Episode 47: PVT John O. Casler and the 33rd Virginia at the Battle of First Bull Run

At the First Battle of Bull Run, PVT Casler and the 33rd Virginia formed on the left flank of BG Thomas J. Jackson’s all Virginia 1st Brigade on Henry Hill. The Virginians stood like a Stonewall through several Union advances. During this time, PVT Casler and the 33rd Virginia charged and captured a Union Battery that unlimbered too close them but eventually returned to the line on Henry Hill. The Virginians became the anchor of the Confederate line, which brough in enough fresh troops to defeat the Union Army in their front. By the end of the battle, BG Thomas J. Jackson and the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th  and 33rd Virginia Regiments as well as the Rockbridge Artillery were cemented in American Military History as Stonewall Jackson and the Stonewall Brigade.Sources used for this episode:Casler, John O. Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade. 2nd ed. Girard: Appeal Publishing Company, 1906. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044012920278&seq=15.Scott, Robert N. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. ser. 1, vol. 2. Washington: Government Printing Press, 1880. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730186&view=1up&seq=3.