The Pulaski Guards. [from the Richmond, Va., times-dispatch, Nov. 27, 1904.]
Company C, 4th Virginia Infantry, at the first battle of Manassas, July 18, 1861.The original Rebel yell.
With Prefatory note by U. S. Senator, J. W. Daniel.by J. B. Caddall.
Editor of The Times-Dispatch.
Sir,—In forming his line of battle at first Manassas Jackson placed the 4th Virginia Infantry, under Colonel James F. Preston, in rear of his artillery as an immediate support, and the 27th Virginia Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel John Echols, in close order directly behind the 4th.
The two regiments, except without the line of the 4th, was larger than the 29th, on account of its larger numbers, appeared as one body, four ranks deep.
To the left of those two regiments, and almost at a right angle, was the 5th Virginia, under Colonel Kenton Harper, and to their left in the woods, were the 2d Virgininia, under Colonel James W. Allen (who was afterwards killed at Gaines' Mill) and then the 33d Virginia, under Colonel Arthur Cummings, constituted the left flank of the brigade.
When the critical juncture came, Jackson galloped to the right of the Fourth Virginia, called for Colonel Preston, told him in a few sharp words to ‘order the men behind, up,’ and to ‘charge and drive them to Washington!’
‘Attention!’
Forward march!
‘Left oblique march!’
were the commands quickly given; ‘left oblique,’ an order to press the left flank of our artillery, which was between our infantry and Pickett's and Griffin's guns, which were to be charged.
Mr. J. B. Caddall, of Pulaski, was then in the 4th Virginia, and he gives an account, afterwards endorsed, with some interesting incidents of this regiment.
It is a notable fact that Jackson's brigade line furnished the first immovable obstacle to McDowell's advance, for while all the troops
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acted gallantly that day those previously engaged had been unable to withstand the weight of numbers thrown against them.
The first stand of Jackson and his timely onset, alike checked, halted and repulsed the enemy, and then joined with arriving reinforcements, in driving them from the field.
Mr. Caddall calls attention to the fact that ‘the rebel yell’ made its first appearance in the cheer of Jackson's men in their charge.
The ‘four deep’ line of the 4th and 27th Virginia was a formation that we do not hear of on any other field.
It proved particularly fortunate and efficient on this occasion, but it escapes the notice of most historians, even of Colonel Henderson, one of the most accurate, as well as most wise, graphic and brilliant of military writers.
The heaviest loss on Jackson's regiment fell upon the 27th Virginia, which, namely, 141 killed and wounded, nineteen of whom were killed, and this gallant little regiment was afterwards called ‘The bloody Twenty-seventh.’ 