Francis Stebbins Bartow was an original member of the Confederate Congress, and became Colonel of the 8th Georgia on June 1, 1861. The night before the Battle of First Manassas, he spoke to some of the 7th and 8th Georgia soldiers: "... but remember boys, that battle and fighting mean death, and probably before sunrise some of us will be dead."

Bartow's Monument, erected after the Battle of First Manassas, was allegedly the first Confederate monument ever dedicated. On September 4, 1861, with over 1,000 people in attendance, the marble obelisk was placed in honor of Bartow. The monument had disappeared by 1862; the Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed the present marker in 1936, which is about 150 yards from the Visitor's Center.

The 8th Georgia Regiment was ordered to charge the battery of Ricketts' guns. "This bold and fearful movement was made through a perfect storm" of shot and shell.

General Beauregard saluted the 8th Georgia as they were re-forming to attack the gun emplacement a second time: "I salute the gallant 8th Georgia Regiment!" (Another account states: "So conspicuous had been the 8th Georgia in the brunt of the battle, that as they passed from their position in front of General Beauregard, he sat bareheaded on his horse and thus addressed them: '8th Georgia, I salute you with my hat off!'"

"We marched briskly at a double quick when we soon reached where we were under the fire of the cannon. We still kept up the line where we were to take our position after about 8 miles march we arrived near about our position all very much fatigued although there was not a murmur to he heard from the lips of a man. We halted and thrown into a line of Battle by our gallant Lieut. Gardner who had been leading us into the Battle. But while in our position our brave Bartow came to us who had by some misfortune been lost from us during the morning. He came up with great rejoicing that he had found us again. He then taken charge of us & led us up under a heavy fire of Harrison's [?] Battery where it was playing on our Battery. We were ordered to lie down upon the ground behind our Battery.

From M. O. Young, Sgt. in Co H, 9th Georgia Infantry: (written in 1896?)

"... Col Bartow was ordered to take the battery. The 8th Georgia went for it twice [and were] repelled. At the commencement of the charge the 8th Georgia numbered 1046 men. Both charges were made in less than twenty minutes. After the last charge there were only 369 ment left standing. The reader can [get] an idea how men feel in the two charges. The writer had one cousin killed on the field. I did not know he was in the Brigade until I saw him dead. There was a spade and pick furnished me, I buried him the best I could..."

"... here the gallant Bartow fell, his horse fell first. Col. Bartow with the 8th Georgia got to the Sherman [?] Battery both charges but they could not hold them. They fought the 6 Regulars & the Bucktails & "Bed Britches" [?] Cutthroats. They were Billey Witham [?] men. After the second charge the 7th Georgia went for them ... Col. Bartow fell going in with them. They 7th Georgia brought off the Sherman Aty... the names of those guns were: Big John Long Tom, Laughing Charley and Singing Susan."

"The reader may wish to know how it is the 8th Georgia got to the guns twice and could not hold them, and the 7th Georgia brought them off. You must remember all batteries have a support. The 8th Georgia weakened the support so that the 7th Georgia could hold them. There was not a Regiment on the Earth at that time that could have done any better than did the 8th Georgia. It is well known to the soldiers that this [was] the turning point of the Battle of Manassas."

"... After the battle was over Genl Beauregard said you Georgians saved me. The officers had what few men they could parade and had them in line. Genl Beauregard came along the lines, the boys raised a yell. The Genl lifted his cap and his old black horse seemed to know what it meant. The Yankees called Genl Beauregard the old swamp fox..."

"We marched by a circuitous and zigzag course to the left, with the intention of flanking the right wing of the enemy, and attacking them. We marched at quick time, and a part of the time doublequick until ten o'clock, when opposite our place of destination, we were drawn up in a line extending back from a battery of four guns of Virginia Artillery. The cannon balls from the celebrated Sherman's Battery, soon began to fly about five or ten yards over our heads, with a whiz what was surprisingly loud. Directly bomb shells began to burst over our heads and on either side. We were ordered to lie flat down on our faces. The cannonading became very brisk. There must have been some ten or fifteen cannon playing on the 8^th Regiment, and the battery we were placed to guard. At about 11 o'clock we were ordered to leave here. This order was promptly obeyed, although by rising to our feet we were in full view of the enemy's battery, from which we had been partially protected by the brow of the hill on which we were. We were intended to support Gen. Bee in a charge, but were led to the extreme right of the attacking force, going under the cover of woods, between us and the enemy's artillery. We were led up and deployed in a pine thicket, and ordered to fire. The enemy were about 100 yards, and many of them protected by stables and stacks of straw and hay, and all by a fence. The balls whizzed about us like hail in a thick storm. There were probably six thousand men firing upon our force of six hundred. Most of Col. Gardner's command loaded lying down and rose up to fire. Our men fell with fearful rapidity. After about twenty minutes, we were ordered to fall back, to a place where the intervening ground would protect us from the enemy's fire.

After falling back about 200 yards we halted, faced about, loaded, and again rallied upon the enemy, at the same place as the first charge. After firing one or two rounds, we discovered a large, heavy column on our right, that we had supposed to be a portion of Gen. Bee's command. [But they] were enemies, and were carrying the stars and stripes; just then they opened fire upon us, and we were obliged to fall back again, out of this cross fire. In these fearful charges sad havoc was made in the Regiment. We then fell back, firing in retreat, and formed under Major Cooper, some 600 yards back of the pine thicket. We could then rally only about 150 men, and this remnant retired in good order from the battlefield, and as a Regiment did not return, although many individuals did, under other commands.

Col. Bartow, acting as Brigadier General, was killed. A more intrepid, brave, and gallant man never lived. Col. Gardner had his leg broken in the first charge, and was left on the field, because he would not suffer the men to stop in that fearful place to carry him off…"

[Editorial Correspondence, from Melvin Dwinell, Rome Weekly Courier, 2 Aug. 1861, pg. 2]