On August 29,1862,25,000 proud Confederate troops of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson took defensive positions at Manassas (Bull Run) in northern Virginia, the scene of a great Southern victory a year before. General John Pope, the new commander of the Union Army of Virginia, massed over 60,000 Federals in the area, bent on destroying Jackson's army before Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Robert E. Lee could come to his aid. Guarding Jackson's critical left flank was General Maxcy Gregg's South Carolina brigade, including the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Rifles that would gain immortal glory on that day.

Led by Colonel J. Foster Marshall, the 1st Regiment of Rifles (also known as Orr's Rifles after their illustrious founder) fought back the first stubborn Union attacks, then joined another regiment to charge and rout a newly advancing Federal line. Hours later, their greatest test came when Union General Phil Keamy mounted an overwhelming assault on Jackson's left, where only the South Carolinians could prevent a disastrous breakthrough. Their ranks thinned, and exhausted after almost a day's fighting, Orr's Rifles took the brunt of the attack, determined not to yield their ground or colors, stopping assault after assault, then driving back their foe with bayonets when ammunition ran out. A Confederate officer remembered, "this regiment, after a terrible contest, forced [the enemy] back to their cover. It is these hand-to-hand fights that make war devil's work; for it is they which excite all the bloodthirsty passions."Against all odds, the South Carolinian brigade held, and that night "slept upon the field it had earned, if ever men earned ground," as an officer recalled. Stonewall Jackson later applauded the valor of the South Carolinians, crucial to the Southern victory at Second Manassas.

The volunteers of the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Rifles chiefly hailed from the counties of Abbeville, Anderson, Marion and Pickens. Organized at Sandy Springs, South Carolina, in July 1861, the regiment came to be called Orr's Rifles, after its founder Colonel James L. Orr, who would later serve as governor of South Carolina and U.S. minister to Russia. Stationed on Sullivan's Island for its first nine months, the regiment's initial light duty inspired the sobriquet "the Pound Cake Regiment." But soon it would distinguish itself in great battles.

In April 1862, Orr's Rifles was assigned to Virginia, joining the brigade of General Maxcy Gregg in General A.P. Hill's division. At Games' Mill on June 27, the 1st Rifles fought along with General Thomas Stonewall Jackson's army. Under the command of Colonel J. Foster Marshall, the 1st Rifles heroically followed their colors for several hundred yards through heavy fire, then routed a Union battery and drove off a large force of New York Zouaves in hand-to-hand fighting. Of 538 engaged, the 1st Rifles had 81 killed and 234 wounded, but helped carry the day. Two months later, at their legendary stand at Second Manassas, the 1st Rifles suffered 116 casualties. The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in December 1862, cost the regiment another 170 casualties. That Christmas, Dr. Thomas Watson of the 1st South Carolina wrote his wife of the men's fine spirits despite the terrible losses.
In General Samuel McGowan's brigade at Chancellorsville, the 1st Rifles attacked Union emplacements in a morning fog. With colors hardly visible, almost half of the 233 engaged were lost as volley after murderous volley was exchanged. After more bitter fighting at Gettysburg and the Wilderness, the 1st Rifles held a key trench at Spotsylvania against Federal rifle fire so intense that it eventually felled an oak tree 22 inches in diameter! The unit's remnants continued their gallant tradition at Cold Harbor, and endured further hardships in the Petersburg trenches. At war's end, the 1st South Carolina surrendered nine officers and 148 enlisted men.