Major Chatham R. Wheat’s battalion of Louisiana Infantry was organized in New Orleans in May, 1861. Their first engagement was in the first battle of Bull Run, where Major Wheat was shot through both lungs. After his recovery, he re-entered the service and took an active part in command of the battalion in the defense of Richmond in 1863 against the advance of the Union forces under McClellan. During this campaign the battalion became known as “The Louisiana Tigers” on account of their desperate fighting qualities. At the battle of Gaines Mill, Major Wheat and several other leading officers of the battalion were killed, and the loss of the organization was very heavy. It was then broken up and the survivors distributed among the other Louisiana regiments, of Hays’ brigade of Early’s Division, and Nicholls’ brigade of Johnson’s Division of Ewell’s Corps. A number of them were in the battle of Gettysburg with these brigades, but not as the separate organization originally known as “The Louisiana Tigers.” This designation was given to all the Louisiana troops after the original battalion was discontinued. The story sometimes told, that 1,700 Louisiana Tigers attacked East Cemetery Hill on July 2nd, that all but 300 were killed or captured, and that the organization was unknown afterward, is not correct. General Meade’s “Baldy” In the first great battle of the Civil War, at Bull Run, there was a bright bay horse with white face and feet. He, as well as his rider, was seriously wounded and the horse was turned back to the quartermaster to recover. In September General Meade bought him and named him “Baldy.” Meade became deeply attached to the horse but his staff officers soon began to complain of his peculiar racking gait which was hard to follow. Faster than a walk and slow for a trot, it compelled the staff alternately to trot and walk. “Baldy” was wounded twice at the first battle of Bull Run; he was at the battle of Drainsville; he took part in two of the seven days’ fighting around Richmond in the summer of 1862; he carried his master at Groveton, August 29th; at the second battle of Bull Run; at South Mountain and at Antietam. In the last battle he was left on the field for dead, but in the next Federal advance he was discovered quietly grazing on the battleground with a deep wound in his neck. He was tenderly cared for and soon was fit for duty. He bore the general at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. For two days he was present at Gettysburg, where he received his most grievous wound from a bullet entering his body between the ribs and lodging there. Meade would not part with him and kept him with the army until the following spring.