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.
