WHEAT'S TIGERS Confederate Zouaves at First Manassas

By Gary Schreckengost

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in America's Civil War magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Recruited from New Orleans’ teeming waterfront by soldier of fortune Roberdeau Wheat, the 1st Louisiana Special Battalion more than lived up to its pugnacious nickname–Wheat’s Tigers–at the First Battle of Manassas.

Of all the units that took the field at the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861, none exceeded the flair and intensity of the 1st Louisiana Special Battalion, “Wheat’s Tigers.” Raised from the dregs of New Orleans, the Tigers, who were primarily Irish immigrant dockworkers, were as tough and resolute as their combative commander, Major Roberdeau Wheat.

Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, born on April 9, 1826, in Alexandria, Va., studied law at the University of Nashville and then served in the 1st Tennessee Cavalry as a lieutenant during the Mexican War. After the war, he moved to New Orleans, where he began his career as a filibuster–or mercenary–participating in several expeditions to Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua and Italy, and rising to the rank of general in both the Mexican and Italian armies.

In 1861, when his native South declared its independence, Wheat rushed to New Orleans to raise a regiment to defend the newly proclaimed Confederate States of America. Re-establishing his old recruiting station at 64 St. Charles Street, near the docks, he attracted three already forming companies, Captain Robert Harris’ “Walker Guards,” Captain Alexander White’s “Tiger Rifles” and Captain Henry Gardner’s “Delta Rangers,” to his banner and formed a fourth on his own, the “Old Dominion Guards.” The men of these companies were largely Irish immigrant dockworkers or ship hands who inhabited the southern edge of the city, near the Mississippi River. One observer expressed a widely held view that they were the “lowest scum of the lower Mississippi…adventurous wharf rats, thieves, and outcasts…and bad characters generally.”

At least some of the men, especially those in Harris’ Walker Guards, were also former filibusters who had served with Wheat in Nicaragua back in 1857. They mustered into service in their old filibuster uniforms–off-white cotton drill trousers, white canvas leggings, red flannel battle shirts and broad-brimmed, low-crowned straw hats. Once enlisted, the men also wrote provocative slogans–such as “Lincoln’s Life or a Tiger’s Death,” “Tiger by Nature” or “Tiger in Search of Abe”–on their hat bands.

Wheat next worked on outfitting his nascent command in the Zouave fashion. Zouaves were originally Algerian units that served in the French army and were considered among the elite fighting forces in the world. The Algerians wore their traditional, flamboyant uniforms during their French service, inspiring a sartorial style that was duplicated by Northern and Southern regiments during the Civil War. To uniform his Tigers as Zouaves, Wheat enlisted the support of A. Keene Richards, a wealthy New Orleans businessman and one of Wheat’s former filibuster financiers. The men were issued red wool fezzes with blue tassels; loose-fitting red woolen, placketed battle shirts; red woolen sashes; dark-blue wool, waist-length Zouave jackets with red trim; blue-and-white striped sailor’s socks; blue-and-white striped cotton pantaloons cut in the baggy Zouave fashion; white canvas leggings and black leather grieves.

Wheat uniformed himself in a dark-blue, double-breasted frock coat and trousers and looked much like a field grade officer in the U.S. Army. He also sported a buff general’s sash to commemorate his filibuster commission in the Mexican and Italian armies. For headgear, he wore a red, French-style kepi bedecked with gold lace to denote his rank.

By early April 1861, all the New Orleans units that intended to volunteer for Confederate service gathered at the Metairie racetrack, two miles northwest of the waterfront. There, Wheat’s men were issued Model 1841 “Mississippi” rifles that had been seized from the U.S. arsenal at Baton Rouge in January 1861 and large bowie-style knives. With their new weapons and accouterments, mostly Mexican War surplus, the Tigers were quickly introduced to military drill and discipline by Wheat. Once drill was over, the Tigers drank, played cards or fought, often disrupting camp.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to