Colonel Eugene Waggaman and his troops were furious. The Seven Days' Battles had raged for six days and still they had not been allowed to fight. On July 1,1862 — at the Battle of Malvern Hill — General Robert E. Lee's army was again fighting a bloody contest against the invading Northern army led by General George B. McClellan. Hour after hour passed and the ''Louisiana Tigers" remained in reserve as the roar of battle sounded around them. Finally, a courier galloped up to Colonel Waggaman and handed him a dispatch: the order to assault the enemy had arrived.

Soon Waggaman and his troops were preparing to make a 500-yard charge against a fiercely fortified Federal position. At the command, they raced forward and reached a shallow ravine, their ranks thinned by deadly Federal artillery fire. They regrouped and prepared to make a rush for the enemy line which awaited them across a 300-yard killing field. "Men, we are ordered to charge the cannon in our front and take them," Colonel Waggaman yelled above the clamor of battle. "The Tenth Regiment has been in reserve all week, and every other Louisiana regiment has been in action. Not a shot must be fired until we get to the guns. Now, men, we are going to charge...."
Across the deadly field raced a compact mass of determined men, charging shoulder-to-shoulder. "On the last fifty yards of the charge comes the strain. It lasts but five minutes. In that time 127 men are lost out of 272.... Onward still the little band pursues its way, although unsupported by other troops, until it crosses bayonets with the Federal infantry," recalled Waggaman's contemporary.
Although severely outnumbered, the men of the 10th Louisiana battled their Northern opponents and succeeded in driving back the Federal front line. Colonel Waggaman was in the thick of the fighting, struggling hand-to-hand with Federal troops. Finally overwhelmed by superior numbers, the colonel and a handful of survivors were captured, but not before Waggaman managed to throw away his sword. Observed a Confederate officer: "It was not war— it was murder."

The 10th Louisiana Infantry was mustered into Confederate service at Camp Moore near New Orleans on July 22,1861. The regiment had been formed by the addition of five companies to the 2nd Special Infantry Battalion. The 10th Louisiana's first commander was Colonel Antoine J. De Marigny, who was a cousin of Eugene Waggaman.
Assigned to the Confederate Department of the Peninsula in August of 1861, the regiment saw its first serious action in the Siege of Yorktown in April of 1862. The 10th was engaged in the Seven Days' Battles where it was severely bloodied at the Battle of Malvern Hill. By then Waggaman had risen to colonel and commander of the regiment. Although captured at Malvern Hill, Waggaman was eventually returned to his regiment, endured other bloody battles and survived the war. After Malvern Hill, the regiment remained with Lee's Army of Northern Virginia for the duration of the war.

The 10th Louisiana was engaged in almost every major action involving the Army of Northern Virginia and gained a well-known reputation for hard fighting and heavy losses. Along with other troops from Louisiana, the 10th became known as the "Louisiana Tigers." The regiment's total enrollment during the war numbered more than 800 and contained numerous recent immigrants. One of the regiment's companies was said to have men from 15 foreign countries. Colonel De Marigny, who organized the regiment and commanded it until he resigned in the summer of 1862, was a former French officer and modeled the regiment after the French army.
At the Battle of Chancellorsville, the regiment was bloodied again. Charged with taking a Federal artillery position which was posted on high ground, the regiment was "exposed to a perfect storm of grape and shells." In less than 10 minutes, the 10th lost at least 50 men, including six color-bearers.
When Lee's tattered and depleted army finally surrendered at Appomattox, the survivors of the 10th Louisiana were present at the end. "There it was Colonel Waggaman's sad honor to surrender all that was left..." wrote a contemporary. And when someone took time to count, it was discovered that no less than 32 color-bearers had fallen beneath the 10th Louisiana battle flag during the course of the war.