‘
[
394]
element, which so largely abounded in that regiment.
Evans had the honor of opening the fight (
First Manassas), we might say fired the first gun of the war.’
Brigadier-General Samuel W. Ferguson was born and reared at
Charleston, and was graduated at the United States military academy in 1857.
As a lieutenant of dragoons he participated in the
Utah expedition under
Albert Sidney Johnston, and in 1859-60 was on duty at
Fort Walla Walla,
Washington.
When informed of the result of the presidential election of 1860, he resigned his commission and returned to
Charleston, and on March 1, 1861, entered the service of his native State with the rank of captain.
Being appointed aide-de-camp to
General Beauregard, he received the formal surrender of
Major Anderson, raised the first Confederate flag and posted the first guards at
Fort Sumter.
He was then sent to deliver to the
Congress at
Montgomery the flag used at
Fort Moultrie, the first standard of the
Confederacy struck by a hostile shot.
He remained on
Beauregard's staff and took an active part in the
battle of Shiloh, on the second day being assigned to command a brigade of the Second corps.
At the
battle of Farmington he was also on duty with
General Beauregard.
At the same time he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-eighth Mississippi regiment cavalry, and subsequently, stationed at
Vicksburg, he had command of cavalry and outlying pickets until detailed for special duty along the
Yazoo delta, opposing with cavalry and artillery the advance of the
Federal transports.
During
Grant's preliminary movements against
Vicksburg he thwarted the attempt of
Sherman and
Porter to reach the city in the rear by way of
Deer creek.
In 1863 he was promoted to brigadier-general.
He was active in command of cavalry in harassing
Sherman's movement to
Chattanooga, and during the
Georgia campaign of 1864 his brigade of Alabamians and Mississippians, with
