Nathan George Evans Nathan George " Shanks " Evans ( February 3 , 1824 – November 23 , 1868 ) was a captain in the 2nd U . S . Cavalry who became a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Biography . Evans was born in Marion , South Carolina , the third son of Thomas and Jane Beverly ( née Daniel ) Evans . He briefly attended Randolph - Macon College before receiving an appointment to West Point from John C . Calhoun . After graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1848 , Evans served on the western frontier with the dragoon s and cavalry before resigning in 1861 to enter Confederate service . He was commissioned a colonel and commanded a small brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run , where he was the first Confederate field commander to perceive the Union intent to attack the Confederate left flank at dawn . His command went far toward saving the day for the South . During the thick of the fight , he was everywhere , closely followed by an aide carrying his " barrelito " ( small barrel ) of Evans ' favorite whiskey on his back . A number of examples of Evans ' good tactical leadership and bravery in battle are recorded . However , his abrasive personality and his passion for intoxicating beverages led to his constant difficulties with colleagues and superiors . He was given command of a brigade of Mississippi and Virginia troops and assigned to guard the upper fords of the Potomac River , above Washington , D . C . . In October 1861 , a Union force crossed the river near Leesburg , Virginia , and at the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff Evans ' command drove the enemy into the Potomac River , inflicting great loss . Evans was promoted to brigadier general to be effective from the day of the battle . He was then sent to assist in defending the coastal areas just south of Charleston . He was placed in command of the First Military District which included the village of Secessionville , just two days before the battle there , but played little part in it . In July 1862 , he was given command of a newly formed brigade of South Carolina troops and led it to Richmond to join Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . Evans ' Brigade participated in the battles of Second Manassas , South Mountain and Antietam in 1862 and was then assigned to Eastern North Carolina to oppose a major Union raid on Kinston and Goldsboro . After this campaign , he was tried and acquitted for drunkenness during the Battle of Kinston . In the summer of 1863 , Evans ' Brigade was assigned to General Joseph E . Johnston ' s army during the Vicksburg Campaign . After this campaign , the brigade returned to Charleston where Evans quarreled with his superior , General Roswell S . Ripley , who had him tried for disobedience of orders . Following Evans ' acquittal , General P . G . T . Beauregard still considered Evans incompetent and would not return him to command . He was finally reinstated to command in the spring of 1864 , but was severely injured in a buggy accident in Charleston as he was preparing to take his brigade north to the Petersburg Campaign . Evans ' Brigade , renamed for its new commander , Brigadier General Stephen Elliott , Jr . , would soon find itself in the Petersburg trenches directly above the Union mine and suffer heavy casualties at the Battle of the Crater . Although Evans recovered somewhat from his injury , he was never returned to command . He held a lesser position at the War Department for a time and fled Richmond with President Jefferson Davis . Evans ' brother - in - law , Brigadier General Martin Witherspoon Gary , joined Davis ' party at Greensboro and they both accompanied the president until he spent the night of May 1 , 1865 , at the Gary family home in Cokesbury , South Carolina . After the war , Evans became a high school principal in Cokesbury and then in Midway , Alabama , where he died in 1868 , probably from the effects of his previous Charleston accident . He was buried in Tabernacle Cemetery in Cokesbury . General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee , son of Robert E . Lee , once wrote of Evans :