ADDITIONAL SKETCH TWENTY-FIKST
KEGIMENT.

By LIEUTENANT L. E. POWERS, Company A.

BATTLE OF PORT REPUBLIC.

Shields oceupied a commanding position. He had a six-
gun battery on a plateau of the mountain that could sweep
the whole field to the river, and there was no way to approach
him without coming within its galling range. It was abso-
lutely necessary that that battery should be silenced, and the
only way to do so was to walk up to it and take it. With this
battery in our hands, Jackson made short work of Shields.
His army was soon routed and nearly all captured, which left
us with that side of the river clear of foes and in peaceful
possession of the bridge. Jackson had left nearly all of Ew-
ell’s Division, and perhaps part of the old division, confront-
ing Fremont, who, as soon as he discovered we were fighting
Shields, made an attack on Ewell and was repulsed at every
point. It was in this engagement with Fremont that I saw a
whole regiment annihilated at a single fire. It was the Sev-
enth New York, composed of freshly imported Germans who
could scarcely speak the English language intelligibly. They
were so foolish as to attempt to march through an open clover
field to a body of timber within our lines, with no sharp shoot-
ers in front to locate our position. Two regiments of my
brigade, the Twenty-first Georgia and Sixteenth Mississippi,
were posted behind a fence that ran along the edge of this
woods. There was a large hollow in the clover field just in
front of our position, behind the fence. The Germans came
marching across the clover field in beautiful line, carrying

TWENTY-FIRST REGIMENT. their guns at “support arms.” The Colonel walking back-

1. Samuel C. James, Captain, Co. D. 4. John W. Miller, Captain, Co. D. wards in front of them, seeing that they preserved a perfect
ni H. Miller, Captain, Co. A. 5. L.'T. Whitlock, 1st Lient., Co. C. alignment just as though they were simply drilling. The

J. E. Gilmer, Captain, Co. M. 6. J.D. Melver, Sergeant, Co. A. Pe eer ae ‘
7. J.O. Blackburn, Captain, Co. G. Georgians and Mississippians were lying flat on the ground,