COL Pressley as senior colonel would have automatically assumed command during the absence of General Manigault, for any reason. Nature and the military abhor a vacuum, and COL Pressley would have automatically stepped in. If the period of absence was short, it is probable that he would have retained command of his regiment, and in effect worn two hats, one as acting brigade commander and the other as colonel of his regiment. For a period of absence of twenty days, COL Pressley undoubtedly moved his headquarters to the brigade HQ; for very short periods of absence, acting brigade commanders would normally have remained with their regiments, and sent any orders from there. It of course depended upon the officer and the circumstances.

While I have your attention, I wonder if you have run across a Confederate veteran in the Bay area named Mansel (or Mancel) Pinckney Kelly (or Kelley). His name is normally given M. Pinckney Kelly, so he may have gone by "Pink." He was originally a member of D/Hampton Legion, but left the State postwar, moved to Michigan, and then to Washington Territory, where he was living in the Palouse Country -- Dayton -- in the 1880's. By profession he was a carpenter/builder. The last I have of him was a note that he was visiting his son in Oakland. I suspect that he eventually moved there and died there. Do you have anything on him?

Keep up the good work among the Californians. You have been keeping up the gravesite of James Seale Austin for many years.