4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment

The 4th Massachusetts Volunteer Heavy Artillery Regiment was a unit that served in the Union Army during the latter part of the American Civil War.

It was formed from former Unattached Companies of Heavy Artillery raised by Massachusetts to serve the state and for the defenses of Washington, D.C.

In the late summer of 1864, fourteen companies of heavy artillery were raised throughout Massachusetts for the purpose of coastal defense of the state.

They encamped on Gallops Island in Boston Harbor, where they organized and were mustered in during latter part of August and into the first days of September 1864.

In September, they were ordered to Washington, DC for garrison duty in the forts surrounding the capital.

Private Joseph N. Walls of Co. G, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress