777)

2d Massachusetts Regiment (1777)

The 2nd Massachusetts Regiment (Bailey's Regiment) was formed by consolidating the remnants of the 7th Continental Regiment; Peters' Company, 13th Continental Regiment; and Clap's Company, 21st Continental Regiment; with the remnant of the 23d Continental Regiment. (Peters' and Clap's Companies were reorganized, respectively, as Warren's and Dunham's Companies, Bailey's Regiment). The commanding officer, Colonel John Bailey, had been the lieutenant colonel, later the colonel, of Thomas's Regiment in 1775 and colonel of the 23d Continental Regiment in 1776. As the 23d Continental Regiment, reorganizing as the 2d Massachusetts Regiment, it served in Glover's Brigade at Princeton. Reorganization was completed in the spring of 1777, and the regiment was ordered to the Northern Department. In the summer of 1777 it was assigned to the 4th Massachusetts Brigade under Brigadier General Learned. The regiment retreated toward Saratoga after the American evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga in July, and marched under Arnold to the relief of Fort Stanwix in August. Following the Saratoga campaign the regiment marched south to join Washington in the Middle Department. It served in the Philadelphia campaign and wintered at Valley Forge. In 1778 it served in the Monmouth campaign. After November 1778 the regiment was stationed in the Highlands, but in 1781 its light company was assigned to Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Vose's Battalion, Corps of Light Infantry, which served in the Yorktown campaign. The regiment was disbanded at West Point, New York, on November 3, 1783.