Arthur Middleton Manigault

Arthur Middleton Manigault (October 26, 1824 – August 17, 1886) was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Early life and career Manigault was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1824. His parents were Joseph and Charlotte Manigault. His grandfather, Peter Manigault, was the richest person in British North America in 1770. Joseph Manigault's great-great-grandfather was Pierre Manigault (1664–1729), a French Huguenot who was born in La Rochelle, France and settled in Charleston. His mother was both the daughter of Charles Drayton, a South Carolina Lt. Governor, and the granddaughter of Henry Middleton, the second President of the First Continental Congress, whose grandfather, Edward Middleton, emigrated from England via Barbados. Her uncle, Arthur Middleton, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Manigault attended the College of Charleston, although he abandoned his studies to pursue an interest in business. During the Mexican–American War, he served in the United States Army as a first lieutenant with the Palmetto Regiment. From 1847 to 1856, he was a businessman in Charleston. On April 15, 1850 he married Mary Proctor Huger, the granddaughter of Daniel Elliott Huger. They had five children together. In 1856, he inherited a rice plantation in Georgetown County, South Carolina and moved there. Civil War A few days before the outbreak of the Civil War, Manigault participated in the Battle of Fort Sumter. He was colonel of the 10th South Carolina Infantry, and helped construct the batteries for the defense of Winyah Bay in Georgetown County. In March 1862, he was ordered to dismantle the coastal batteries and to ship the guns to Charleston. In April 1862, he was commanded to take his troops and report to General P. G. T. Beauregard with the Army of Mississippi.