Taken Directly From The Book, LEE'S TIGERS, By Terry L. Jones (1987) Taylor had quietly followed a long, winding forest trail along the base of the mountain to get into position on the federal left flank. Arriving unobserved, the Tigers found that a deep gorge still separated them from the Yankee artillery and that Union pickets were posted above them on the side of the mountain. Through whispered orders, the brigade deployed in the brush just as the cheers of Shield's victorious soldiers rose over the plain. When Taylor ordered the charge, there was still some confusion among his companies as they tried to align themselves in the thicket, but there was no time to attend to such details. Screaming at the top of their voices, the Tigers burst out of the brush. Racing into and over the ravine, they were upon the startled artillerymen before the Yankees could wheel the guns around. A young Virginia officer serving as Taylor's aide was the first to reach the battery, but he was killed by the federals before the rest of the Brigade arrived to chase them off. All organization was lost during the headlong flight over the gorge, and the mass of men climbed on top of the captured guns like children. Laughing hysterically, they straddled the tubes, slapped each other's backs, and cheered their victory. Suddenly, scores of Taylor's men were cut down in heaps by artillery fire from another federal battery, which had turned its guns on the brigade from only 350 yards away. Sgt. Stephens, whose musket was shot in two in his hands, wrote that the Yankees "poured grape into us like smoke." Seeing Union infantry massing for a counterattack behind this new battery, William "Big" Peck, the 9th Louisiana's huge, six-foot, six-inch Lt. Colonel, yelled for the men to kill the artillery horses of the captured guns to prevent them from being recovered by the enemy. Major Wheat drew out his knife and began slashing the throats of the horses nearest him. Blood spurted over the major as he carried out the grisly task, making him "as bloody as a butcher." Others reached out, placed their muskets against the poor creatures' heads, and fired. The horses were still shrieking and jerking in their death throes when the Yankees charged into the battery and began clubbing Taylor's men. "It was a sickening sight," one Tiger said of the resulting carnage, "men in gray and blue piled up in front of and around the guns and with the horses dying and the blood of men and beasts flowing almost in a stream." These Yankees were the brave Buckeyes of General Erastus Tyler's Ohio Brigade. After breaking up Hays's attack across the open plain, the brigade struck out at Taylor and in a matter of minutes overpowered his men and kicked them out of the battery. Refusing to abandon the guns, Taylor fell back to the ravine, regrouped his men, and charged the Yankees a second time. Again, there was fierce hand-to-hand fighting as bayonets crossed and muskets became clubs. Around the cannons five color guards of the 5th Ohio were shot down in rapid succession and the regiment's battle flag was wrenched away and captured by the Tigers. Despite such losses, however, the Buckeyes managed to hold on and again succeeded in prying Taylor's men from the battery and in Bludgeoning them back to the ravine. Back in the gorge the Tigers were in disarray. Never had such resistance been offered by the enemy, and doubts were racing through each soldier's mind as to the wisdom of having to test the Yankees' mettle a third time. Taylor, however, did not hesitate. He quickly reassembled the men and even threw the regiments' musicians and drummers into his line. Suddenly, the brigade wavered as the forgotten Union pickets on the side of the mountain behind them began taking pot shots at the formation. Taylor was forced to pull two companies of Col. Leroy Stafford's 9th Louisiana out of line and dispatch them to silence the sharpshooters before he could launch his third attack on the battery. Tyler's men had begun dragging the fieldpieces back to their lines by hand and had succeeded in saving one gun when the Tigers rushed upon them for the third time. The day's fighting had cost the Buckeyes more than 200 men thus far, and they were too weak to stop the Tiger's charge. For a few desperate moments the battle raged around the guns, but the Yankees finally broke and pulled back to their lines. No cheering accompanied the capture of the battery this time, for across the field could be seen new federal brigades veering away from Jackson's line and charging toward Taylor. The Louisianian knew he could not hold out against any more attacks and silently resolved to pull back to the gorge and make a stand. Luckily, Ewell came crashing through the underbrush at that moment, leading two Virginia regiments. By now Shield's line was in total confusion as a result of his left flank being smashed by Taylor, and a renewed advance by Jackson's entire army put the Yankees to flight. The carnage around the battery proved the Louisiana Irishmen's prediction that Shields's boys were looking for a fight. After witnessing four years of bloody warfare, Taylor wrote, "I have never seen so many dead and wounded in the same limited space." More than 300 Buckeyes and Tigers lay jumbled together among the dead artillery horses. In the short contest, Taylor had 165 men shot and beaten down at the battery, while Rays lost another 123 on the open plain. The 19 officers and 269 men that the Louisiana Brigade lost during the two hour battle of Port Republic was the highest casualty rate among Jackson's brigades. (Author's Notes): Hays' 7th Louisiana plus the 8th Louisiana were pulled out of the Louisiana Brigade by Jackson prior to the fighting on the left flank, leaving the 6th and 9th Louisiana Infantry regiments, plus Wheat's Tiger Battalion as the sole units involved on the Confederate side in this "battle for the guns" on the federal left flank. Ewell's official campaign report stated that to the Tigers belonged "the honor of deciding two battles - that of Winchester and [Port Republic]." Jackson, after viewing the ground and casualties surrounding the captured guns told the soldiers of the Louisiana Brigade that the five cannon would be presented to them as a tribute to their role in the battle. Back to The Zouave Vol II No. 3 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1988 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com