Lee's victory was complete. But it had been won by a mighty sacrifice of human life. South Carolina had laid down her noble sons in costly sacrifice. Her brigades and regiments in that great battle had given their very best. Among the gallant dead, and those who received mortal wounds, at Manassas, on the two days of heroic strife, were the following distinguished officers:
Col. J. F. Marshall and Lieut.-Col. D. A. Ledbetter, of Orr's Rifles; Col. Thomas J. Glover, of the First South Carolina battalion; Col. John V. Moore, of the Second Rifles; Col. John H. Means, of the Seventeenth; Col. J. M. Gadberry, Eighteenth; Lieut.-Col. Francis G. Palmer, of the Holcombe legion, and many other gallant spirits. Brigadier-General Jenkins was wounded at the head of his brigade and over 400 of his officers and men killed and wounded. Col. H. L. Benbow, Twenty-third South Carolina; Maj. W. J. Crawley, of the Holcombe legion, and other field, staff and company officers of the South Carolina commands were wounded on the field. It is greatly to be regretted that there are no reports from General Jenkins of record, or any one of his regimental commanders, respecting the operations of the 29th and 30th.
As Hood's right swept on in its battle, Jenkins and Hunton kept abreast of it, and Evans, in supporting Hood, came into battle connection with Jenkins. This was particularly the case when the guns were captured at the Chinn house. Colonel Corse in his report gives the line of program which Jenkins observed, as passing beyond the Chinn house and south of it, while Evans, who supported Hood's two brigades, passed beyond and north of it. Wofford, who commanded Hood's right brigade, refers to his advance against a battery at or east of the Chinn house, when the Holcombe legion (of Evans' brigade) came up to his support and fought "with much spirit and gallantry." Colonel Gary, the commander of the Hampton legion infantry, in his report says: "We were then [Wofford's brigade] hotly engaged around the Chinn house, where the brigade captured several pieces of artillery. At this place the brigade of General Evans came up in gallant style and relieved us." Evidently the Chinn house, which stood about one mile southwest of Groveton, formed the center of the theater of battle for the brigades of Jenkins and Evans and the Hampton legion infantry, under Colonel Gary.
These commands carried their battle for a half mile east of the Chinn house, when darkness checked and ended their advance. Over the space indicated the South Carolinians fought with steady courage, attesting their devotion by the sacrifices of the day. In this advance fell the noble-hearted Governor Means, at the head of the Seventeenth; the accomplished and gallant Glover, at the head of Hagood's First; the brave Gadberry, leading the Eighteenth; the dashing Moore, commanding the Second rifles; the heroic Palmer, urging the Holcombe legion to the charge, and Henry Stevens, aide to Col. P. F. Stevens, falling with five wounds.
A single shell bursting in front of Company K, Palmetto sharpshooters, killed five young men—Theodotus L. Capers, James Palmer, Whiteford Smith, Bearden and McSwain—graduates and undergraduates of college, the very best Carolina could give for her cause. It is particularly noted, that these were representative young men, sons of men of prominence in the church and in the State. Never did one shell destroy more of the beauty and promise of life, or carry more sorrow to human hearts.
The Fifteenth South Carolina operated on the extreme right in support of cavalry, and is reported as losing 21 in killed and wounded. General Longstreet complained that Drayton was sent to the right without his knowledge, and expressed his regret that he could not command his aid when he needed it to reinforce the battle.
Major Frobel reported that on Friday morning he took Bachman's battery, by General Hood's order, to the extreme right on the Orange & Alexandria railroad, where Stuart's cavalry was operating. Here Bachman opened on a column marching to the Confederate right. Fifteen rounds were so well directed that the column halted and then disappeared toward the left. Later, Bachman and Garden took post on the Warrenton pike, and for two hours engaged the batteries of the enemy at the Groveton house, and silenced them. On the 30th, in the afternoon, following Hood's advance, Bachman and Garden advanced down the Warrenton pike, Bachman taking position on the right of the road and Garden on the left, both well out, and opened on the enemy's guns at the Dogan house. Again the batteries engaged and drove the enemy's guns away from the house, and prepared the way for Colonel Law's brigade to carry the position. Bachman had exhausted his ammunition, and Garden moved on until night stopped his progress. Major Frobel reported that Bachman and Garden handled their guns with great skill and effect. Lieutenant Siegling, a gallant officer of Bachman's battery, was struck from his horse by a fragment of shell, and seeing the exposed position of his mounted men, as he was falling gave the command, "Cannoneers, dismount." His wound was through the stomach, and was supposed to be mortal, but his cheerful resolution and strong physique, with skillful surgical attention, carried him through the ordeal, and he rejoined his command.
The following are the returns of casualties from the several South Carolina commands engaged at Manassas on the 29th and 30th. Except from Boyce's battery there are no reports of casualties in the artillery: Gregg's brigade—Orr's Rifles, 116; First, 143; Twelfth, 145; Thirteenth, 144; Fourteenth, 65. Jenkins' brigade—First (Hagood's), 124; Second Rifles, 58; Fifth, 39; Sixth, 115; Sharpshooters, 68. Drayton's brigade, Fifteenth, 21. Wofford's brigade, Hampton's legion, 74. Evans' brigade, Holcombe legion, 155; Seventeenth, 179; Eighteenth, 113; Twenty-second,—; Twenty-third, 149; Boyce's battery, 6. The grand total is 1,714, and of these, 281 are given as killed on the field. Many of those reported wounded had received mortal hurt.
The morning of Sunday, August 31, 1862, dawned upon the plains and hills and valleys of Manassas to find them covered with the dead, the dying and the wounded of both armies. The trophies of victory cheered the awful prospect, but the sight of the great battlefield filled every manly heart with feelings of reverence for the dead and sympathy for the wounded, both friend and foe. Ten thousand wounded Union soldiers, 30 pieces of artillery, many stand of colors, and 7,000 prisoners bore witness to the steady courage and the heroic endurance of Jackson's three divisions on the 29th, and the gallant charge of Longstreet's wing on the 30th. Pope retreated after nightfall on the 30th and put his rear guard in the Confederate defenses at Centreville.
He reported that he had been driven in perfect order from the field, by overwhelming numbers; that the fight had been an unequal one; that Longstreet had crushed his left with great masses of Confederates, pouring down in a stream of reinforcements from the Bull Run mountains. " ... At no time could I have hoped to fight a successful battle with the immensely superior force of the enemy which confronted me, and which was able at any time to outflank me and bear my small army to the dust." But the official records show beyond question that on the field of Manassas he had under his command 10,000 more men than Lee commanded in his front on the 30th. Jackson's corps numbered scarcely 20,000 men of all arms. Pope assailed it all day on the 29th, and made desperate attempts to destroy it on the 30th, and not a man reinforced Jackson on the 29th or the 30th; and the "superior forces" that assaulted General Pope's right on the 30th were just the corps of General Jackson after all its losses and work on the 27th, 28th and 29th of August.