HISTORY LINKS AND OTHER ARTICLES

There is SO much more information on the Tigers....but comparatively little when compared to other Confederate units history. The goal of this website is to help educate others and for research purposes.

The link to the article by Ross Brooks called: "Part Irish and the Rest Flower of Southern Chivalry": Clothing, Arms, and Equipment of the 1st Special Battalion of Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1862 HERE

"Lee's Tigers: The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia" By. Terry L. Jones

" The First Louisiana Special Battalion: Wheats' Tigers in the Civil War" By Gary Schreckengost

"Part Irish and the Rest the Flower of Southern Chivalry" Clothing, Arms, and Equipment of the 1st Special Battalion of Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1862. By Ross Brooks.

Archaeological Textile Evidence for the Historic Costume Study: Louisiana Tiger Rifles 1861. By Ann Cordy Deegan. (Link soon to come)

Confederate Firing Squad at Centerville: First Military Executions in the Army of Northern Virginia. By Michael R. Thomas. (Link soon to come)

They wear broad brimmed hats and every man of the company has painted a motto or picture of some sort on his hat, such as: A picture of Moses, preparing to let fly with his left and fend with right, and the words, Before I was Tiger’ ... Lincoln’s Life or a Tiger’s Death; Tiger by Nature; Arlington Heights; Tiger During the War; Tiger on the Leap; A Tiger Forever; Tiger-Try Me; Tiger Will Never Surrender; Tiger in Search of a Black Republican; Tiger Ready for a Spring; Tiger, Win or Die; Old Man Tiger, Royal Bengal Tiger, O.S.; Tiger Drummer Boy; Tiger, Sure Death to Lincoln; Tiger on the Muscle; Tiger Never Say Die; Tiger Bound for the Happy Land; Living Tiger; Abe’s Tiger; Tiger for Action; Tiger, as You Are; Tiger in Search of Abe; Tiger in Disguise; Old Tiger; Young Tiger; A Hat as is a Hat; etc., etc.

a hard looking crowd to look at with their Zouave bloomer breeches and the red cap and tassel, which attracts the attention of everybody here, especially the ladies.

New Orleans Bee, 1 August 1861, quoted in Alison Moore, He Died Furious (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Ortlieb Press, Inc., 1983), p. 28:

This spirit was exhibited by one of the companies in choosing their name - “Tigers” - which they upheld with their knives. While in camp here they were accounted “hard nuts to crack,” and no one doubted that would signalize themselves in battle. Their spirit so please A. Keene Richards, Esq., that he fitted them out in a dashing Zouave uniform at their expense.

Post-war account by Napier Bartlett of the Washington Artillery, quoted in Moore, Furious, p. 26:

They were dressed in striped blouse [blue?1 and white zouave breeches, and in the full
eccentric uniform of the company - the whole command being similarly dressed.

John Bramblett Beall, In Barrack and Field: Poems and Sketches of the Army (Nashville, Tennessee: Smith and Lamar, 1906), p. 305 (RB):

…produced from about their persons light Zouave uniforms and put them on over the apparel in which they had before appeared.

Campbell Brown’s account of the Battle of Front Royal in Terry L. Jones, ed., Campbell Brown’s
Civil War with Ewell and the Army of Northern Virginia (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 2001) p. 85-86:

Account of the First Battle of Manassas by D. Augustus Dickert, History of Kershaw’s Brigade with Complete Roll of Companies, Biographical Sketches, Incidents, Anecdotes, Etc. (np.: Elbert H. Aull, Co. 1899; reprint ed., Dayton, Ohio: Morningside Bookshop, 1976), p. 67:

Their peculiar uniform, large flowing trousers with blue and white stripes coming oniy to the knees, colored stockings, and a loose bodice, made quite a picturesque appearance and a good target for the enemy.

Dickert, Kershaw, p. 74:

Their large flowing pants, their gaudy striped long hose, made them an imposing spectacle.

Account of the execution of Privates Corcoran and O’Brien by James A. Harrold, ‘Surgeons of the Confederacy,’ Confederate Veteran (May 1932), p. 174:

An officer gives a signal in silence, and directly twenty-four of the “Tigers” in their striking costume of a scarlet Turkish cap, gray half jacket, red shirt, short zouave pants of white and blue stripes, long blue and white striped stockings and russet leather half boots, advance within twenty steps of the two kneeling men.

Account of the execution of Privates Corcoran and O’Brien by B[radley} T. Johnson, “Memoir of the First Maryland Regiment,” Paper No. 2, Southern Historical Society Papers 9 (1881), p. 486:

They were clad in the picturesque uniform of their company, the scarlet fez or skull cap, light brown jacket, open in front, showing the red shirt, large Turkish trousers, full and fastening just below the knee, of white and blue stripes, white garters [gaiters] and shoes.

Account of the First Battle of Manassas by Todd William, The Seventy-Ninth Highianders, New York Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 (Albany, New York: Press of Brandon, Barton & Co., 1886), p. 44:

Considerable astonishment as well as amusement was caused by the presence in our retreating ranks of a solitary prisoner, who plodded along with us and entertained us by his quaint remarks. His uniform attracted our attention; a Zouave cap of red, and jacket of blue, with baggy trousers made of blue and white striped material, and white leggings, gave his a rather rakish appearance; he announced himself as a member of the Louisiana Tiger Battalion, Major Wheat commanding.

Berrien McPherson Zettler, War Stories and School Days Incidents for Children (New York: Neale Publishing, 1912), 78; http:J/sunsite.unc.edu/docsouth/zettler/zettler.html, University of North Carolina, capture date 5 October 1998, (JT):

We had in the army a battalion of men from Louisiana, known as the “Tiger Rifles.” They wore Zouave uniforms, that is, baggy knee breeches, stockings, a jacket, and a turban. Each one carried also a large camp knife in a sheath suspended from his waist-belt.

QUOTES REGARDING THE TIGERS' ARMS AND ACCOUTREMENT

New Orleans Bee, 1 August 1861, quoted in Alison Moore, He Died Furious (Baton Rouge, Louisiana:
Ortlieb Press, Inc., 1983), P. 63:

The Tiger Rifles having no bayonets to their Mississippi rifles, threw them away when ordered to charge, and dashed upon the Fire Zouaves with bowie knives.

Tiger Rifles (Knives):
“From The New Orleans Daily Delta,” [Memphis] DailyAvalanche (27 August 1861) (RB):
Richmond, August 16 1861.

The feats of the latter (the Tigers) in the rough and tumble scrimmage must have greatly astounded the Yankees. There is a melancholy and revolting memorial of one of these feats in the person of a wounded Yankee in the hospital at Richmond. The story of this unfortunate individual relates is as follows. During the fight he observed that one of the Tigers had sighted him out, and after trying to shoot the Tiger who had dropped his gun, he charged him with his sword bayonet, then he perceived that the Tiger had a short and heavy bowie knife, when the Yankee, being a powerful man, dropped his gun and seized the arm of the Tiger to prevent him stabbing him, whereupon the Bengalese reached over and catching the Yankee’s nose between his teeth, bit it off close to his face, and then proceeded to perform a like service upon his cheeks, and thus he literally chewed his face into jelly.

Berrien McPherson Zettler, War Stories and School Days Incidents for Children (New York: Neale
Publishing, 1912), p. 78; http://sunsite.unc.edu/docsouth/zettler/zettler. html, University of North Carolina, capture date 5 October 1998, (JT):

Cutrer, Thomas W., and Parrish, T. Michael. Brothers in Gray: The Civil War Letters of the Pierson Family. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. P. 34.

The Tigers having no bayonets but being armed with large buoyie knives, rushed heedlessly upon the bayonets of the [New Yorkj Zouaves and routed them with buoyie knives. They have the reputation here of being the worst daredevils on earth.

New Orleans Daily Crescent, 1 August 1861, quoted in Moore, Furious, p. 62; and Napier Bartlett, Military Record of Louisiana (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), p.50:

On Sunday 21st, at sunrise, the enemy commenced throwing shot and shell among us; the enemy fired as if all hell had been set loose. Flat upon our faces we received their showers of balls; a moment’s pause, and we rose, closed in upon them with a fierce yell, clubbing our rifles and using our long knives.

Samuel D. Buck, With the Old Confeds: Actual Experiences of a Captain in the Line (Baltimore, Maryland:
H. E. Houck & Co., 1925; reprint ed., Gaitherburg, Maryland: Butternut Press, 1983), p. 38.

Owing to this delay we did not get into position until Taylor was making his second charge and succeeded in capturing but not holding it. So Major Wheat of the Louisiana Tigers cut horses throats or shot them so as to keep the enemy from carrying guns off before we could make another attack. . . It was sickening sight; men in grey and those in blue piled up in front of and around the guns and with the horses dying and the blood of men and beasts flowing almost in a stream. Major Wheat was as bloody as a butcher, having cut some of the horses throats with his knife.

Richard D. Steuart, “Wheat’s Tigers and Others.” Confederate Veteran (September 1923), p. 326:

These bayonets, I am sure, are the ‘bowie knives’ referred to whenever the Tigers are mentioned.

New Orleans Delta, 3 August 1861, quoted in Alison Moore, He Died Furious (Baton Rouge, Louisiana:
Ortlieb Press, Inc., 1983), p.81:

Noticing that the knapsacks and haversacks of our Bengalese friends were all marked in large letters “U.S.” I inquired what the letters meant. “A few weeks ago,” was the ready reply, “they meant “Uncle Sam,” now they mean “us”.

“More of the Manassas Battle,” Daily True Delta (8 August 1861), p. 2 (RB):

Our duties have tried the mettle of our men; without covering , without blanket, half clothed, scarcely half fed, bivouacked where duty demanded our pickets to be placed, our men have stood it all, and bravely. I have seen them night after night lying uncovered in woods and fields, hungry and half naked (officers faring the same) expecting the advance of the enemy at any moment, without a murmur. Day after day, exposed to rains and an almost intolerable heat, they unflinchingly performed their duties. After marching and counter marching, without tents, clothing, or anything to render them at all comfortable, they were led on the glorious morning of Sunday 21st inst., to beat back Lincoln’s horde of northern barbarians, when for forty eight hours previously they had not taken food.

New Orleans Bee, 9 August 1861, quoted in Charles L. Dufour, Gentle Tiger: The Gallant Life of Roberdeau Wheat (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1957), p. 153:

Indian rubber coats and splendid blankets, besides hats, shoes, pants, pistols, swords and some money and jewels, saved by them from the wreck and waste of the enemy’s flight.

Ross Brooks based on Requisition, 28 February 1862, Capt. Alex White file, Compiled Service Records (RB):

Special requisition of fifty-four canteens and fifteen haversacks to replace those lost in battle or worn out.