Van H . Manning Vannoy Hartrog ( Van ) Manning ( July 26 , 1839 – November 3 , 1892 ) was a U . S . Representative from Mississippi and an officer in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War . Early life and education . Born near Raleigh , North Carolina , Manning moved with his parents to Mississippi in 1841 . He attended Horn Lake Male Academy in De Soto County , Mississippi . Marriage and family . He married Mary Wallace of Holly Springs . Their firstborn son died in January 1861 , after their move to Arkansas . Law career . Manning later attended the University of Nashville in Tennessee , where he studied law . After graduation , he and Mary moved to Arkansas in 1860 . He was admitted to the Arkansas bar in 1861 and commenced practice in Hamburg . Service during the Civil War . In May 1861 , Manning and Dr . W . H . Tebbs recruited and organized the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment , drawing from soldiers recruited in Ashley , Drew , Union , Dallas and Hot Spring counties . The regiment made up a total of eleven companies , and included one company of recruits from other parts of Arkansas as well as recruits from Tennessee and Kentucky . The regiment was then marched to Vicksburg , Mississippi , where they were initially turned down for service as a part of the Confederate Army . Manning then enlisted the assistance of Arkansas politician Albert Rust , and the regiment was accepted as part of the Confederate Army , with Rust appointed as colonel , and sent to Lynchburg , Virginia for training . The 3rd Arkansas was then assigned to General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia , after which it took part in almost every major eastern battle . Tebbs and Manning both served as captain s , and subsequently Manning was promoted to colonel of the 3rd Arkansas following Rust being promoted to Brigadier General . Manning received battle wounds at the battles of Antietam ( Sharpsburg ) , Gettysburg and The Wilderness . Manning ' s reputation for heroism in battle was well known , and in official reports he was recognized for his actions during the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Gettysburg . The report from his actions at Antietam , filed by Confederate General John G . Walker , and submitted to General James Longstreet , read as follows ; " " Colonel Manning , with the 46th and 48th North Carolina and 30th Virginia , not content with possession of the woods , dashed forward in gallant style , crossed the open fields beyond , driving the enemy back before him like sheep , until , arriving at a long line of strong post and rail fences , behind which heavy masses of the enemies infantry were lying , their advance was checked , and it being impossible to climb these fences under such fire , these regiments , after suffering a heavy loss , were compelled to fall back . . . " " " " Just before the falling back of these regiments , the gallant Colonel Manning was severely wounded and was compelled to leave the field , relinquishing the command of the brigade to the next rank , Colonel E . D . Hall , of the 46th North Carolina Regiment . " " " " . . . The division suffered heavily , particularly Manning ' s command ( Walker ' s Brigade ) , which at one time sustained almost the whole fire of the enemies right wing . Going into the engagement , as it was necessary for us to do , to support the sorely pressed divisions of Hood and Early , it was , of course , impossible to make dispositions based upon careful reconnaissance of the localities . The post and rail fences stretching across the fields lying between us and the enemies position , I regard as the fatal obstacle to complete our success on the left , and success there would be , doubtless , have changed the fate of the day . Of the existence of this obstacle none of my division had any previous knowledge , and we learned it at the expense of many valuable lives . " " Manning was later commended again for gallantry , during the Battle of Gettysburg , by Brigadier General Jerome B . Robertson of the Texas Brigade , to which the 3rd Arkansas had been attached . In that action , Robertson ' s brigade had been ordered forward to attack and secure Devil ' s Den . The 1st , 4th , and 5th Texas regiments , alongside the 3rd Arkansas , did so at great cost , taking heavy casualties but securing their objective . Robertson gave much of the credit for this success to Manning ' s leadership in the field . Manning was wounded toward the end of that engagement , after helping his regiment hold under overwhelming odds . He was later wounded for his third time and captured during the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia in 1864 . Manning was held as a prisoner of war by Union forces from the time of his capture until the end of the war . When the war ended , only 144 of his 3rd Arkansas soldiers remained out of 1 , 353 mustered into it from the start of the war . Entry into politics . After the war , Manning resumed the practice of law in Holly Springs , Mississippi . After the end of Reconstruction , he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty - fifth , Forty - sixth , and Forty - seventh Congresses , serving from March 4 , 1877 – March 3 , 1883 . He resumed the practice of law in Washington , D . C . , in 1883 . In 1884 he presented credentials as a Member - elect to the Forty - eighth Congress but did not qualify . On June 25 , 1884 , the seat was awarded to James R . Chalmers of Mississippi , who had contested his election . Manning returned to his law practice for his remaining years . He died in Branchville , Maryland , and was interred in Glenwood Cemetery in Washington , D . C .