20th Massachusetts was attached, developed a plan to by-pass the difficult overland route to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Peninsular Campaign was intended to be a rapid movement of the Army of the Potomac by water, then by land, up the relatively short Virginia Peninsula. The 20th Massachusetts and Capt. Bartlett were part of this massive movement in the spring of 1862. The campaign stalled, however, when McClellan chose to lay siege to Yorktown, Virginia rather than assaulting the far smaller Confederate force there. During the siege, on April 24, 1862, Capt. Bartlett was shot in the left knee by Confederate pickets. The wound required the amputation of his leg. Bartlett returned to Boston to recuperate and, during the summer of 1862, finished his degree at Harvard. 49th Massachusetts After completing his degree, Bartlett chose not to re-join the 20th Massachusetts and resigned his commission on November 12, 1862. Instead, Bartlett accepted a colonel's commission and was placed in charge of forming a new regiment in Berkshire County, Massachusetts—the 49th Massachusetts Infantry. The regiment was to serve a term of nine months. The 49th Massachusetts was assigned in late November 1862 to the Louisiana expedition of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. The aim of the expedition was to increase the number of Union soldiers in the Army Department of the Gulf and to conquer the few remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River, thus opening that waterway to the Union. Bartlett led his regiment during the Siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana in the spring of 1863. Due to the amputation of his leg, he was required to remain on horseback during battle, making him an easy target for Confederates. During one of several assaults on Port Hudson on May 27, 1863, Bartlett was shot twice— a bullet shattered his left wrist, while buckshot struck his right leg. The regimental surgeon, Dr. Frederick Winsor, was able to remove the bullet and save his hand, but the wounds effectively removed him from command until the end of the 49th's term of service in September 1863. Bartlett resigned his commission on September 1, 1863. 57th Massachusetts While still recuperating from his wounds received in Louisiana, Bartlett began to organize, in the fall of 1863, another regiment. This unit, the 57th Massachusetts Infantry was one of four "Veteran Regiments," organized in Massachusetts to consist almost exclusively of men who had already served