Part 3 of John Whilden, Boy Major of the Coast Rangers
By the time Pope finally located Jackson and made ready his initial attack, Longstreet's leading division had passed through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run Mountains that separated the two wings of Lee's army. Footnote 63/ On the morning of August 29, as Jackson's troops were beating back a daylight attack by the Union I Corps, Longstreet's men began arriving on the battlefield, taking up position on Jackson's right near the Warrenton Turnpike. Footnote 64 Evans' Brigade, temporarily under the command of its senior colonel, P. F. Stevens, the former superintendent of the Citadel, went into position south of the turnpike and enjoyed a quiet afternoon; Footnote 65 meanwhile the fighting raged on the Confederate left as Pope ordered one disjointed assault after the next against Jackson's position. When darkness ended the fighting on the 29th, Jackson's line remained unbroken and Longstreet's divisions were secretly in place to his right.
Wrongly believing that Longstreet had not extended Jackson's line to the right but had merely moved into a position of direct support, and that the Confederates were retreating, Pope determined to renew the offensive on August 30. In the early afternoon, Major General Fitz John Porter's V Corps rolled forward to strike Jackson. Footnote 66 Porter's attack might have succeeded but for a crushing one-two assault on his unprotected left flank. First, Longstreet's artillery, masterfully placed between the two wings of Lee's army on a ridge overlooking Jackson's entire front, enfiladed the advancing Union lines, tearing great gaps in Porter's ranks. Footnote 67 Next, in mid-afternoon, as Porter's troops began to waiver in Jackson's front, Longstreet unleashed an infantry counterattack that was destined to secure victory for the South. Footnote 68 As it so often did, Hood's Texas Brigade led Longstreet's offensive thrust. Footnote 69 Their colors gleaming in the late afternoon sun, Evans' South Carolinians moved forward in support of the Texas Brigade. Footnote 70 Positioned on the far left of the brigade's line of battle, Footnote 71 the nearly 250 Footnote 72 officers and men of the Coast Rangers had not advanced over 50 yards when Colonel Henry L. Benbow was wounded by artillery fire. Footnote 73 In short order, Lieutenant Colonel John M. Roberts Footnote 74 was also wounded, leaving 23 year old Johnnie Whilden in command of the regiment. The man and the hour had met.
Moving steadily forward in the wake of the Texas Brigade, Evans' Brigade was among the first Confederate units engaged on Chinn Ridge, south of the Warrenton Turnpike. Footnote 75 Several pockets of Union batteries, supported by infantry, fought doggedly along that ridge, buying time for their comrades to withdraw towards Washington. As Evans' Brigade came under intensifying enemy fire, its regiments became commingled, depriving Colonel Stevens of effective overall command. Footnote 76 Regiments acted individually, Footnote 77 accentuating the importance of command at the field officer level.
When the Coast Rangers had closed to within musket range, Major Whilden, braving a storm of shot and shell, ordered four successive charges78/ against a Yankee stronghold on Chinn Ridge that incorporated infantrymen from Colonel N.C. McLean's Ohio Brigade. On the first charge, the regimental flag bearer was shot down. Footnote 79 Seizing the colors and waiving them aloft, the major led three more attacks, but each was turned back by a murderous fire. Footnote 80 "[W]hile leading his men for the fourth time," the Charleston Daily Courier reported about two weeks later, "the gallant color bearer received his death wound." His body pierced by five bullets, Footnote 81 Johnnie Whilden was carried to a Confederate field hospital.
By early evening, when the last Federals had been pushed off Chinn Ridge and Pope's army was in full retreat from the Plains of Manassas, a mere captain Footnote 82 was in command of the remnants of the 23rd South Carolina. Fully two-thirds of the Coast Rangers were wounded or dead in the field. Footnote 83 In a letter written four days after the battle, one of the Coast Rangers' medical officers, Dr. J. J. Murray, described how the regiment had "suffered terribly" in the fighting on August 30 and noted that the "Colonel, Lieut. Colonel and Major were wounded, the latter, seriously, and I fear fatally." Footnote 84 Dr. Murray's fear proved correct. After lingering for a week, John Marshall Whilden-- the Boy Major of the Coast Rangers who helped to fire the South's first shot of the war and who fell at the head of his regiment, battle flag in hand-- succumbed to his multiple wounds. Footnote 85