In July the army was moved to a healthier camp, and early in August it was concentrated near Chattanooga for an aggressive campaign in Tennessee and Kentucky. General Bragg was now in command, General Beauregard having been called to Charleston.
Bragg crossed the Tennessee, moved over the Cumberland mountains and entered Kentucky. When the army moved against Munfordville, Manigault was in advance and met and drove in the pickets. The garrison capitulated September 18th, and Bragg moved on toward Frankfort. Buell, who had left Tennessee and marched to Louisville, where he reorganized his army, struck at Bragg's exposed rear, attacking Polk at Perryville. Polk held his own with greatly inferior numbers, repulsed Buell, captured much artillery and many prisoners, but lost in killed and wounded over 3,000 of his little army. General Bragg retired toward the mountains, and crossing into east Tennessee, occupied Knoxville, Buell moving to Nashville. During the rapid retreat on Knoxville, the army suffered greatly from want of proper food, rapid marches and the exposure of the men in bivouac. After resting his army at Knoxville, General Bragg recrossed the mountains and ultimately took post at Murfreesboro, where he was attacked by Rosecrans (who had displaced General Buell), and the battle of Stone's River, or Murfreesboro, followed on December 31st.
Manigault's brigade bore a conspicuous part at Murfreesboro, and its operations in connection with that battle will now be described. General Bragg's line of battle was formed in front of Murfreesboro, running a little east of north and west of south. Stone's river ran southeast, in his front, cut off his right, and bending south ran along his rear. As the divisions stood from right to left they were placed in the following order: Breckinridge east of the river, then Withers, Cheatham, McCown and Cleburne, the formation in two lines, the cavalry well out on the flanks. Near the river, on the west side of it, the Nashville railroad and the turnpike, running near each other, passed through Bragg's line nearly at right angles. The Wilkinson pike passed through the line on the left of Withers, running northwest.
Lieutenant-General Polk commanded the right wing, and Lieutenant-General Hardee the left; Breckinridge, Withers and Cheatham made the right, and McCown and Cleburne, with Wharton's cavalry, the left.
Rosecrans stood before Bragg with three army corps, commanded by Major-Generals McCook, Thomas and Crittenden, all west of the river. Crittenden faced Breckinridge with three divisions; Thomas, with five divisions, faced Withers and Cheatham; McCook, with three divisions, faced Cleburne and McCown. Wharton, with his splendid brigade of cavalry, stood forward of Hardee's left, ready to make his brilliant attack on Rosecrans' right and rear.
The signal for battle was given, and at 7 o'clock on the morning of December 31st, Hardee ordered Wharton with his troopers to find the rear of McCook's right flank and fall upon his supports, and directed his infantry and artillery forward. McCown, supported by Cleburne, advanced and engaged in severe battle, taking the enemy by surprise and forcing him back toward the Wilkinson pike. Bragg's plan was to drive back the right wing of Rosecrans, and when beaten to attack his center and right simultaneously. Hardee's battle pushed McCook beyond the Wilkinson pike, when Withers moved out against Thomas, supported by Cheatham. Bragg's battle was a grand right wheel, pivoting on the river, the wheel obliquing toward the wheeling flank, and the pivot gaining forward. By 10 o'clock, both of Hardee's divisions were in full battle, as were those of Withers and Cheatham, and later on Breckinridge sent over four of his brigades to reinforce the battle of the pivot.
When evening came the full right wheel had been completed and the army stood against its enemy in a line at an exact right angle to its first position. The pivot had gained forward a half mile, but Rosecrans had held fast with his left on the river. In the wheeling fight, on Hardee's right, and in the struggle to move the pivot forward as it turned, Withers' division made its battle. That general reported the operations of his division with great accuracy and distinctness, and we shall follow his report for an account of Manigault's brigade.
As Withers placed his brigades from right to left, Chalmers' brigade was on the right touching the river, and formed the pivot of the great wheel; then came Patton Anderson's brigade, then Manigault's, and lastly Deas'. Manigault moved out in due time, and his left swinging around met the enemy on a wooded ridge, and stormed and carried it. In his wheel through an open field, and before the brigade could touch Anderson's, on its right, it was taken in flank by artillery and the fire of the force it had driven. Here fell the gallant Col. A. J. Lythgoe, of the Nineteenth South Carolina, at the head of his regiment. His major-general well said of him: "He dies well who dies nobly." The flank fire on Manigault broke his line and repelled his advance in some confusion. Rallying, the brigade continued its battle, now with more success charging and gaining ground. But it had gone beyond its right and left supports, and was again fired upon by artillery on the right flank; the brigade on his immediate left was repulsed and again Manigault had to retire. Maney's brigade, from Cheatham's division, was ordered to support Manigault's left, and again he advanced and with Maney's gallant aid the brigade swung forward and round in victorious advance.
This third advance brought the two South Carolina regiments directly on the battery that had done their brigade so much harm, and the Tenth and Nineteenth were ordered to charge and take it. The Tenth, led by Lieut.-Col. J. F. Pressley, and the Nineteenth, by Lieut.-Col. T. P. Shaw, moved as one man to take the guns. A Federal brigade in support delivered its volleys so rapidly as to check the assault, when Anderson, who was on Manigault's right, moved up his brigade and attacked the supporting brigade, while the Tenth and Nineteenth dashed forward and took the guns. General Bragg allowed these regiments to have the battery, and they sent it to South Carolina to have the names of the gallant men who fell in its capture inscribed upon the pieces. General Withers closed this part of his report with high praise of Manigault's brigade. The brigade, says the major-general, had been subjected to a most trying ordeal, and had lost heavily. The calm determination and persistent energy and gallantry which rendered Colonel Manigault proof against discouragements, had a marked influence on and was admirably responded to by his command.
Lieutenant-General Polk, in his report, thus refers to the brigade: