Massachusetts Twentieth Regiment (Maybe)

I found a story in the Sacramento union supplement, quoting a Boston Journal article. It is from Oct. 19, 1861 and states that the Sixth (26th) had left Camp Cameron for Camp Chase in Lowell. With the exit of the old 6th Camp Cameron was left with just "Porter's Battery (1st Light Artillery) and squads of recruits for the Nineteenth and Twentieth Regiment." Other than this story I have found not found any mention of the Twentieth at Camp Cameron. The regiment was organized at Camp Massasoit, Readville Mass., and left the state a few weeks before the 26th.  At the time of the 26th's departure Camp Cameron did hold the 1st Light and the 19th's Band but it also housed the 28th. Some of the smaller groups have left very few pieces of evidence. Is this a clue of another regimental band or is it simply a typo? The story ran in Sacramento almost a month after the fact and was second hand from another paper. At this time in history type needed to be set by hand and one character at a time. It would be easy to make a mistake. This situation adds to the possibility. First the story was set in Boston, was a mistake made at the Boston Journal? Is the story so late because a copy of the paper was mailed to California? If so was a mistake made in transcribing it into the  Union? Was the story telegraphed to the west coast? If so a mistake may have been made in entering it into Morse code, writing it out at the other end or simply bad hand writing.  Was 20th supposed to be 28th? The 28th was a whole regiment, and had been in camp a month by the time the 26th left. It would have been recruited to a decent size. It is unlikely it would have been forgotten.   Still the next time I go to the State Archives I will look into this to see if some small part was left behind. One clue that it may have been the band is the fact that the 19th & 20th encamped together outside of Washington. (According to the Massachusetts Register #94)   Would it have been simpler to keep the two bands together to make transportation easier?
This is a good example of needing to be conservative in making judgments about believing everything you read. You take it in, you weigh it against your other evidence and you keep looking for more facts.

Dan Sullivan