The next Confederate units to arrive at Henry Hill included Brig. Gen. Thomas Jackson’s brigade of five Virginia regiments and Colonel Eppa Hunton’s 8th Virginia Infantry. These units were able to form a sturdy line in front of the woods on the eastern slope of Henry Hill. Thus shielded by Jackson’s “wall,” Evans, Bee and Bartow were able to consolidate their scattered commands with the help of General Beauregard himself, just arrived at Henry Hill.

Like Wheat’s battalion, Sloan’s 4th South Carolina was broken up into companies. Four of its companies, one-time defenders of Matthews Hill, attached themselves to Hampton’s Legion. Another company attached itself to the 49th Virginia Infantry. The other five companies of Sloan’s regiment fell back to the Lewis House, where they attached themselves to the remaining Zouaves of Wheat’s battalion.

While Beauregard was busily constructing an entirely new line atop Henry Hill, McDowell sent his army forward. As the Federal advance moved into the woods, however, it was hit unexpectedly by fire from Colonel Arthur Cummings’ blue-coated 33rd Virginia Infantry. In the fight that followed, the confused Federal infantry broke and retreated back up the Manassas-Sudley Road. As they did so, from the south, 150 troopers from Colonel J.E.B. Stuart’s 1st Virginia Cavalry charged right into their disorganized mass, routed the infantrymen and drove them farther up the road.

Seizing the opportunity, Jackson immediately ordered his whole line forward. During the ensuing back-and-forth fighting at Henry Hill, Colonel Robert Withers and his 18th Virginia Infantry Regiment were ordered to remove themselves from Bull Run and reinforce Beauregard’s line on Henry Hill.

Withers recalled that he was ordered to move forward past the McLean House through a mass of retreating men. “As many of these were unhurt,” said Withers, “I urged them to go back with us into the fight, all refused except two ‘Tigers,’ who, from their brogue were evidently Irish.” One of the Louisianans, continued Withers, “ran up the slope to an orchard occupied by the skirmishers, got behind an apple tree, and fired two or three times, when he was shot through both legs. He squatted down, and turning his head over his shoulder, called to his comrade: ‘I say, Dennis, come up here and give them hell, for they’ve got me!’”

With more forces at his disposal, Beauregard ordered his whole line to advance and drive the Federals from Henry Hill. During the attack, the Zouaves from Wheat’s battalion, like the rest of the line, were hit by a Federal fusillade. Lieutenant Thomas Adrian of Company B fell with a leg wound. Seeing the Tigers’ subsequent hesitation, Adrian, while lying on the ground and bleeding profusely, shouted: “Tigers, go in once more, go in my sons, I’ll be great gloriously God damned if the sons of bitches can ever whip the Tigers!”

Apparently inspired by Adrian’s plea, the Tigers, with the rest of Bee’s line, rallied, turned and drove the Federals back. Tiger Zouave Robert Richie subsequently reported to the New Orleans Daily Delta: “Our blood was on fire. Life was valueless. The boys fired one volley, then rushed upon the foe with clubbed rifles beating down their guard; then they closed upon them with their knives, ‘Greek had met Greek,’ the tug of war had come….[It] did not seem as though men were fighting,…[but as if there] were devils mingling in the conflict, cursing, yelling, cutting, and shrieking.”

By dusk, McDowell’s army was driven totally from the field and retreated all the way back to Washington. The first great battle of the war had ended in Southern victory.

Wheat’s little band of Louisiana Tigers had been instrumental in bringing about the Southern success. Its actions on Matthews Hill gave Beauregard time to shuffle enough forces to make a stand on Henry Hill. And on Henry Hill, the place where the Federals were ultimately driven back, the Tigers again distinguished themselves, charging and then holding a section of guns. Beauregard noted that the Tigers and the balance of Evans’ brigade “maintained their stand with almost matchless tenacity…dauntless courage and imperturbable coolness,” and cited Wheat for his “brilliant courage.” Beauregard went on to say, “[I]n the desperate, unequal contest, to which these brave gentlemen were for a time necessarily exposed the behavior of officers and men was worthy of the highest admiration, and assuredly hereafter to all those present may proudly say: ‘We were of that band who fought the first hour of the battle of Manassas.’”

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First-time contributor Gary Schreckengost, a resident of Elm, Pa., is working on a book about Wheat’s Tigers. For further reading, see: Lee’s Tigers, by Terry L. Jones; or Gentle Giant: The Gallant Life of Roberdeau Wheat, by Charles L. Dufour.

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