5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment

The 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry (or 5th Regiment, Massachusetts Cavalry (Colored)) was a cavalry regiment from Massachusetts, that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service
The regiment was organized from January 9-May 5, 1864, at Camp Meigs, Readville, near Boston. From May 12, 1864, it served dismounted and equipped as infantry until the end of war.

Detailed service
The regiment fought at Baylor's Farm during the Second Battle of Petersburg and the Siege of Petersburg on June 14, 1864. At the end of June 1864, it was ordered to Point Lookout, Maryland, to guard a Confederate prison. They mustered out on October 31, 1865.

Casualties
The regiment lost 123 enlisted men; 7 enlisted men were killed or mortally wounded, and 116 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

 * Colonel Henry S. Russell (March 7-June 14, 1864; wounded at Baylor's Farm)
 * Major Henry Pickering Bowditch (June 14-September 30, 1864)
 * Colonel Henry S. Russell (September 30, 1864 – February 14, 1865; resigned)
 * Colonel Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (February 14-August 1, 1865)
 * Colonel Samuel Chamberlain (August 1-October 31, 1865; regiment mustered out)

Notable soldiers and officers

 * Private Prince Romerson (c. 1840–1872), a Native Hawaiian soldier from the Kingdom of Hawaii who also fought as a Buffalo Soldier.
 * Joshua Dunbar, the father of renowned American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, served as a volunteer soldier in both the 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry and the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment.
 * Corporal William R. Meadows (c. 1842-May 6, 1868), moved to Claiborne Parish, Louisiana after the war. He served as a representative to the state constitutional convention of 1868 after Louisiana was readmitted to the Union. He was murdered by unknown parties outside his home on the evening May 6, 1868.  [New Orleans Republican, May 22, 1868, p. 1]
 * 2nd Lt. Daniel Henry Chamberlain, who'd become Attorney General and eventually Governor of South Carolina.
 * George Lawrence Mabson, who becomes the first black lawyer in North Carolina