Wheat led his men up the road to the Carter mansion. There he deployed the battalion behind a split-rail fence about 400 yards north of the house. Once done, he led his gray-clad Catahoula Guerrillas forward as a picket and then continued up the path in the direction of Sudley Ford.

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While Wheat conducted his reconnaissance, Lieutenant George Davidson's two-howitzer battery arrived, and Evans deployed them on the Tigers' left, about 100 yards north of the house. From there, they could sweep the road and field to their front. Next came Sloan's six companies, which Evans deployed in reserve behind Lieutenant Davidson's guns.

About 15 minutes later, Wheat came galloping back down the road with the alarming news that the Federals were not coming down the country road as expected, but instead were heading straight down the Manassas-Sudley Road toward the Warrenton Turnpike. Evans decided to move his command once again, toward the Manassas-Sudley Road.

Evans led his command, with Wheat's battalion in the van, farther to the left by skirting the southern base of the ridge that stretched from the Carter mansion down to the Manassas-Sudley Road. About 500 yards from the road, in a small vale between Buck Hill and the southern slope of Matthews Hill, Evans ordered Wheat to peel his battalion off to the right, up Matthews Hill and to the right of a rectangular pine thicket.

Before ensuring that Sloan's right and Wheat's left connected properly, Evans rode down to the pike to place Davidson's fieldpieces in the new position, leaving Sloan and Wheat to their own devices. To make matters worse, before he left, Evans had instructed Sloan "to open fire as soon as the enemy approached within range of muskets."

While Evans rode back to the pike and Sloan began his deployment, Wheat cautiously moved his men ahead, across a rivulet and up past the pine thicket, where he momentarily stopped to assess his position. His battalion was at the bottom of Matthews Hill, which was actually an undulating ridge that ran northeast and southwest. Immediately to his left, perpendicular to his battle line, was a cornfield enclosed by a split-rail fence. To his rear was the pine thicket. To his front, about 50 yards away, was a swale continuing up the slope another 300 yards or so, where the ridgeline topped off. There, at the crest, Matthews Hill was bisected by a fence-enclosed farm lane that connected the Manassas-Sudley Road with Edgar Matthews' house.

Wheat decided to deploy the bulk of his battalion in the swale, with both flanks touching a fence line, while he led his skirmish company, the Catahoula Guerrillas, forward up the slope. As Wheat led the Guerrillas up the hill, Sloan sent out his own company of skirmishers through the pine thicket, apparently unaware of Wheat's location. Creeping through the tangled pines, unable to see more than 20 yards, some of the Palmetto Staters spotted movement to their front.

Remembering Evans' orders to open fire as soon as the enemy approached, the trigger-happy skirmishers fired into the leftmost company of Wheat's battalion, which was shuffling into the culvert. In the salvo that followed, the South Carolinians mortally wounded two men from Company B, Zouaves Hugh McDonald and James Wilson. Aroused, the Tigers got up, turned about and returned fire. A small battle could have ensued then and there if Wheat had not rushed down the hill on his horse and straightened out the matter.

At about 9:15, soon after the friendly fire incident, Wheat crested Matthews Hill with his Catahoula Guerrillas. He was ready to order up the rest of his battalion when he spotted Federal skirmishers spilling out of the woods to his front, about 200 yards away. Instantly, he ordered Buhoup's men to get down and take cover behind the split-rail fence. The enemy had arrived.

The Federal skirmishers whom Wheat spotted belonged to Colonel John Slocum's 2nd Rhode Island of Colonel Ambrose Burnside's brigade, the lead element of McDowell's main effort. Behind the 2nd Rhode Island, stacked up on the Manassas-Sudley Road, was Captain William Reynolds' Battery A, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, the 2nd New Hampshire, the 71st New York and the 1st Rhode Island. Behind the 1st Rhode Island was Colonel Andrew Porter's brigade, which consisted of Captain Charles Griffin's battery, a battalion of recently recruited U.S. Marines, the 8th, 14th and 27th New York, a battalion of U.S. Army Regular infantry, and a battalion of Regular cavalry.

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