Companies A, B, and C of the four company Cavalry battalion of the Legion were in training at the cavalry camp of instruction at Ashland at the time of First Manassas; they left there the day after the battle and marched overland to Manassas Junction, arriving on the 26th. The fourth company, the Congaree Troop, had only recently arrived and was not sufficently trained to leave, and was several weeks more in camp at Ashland before reporting to the cavalry battalion at Brentsville.

Boykin's troop was not a part of the Hampton Legion Cavalry at any time. The battalion became the nucleus of the 2 S.C. CAV, in August 1862, and its major, Matthew C. Butler, became colonel of the regiment.