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Nathan "Shanks" Evans was an early hero of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.  Born in South Carolina, he was a graduate of West Point in the class of 1848, which included John Buford and "Grumble" Jones.  Evans nickname was given at West Point because of his spindly legs.

At the First Battle of Manassas, his vastly outnumbered brigade held McDowell's flanking attack until General Johnston was able to move troops to his support.  Near Leesburg, Virginia, on October 21, 1861, Evans bested a Union force at Ball's Bluff, inflicting a humiliating defeat on McClellan.

On June 16 of the following year, again outnumbered, Evans defeated a Union effort to take Charleston, South Carolina.  

According to the American Battlefield Trust:

During the final two years of the War, Evans’s often contentious personality, added to a reputation for injudicious consumption of alcohol, created strained relationships with some of his superiors, peers, and subordinates, most particularly his Department Commander, General P.G.T. Beauregard.  Those strains led to two separate courts martial.  He was acquitted of all charges in both cases, but those two proceedings, plus a serious head injury, sustained in an April, 1864 carriage accident in Charleston, would combine to cut short a once promising career. Beauregard effectively blocked Evans from regaining command of his Brigade after his acquittals, citing his lack of confidence in Evans’s ability to command. 

On April 16, 1864 Evans suffered a serious head injury in a carriage accident in Charleston. He never again commanded troops in the field. His recovery took nearly a year by which time the Confederacy had collapsed. After the war, Evans became principal of a small school in Midway, Alabama. His head injury continued to cause problems, however, and contributed to his death on November 28, 1868.




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