Jim, William Seymour said Manning was one of the officers who escaped the debacle at Rappahannock Station in November 1863 by swimming across the river (Civil War Memoirs of Capt. William J. Seymour, p. 93-94). After the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek, the consolidated Louisiana Brigade was reorganized into a battalion with barely 500 men. The ten companies were combined to make six companies, with Company D (5th, 6th, and 7th Louisiana) put under the command of Major Manning (Lee’s Tigers, p. 219).

Campbell Brown described Louis Lay as a “turbulent fellow, who staid away from the Reg’t a good deal, I was told, & was thrown over at the reorganization” (Campbell Brown's Civil War, p. 25-26).

George Ring wrote some of the best and most informative letters of any Louisiana Tiger. They can be found in the Army of Northern Virginia Papers, Tulane University. I used them quite a bit in Lee's Tigers.