A New York paper has the following sketch of General Evans:
Brig. Gen. Nathaniel George Evans is a native of South Carolina, and graduated at West Point in 1844. He was appointed to a Second Lieutenancy in the First United States Dragoons in July 1848 and was transferred to the Second Dragoons in September. 1849. In March 1855. he became First Lieut. of the Second Cavalry, and was promoted to a Captaincy in the following year, which position he held under Maj. Van Dorn when the latter commanded the expedition against the Camanches in 1858 winning no little distinction for his bravery in the severest battle of the campaign, near Wachita village, in Texas. His connection with the rebels is contemporaneous with the secession of South Carolina, by whose Governor he was appointed Adjutant General of the regular forces of the State. He was subsequently appointed Brigadier General, and, in conjunction with Generals Jackson and Cooke, commanded the left wing of the rebel forces at the battle of Bull Run, in which engagement he was in immediate command of the Brigade composed of Wheat’s Battalion, Colonel Hay’s Seventh Louisiana Volunteers and the Washington Artillery.
Nashville Union and American, Nashville, TN
Good article, showing Brigadier General Nathan George “Shanks” Evans’ impressive military career before the secession of his native state. The large Evans family had ties with nearly every other family in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Nathan Evans extended his ties to the western part of the state when he married Ann Victoria Gary, sister of Brigadier General Martin Gary, of Abbeville County.
Fleeing south on May 1, 1865, President Jefferson Davis stayed at the home of Ann and Martin’s mother, Mary P. Gary, at Cokesbury in Abbeville County. Accompanying Davis were General Gary, and General Nathan Evans and his wife Ann Gary Evans, along with several other CSA luminaries.
Thanks, Lisa, that’s a a fascinating bit of local history! The thing I love about studying the past is when the “big picture” connects with people not usually featured in the history books. It also shows how interconnected things really are (I mean, look at how many CW officers on both sides were related to each other by birth or marriage, or had served together before the war!).