At noon on the 18th, Bonham at Mitchell's ford and Longstreet at Blackburn's ford, were attacked with infantry and artillery, and both attacks were repulsed. General McDowell was engaged on the 19th and 20th in reconnoitering the Confederate position, and made no decided indication of his ultimate purpose. The delay was golden for the Confederates. Important reinforcements arrived on the 20th and on the morning of the 21st, which were chiefly to fight and win the battle, while the main body of Beauregard's army held the line of Bull run. General Holmes, from the lower Potomac, came with over 1,200 infantry, six guns and a fine company of cavalry; Colonel Hampton, with the infantry of his legion, 600 strong, and the Thirteenth Mississippi; Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, from the Shenandoah, with Jackson's, Bee's and Bartow's brigades, 300 of Stuart's cavalry and two batteries, Imboden's and Pendleton's.
The reinforcements were put in line in rear of the troops already in position, Bee and Bartow behind Longstreet, covering McLean's and Blackburn's fords, with Barksdale's Thirteenth Mississippi; Jackson in rear of Bonham, covering Mitchell's ford; and Cocke's brigade, covering the fords further to the left, was strengthened and supported by a regiment of infantry and six guns, and Hampton was stationed at the Lewis house. Walton's and Pendleton's batteries were placed in reserve in rear of Bonham and Bee. Thus strengthened, the army of General Beauregard numbered about 30,000 effectives, with fifty-five guns.
General Beauregard had planned an attack on McDowell's left, which was to be executed on the 21st; but before he put his right brigades in motion, McDowell had crossed two of his divisions at Sudley's ford, two miles to the left of Evans, who was posted at the stone bridge, and while threatening Evans and Cocke in front, was marching rapidly down the rear of Beauregard's left. Satisfied of this movement, Evans left four companies of the Fourth South Carolina to defend the bridge, and taking the six remaining companies of the Fourth, with Wheat's Louisiana battalion and two guns of Latham's battery, moved rapidly to his rear and left and formed his little brigade at right angles to the line on Bull run and just north of the turnpike road. In this position he was at once assailed by the advance of the enemy, but held his ground for an hour, when Bee, who had been moved up to stone bridge, came to his assistance. Evans, with his Carolinians and Louisianians; Bee, with his Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee regiments, and Bartow with his Georgia and Kentucky battalions, and the batteries of Latham and Imboden, with heroic fortitude sustained the assault for another hour, before falling back south of the turnpike. It was then evident that the battle was not to be fought in front of Bull run, but behind it, and in rear of General Beauregard's extreme left. Both generals, whose headquarters had been at the Lewis house, three miles away, hurried to the point of attack and arrived, as General Johnston reported, "not a moment too soon." Fifteen thousand splendidly equipped troops of McDowell's army, with numerous batteries, many of the guns rifled, were driving back the little brigade of Evans and the regiments of the gallant Bee and Bartow, and the moment was critical. The presence and example of the commanding generals, the firm conduct of the officers, and the hurrying forward of Hampton with his legion, and Jackson with his brigade, re-established the battle on the line of the Henry house, a half mile south of the turnpike and two miles in the rear of the stone bridge. Beauregard took immediate command on the field of battle, and Johnston assumed the general direction from the Lewis house, whose commanding elevation gave him a view of the whole field of operations. "The aspect of affairs (he says in his report) was critical, but I had full confidence in the skill and indomitable courage of General Beauregard, the high soldierly qualities of Generals Bee and Jackson and Colonel Evans, and the devoted patriotism of the troops."
At this first stage of the battle, from 8:30 to 11 a. m., the troops from South Carolina actively engaged were the Fourth regiment, Colonel Sloan, and the legion of Hampton. Two companies of the Fourth, thrown out as skirmishers in front of the stone bridge, fired the first gun of the battle early in the morning, and the regiment bore a glorious part in the battle which Evans fought for the first hour, and in the contest of the second hour maintained by Bee, Bartow and Evans. The Fourth lost 11 killed and 79 wounded.
Hampton arrived at the Lewis house in the morning, and being connected with no particular brigade, was ordered to march to the stone bridge. On his march, hearing of the attack on the rear, and the roar of the battle being distinctly heard, he changed the direction of his march toward the firing. Arriving at the Robinson house, he took position in defense of a battery and attacked the enemy in his front. Advancing to the turnpike under fire, Lieut.-Col. B. J. Johnson, of the legion, fell, "as, with the utmost coolness and gallantry, he was placing our men in position," says his commander. Soon enveloped by the enemy in this direction, the legion fell back with the commands of Bee and Evans to the first position it occupied, and, as before reported, formed an important element in re-establishing the battle under the immediate direction of Generals Beauregard and Johnston.
The troops ordered by the commanding generals to prolong the line of battle, formed at 11 o'clock, took position on the right and left as they successively arrived, those on the left assaulting at once, and vigorously, the exposed right flank of the enemy, and at each assault checking, or repulsing, his advance. No attempt will be made by the author to follow the movements of all of these gallant troops who thus stemmed the sweeping advance of strong Federal brigades, and the fire of McDowell's numerous batteries. He is confined, particularly, to the South Carolina commands.
The line of battle as now re-established, south of the Warrenton turnpike, ran at a right angle with the Bull run line, and was composed of the shattered commands of Bee, Bartow and Evans on the right, with Hampton's legion infantry; Jackson in the center, and Gartrell's, Smith's, Faulkner's and Fisher's regiments, with two companies of Stuart's cavalry, on the left. The artillery was massed near the Henry house. With this line the assaults of Heintzelman's division and the brigades of Sherman and Keyes, with their batteries, numbering some 18,000 strong, were resisted with heroic firmness.
By 2 o'clock, Kershaw's Second and Cash's Eighth South Carolina, General Holmes' brigade of two regiments, Early's brigade, and Walker's and Latham's batteries, arrived from the Bull run line and reinforced the left. The enemy now held the great plateau from which he had driven our forces, and was being vigorously assailed on his left by Kershaw and Cash, with Kemper's battery, and by Early and Stuart. General Beauregard ordered the advance of his center and right, the latter further strengthened by Cocke's brigade, taken by General Johnston's order from its position at the stone bridge.
This charge swept the great plateau, which was then again in possession of the Confederates. Hampton fell, wounded in this charge, and Capt. James Conner took command of the legion. Bee, the heroic and accomplished soldier, fell at the head of the troops, and Gen. S. R. Gist, adjutant-general of South Carolina, was wounded leading the Fourth Alabama. Reinforced, the Federal troops again advanced to possess the plateau, but Kirby Smith's arrival on the extreme left, and his prompt attack, with Kershaw's command and Stuart's cavalry, defeated the right of McDowell's advance and threw it into confusion, and the charge of Beauregard's center and right completed the victory of Manassas.
In the operations of this memorable day, no troops displayed more heroic courage and fortitude than the troops from South Carolina, who had the fortune to bear a part in this the first great shock of arms between the contending sections. These troops were the Second regiment, Col. J. B. Kershaw; the Fourth, Col. J. B. E. Sloan; the Eighth, Col. E. B. Cash; the Legion infantry, Col. Wade Hampton, and the Fifth, Col. Micah Jenkins. The latter regiment was not engaged in the great battle, but, under orders, crossed Bull run and attacked the strong force in front of McLean's ford. The regiment was wholly unsupported and was forced to withdraw, Colonel Jenkins rightly deeming an assault, under the circumstances, needless.