BATTLES IN WHICH THE TWENTY-FIRST REGIMENT MASS. VOLS. WAS ACTIVELY ENGAGED WITH THE ENEMY, AND ITS LOSSES THEREIN.

The above estimates of the fighting strength of the regiment from time to time were made with care, and are substantially accurate. The figures given are based on actual count or offi cial returns. Two of the companies were absent at Antietam, having been detailed as a guard over prisoners taken at South Mountain.

The regiment carried 209 muskets into the battle of the Wilderness. The number constantly diminished during the campaign, but I have not been able to obtain another definite statement of the actual fighting force of the regiment until the 20th of June, on which date it numbered 110 muskets, and reached its lowest figures on the 31st of August, when it numbered but 59 muskets for duty. The Roster, and regimental return for the 31st of August, 1864, printed in full in this book, page 355, will show what became of the men, and account for the non-combatants. An irreparable loss to the regiment, which does not appear in the above table, was suffered in October, 1862, by the transfer of 59 of our best fighting men to the regular cavalry and artillery. -ED.

Prisoners, not

wounded.

THE Agricultural Fair Grounds at Worcester were designated as the place of rendezvous, and the regiment was organized there during the months of July and August, 1861. Augustus Morse, of Leominster, a major-general in the state militia, was assigned to the command of the camp, which was named "Camp Lincoln," in honor of ex-Governor Levi Lincoln. The most noted day in the infancy of the regiment was July 19, when our companies, A from Templeton, D from Fitchburg, and G from Ashburnham, marched into camp together; and the 21st then began to look like a success. The first report of the strength of the regiment was made July 26th, on which date seven companies were in camp, numbering, in the aggregate, 512 officers and men. On the

AMOTWENTY-first regiment.

TWENTY-FIRST

August,

2d of August, the regiment suffered a loss of nearly 100 men, by the transfer of its original Company B to the 15th regiment; the loss, however, was made good within twenty-four hours by the arrival of companies from Boston and Springfield, which were soon afterwards consolidated into one company, and given the letter B. As men wishing to enlist were plenty, we had no difficulty in filling up the companies with picked men; and early in August the regiment paraded with a full front of brave, patriotic, intelligent, and muscular

men.

On the 16th of August, the greater part of the men in camp were mustered into the United States service for "three years, or during the war," by Captain Goodhue, of the 11th United States infantry; and for a few hours were called "Uncle Sam's Babies," by some of the men who had refused to be mustered on their failing to obtain any assurance that the officers under whom they had enlisted would be commissioned and mustered as such. The hangers-back, however, soon came to terms, and were all mustered in within a day or two. General Morse was made colonel of the regiment; and the field, staff, and line officers generally were commissioned and mustered into the United States service, on the 21st of August, in the grades in which they had been acting.

As a rule, these first officers of the regiment were worthy of their commissions, but the colonel was a very unfortunate selection, in a military point of view. Though of a kindly disposition, he was of a lazy habit, entirely destitute of soldierly enthusiasm or spirit, wonderfully ignorant of military drill and manœuvres, and a wretched disciplinarian. Some of our companies (D and G particularly) had come into camp in very good drill; the officers and men generally had stuck closely to the camp, and done their best to learn what they could of a soldier's duty; and the regiment, now a month old, though sadly lacking in battalion drill, had begun to feel its strength and to be a little restive to take its stand with our brothers in the field.

Anticipating sudden orders to move, Colonel Morse, in the kindness of his heart, scattered the regiment to the winds for a couple of days, on the 19th of August, by giving furloughs to everybody who said that they wanted to bid goodby to their families.

August 21st the state paymaster arrived and paid us from the time of enlistment to our muster into the United States service.

I have not been able to find a complete record of the birthplaces of the members of the regiment as it left the State. The imperfect Company Descriptive Rolls (made August 20th, under great disadvantages in some of the companies, owing to the absence of the men on furlough), in an aggregate of 829 enlisted men who appear on them, give, native born, 618; birth-place unknown to officer making the record, 67; foreign born, 144 (of whom 87 were born in Ireland, 23 in England, 23 in the British North American Provinces, 6 in Scotland, 3 in France, and 2 in Germany).

On the morning of Friday, August 23d, marching orders. were issued, tents were struck, and the make-shift, crookedbarreled guns with which we had been drilling, were exchanged for guns just a trifle better, being old smooth-bore muskets, altered from flint-locks; those issued to D and G, the flank companies, as if in mockery of their powers, having been newly sighted up to 900 yards.

The ceremonies immediately preceding our departure were impressive and stirring. The regiment being formed in close column of divisions, the Rev. Merrill Richardson, of Worcester, offered up a fervent prayer; and Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, in behalf of the ladies of Worcester, presented to the regiment a beautiful silk United States regimental flag, and made us the following stirring speech:

"COLONEL MORSE, OFFICERS, AND SOLDIERS OF THE TWENTYFIRST: I have been requested by the patriotic ladies of Worcester to present from their hands these regimental colors. Summoned to the field sooner than you or we had expected, in the haste of your