On July 16, Evans was ordered to withdraw from his advanced post and redeploy behind Bull Run Creek with the rest of the army. His command, now designated a brigade, was assigned to guard the extreme left of Beauregard's line that extended from Sudley and Poplar fords in the north to Farm Ford and the Centreville-Warrenton Stone Bridge in the south. Making his headquarters at the Van Pelt House, which was situated atop a ridge some 900 yards west of the Stone Bridge, Evans located his main camp on the western slope of the ridge, shielding it from Federal view.

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Once the brigade was emplaced, Evans had his men cut away the foliage on the western slope of Van Pelt Ridge down to the creek, clearing fields of fire. Farm Ford, Wheat's responsibility, was left in its natural state. Its only road was on the west, or Confederate, side of Bull Run. Off to the west, continuing up the ford road, was the imposing Carter mansion, which was located on the south side of the road. The mansion, an 18th-century Georgian-style house, was on the northeastern slope of a ridge that continued in a southwesterly direction toward the Manassas-Sudley Road. Beyond the mansion another 500 yards or so, the Farm Ford road forked again. To the right it led off to the northwest, toward Sudley Ford, on the Manassas-Sudley Road. To the left it led southwest atop the ridgeline, past a quaint house owned by Edgar Matthews, and then on to the Manassas-Sudley Road.

On July 18, Union Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell's 35,000-man army opened hostilities by probing Beauregard's defenses several miles south of the Stone Bridge at Mitchell's and Blackburn's fords. Convinced that Beauregard's defenses were too strong to force a crossing there, McDowell decided to shift the bulk of his army to the north and west and attack Beauregard's left soon after dawn on Sunday, July 21.

For this new attack, Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler's division was to be sent in first. Tyler was to march his division out of Centreville and down the macadamized Warrenton Turnpike to feint at the Stone Bridge. Meanwhile, the main column, two divisions commanded by Colonels David Hunter and Samuel Heintzelman, would march down a rough road and turn Beauregard's left at Sudley Ford.

At about 3:30 on the morning of the 21st, Evans' pickets, deployed on the east, or enemy, side of Bull Run, reported that they heard commands in the woods beyond. Half an hour later, their fears were realized when they saw some shadowy figures approaching their position through the dark woods without identifying themselves. Determining that the force was not friendly, the pickets broke the morning silence and opened up on them.

Wheat quickly got his men up and led Captain Buhoup's Catahoula Guerrillas forward to reinforce Captain White's company, picketing Farm Ford. In the meantime, Colonel Sloan of the 4th South Carolina formed the rest of his regiment into line of battle and sent two companies forward to reinforce his picket line. Private Drury Gibson of the Catahoula Guerrillas remembered, "We were anxious to meet the enemy, in fact our hearts jumped for joy when we saw their bayonets through the distant forest."

With characteristic restlessness, Wheat decided to cross the creek and investigate. Riding across the creek into a field on the other side, Wheat spied a Federal column waiting on the pike. Soon after he entered the clearing, Wheat was spotted and forced to make a hasty retreat back to his side of Bull Run.

As Wheat splashed back across Bull Run, Evans began to receive reports that an even greater danger was brewing to his far left, near Sudley Ford. Captain Edward Porter Alexander, the army's principal signal officer, had spotted movement and a brief metallic flash several miles to his northwest. Determining that this was a force to be reckoned with, Alexander quickly sent a message down to Evans: "Look to your left, you are turned."

At about 7:30 a.m., a full three hours after the skirmish began, Evans, in consultation with Wheat, determined that the Federal attack to his front was merely a feint and resolved to deploy his brigade, under fire, to meet the new threat. Informing Beauregard and Cocke of his intentions and leaving four companies to hold the Stone Bridge, Evans ordered his remaining 11 companies, all of Wheat's battalion and six of Sloan's companies, plus a section of guns, to head toward the Carter mansion to stop the Federal turning column.

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