Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[393] threw his little command in a new line, facing the enemy, and alone held him in check until reinforced by General Bee. With great intrepidity he and his men held their ground against great odds until the Confederate army could adapt itself to this unexpected attack. As remarked by a Northern historian: ‘Evans' action was probably one of the best pieces of soldiership on either side during the campaign, but it seems to have received no special commendation from his superiors.’ General Beauregard commended his ‘dauntless conduct and imperturbable coolness,’ but it was not until after the fight at Leesburg that he was promoted. This latter engagement, known also as Ball's Bluff, was fought in October, near the Potomac river, by his brigade, mainly Mississippians, and a splendid victory was gained over largely superior numbers, with great loss to the enemy. His promotion to brigadier-general was made to date from this memorable affair, and South Carolina again, through her general assembly, gave him a vote of thanks and presented him with a gold medal. In 1862 he commanded a brigade consisting of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twentysec-ond and Twenty-third regiments, and Holcombe's legion, South Carolina troops, and was mentioned by General Longstreet among the officers most prominently distinguished in the battles of Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. In the latter fight he commanded his division. Thereafter his service was mainly rendered in South Carolina. In 1863 he moved to the support of Johnston against Grant. After the fall of Richmond he accompanied President Davis as far as Cokesbury, S. C. A year later he engaged in business at Charleston, but was mainly occupied as a teacher at Midway, Ala., until his death at that place, November 30, 1868. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee has written of him: ‘‘Shanks’ Evans, as he was called, was a graduate of the military academy, a native South Carolinian, served in the celebrated old Second Dragoons, and was a good type of the rip-roaring, scornall-care ’