![]() In 1863, Stuart named his third child Virginia Pelham, in honor of the cannoneer he had admired. Pelham's body was returned home and buried at City Cemetery in Jacksonville, Alabama where a statue erected downtown in 1905 commemorates the fallen officer. The Confederate Senate approved Lee's recommendation that Pelham receive a posthumous promotion to lieutenant colonel. His record has been bright and spotless, his career brilliant and successful. The memory of "the gallant Pelham," his many manly virtues, his noble nature and purity of character, are enshrined as a sacred legacy in the hearts of all who knew him. His eye had glanced on every battlefield of this army from the First Manassas to the moment of his death, and he was, with a single exception, a brilliant actor in them all. He fell mortally wounded in the battle of Kellysville, March 17th, with the battle-cry on his lips, and the light of victory beaming from his eye. The major-general commanding approaches with reluctance the painful duty of announcing to the division its irreparable loss in the death of Major John Pelham, commanding the Horse Artillery. Stuart said of his death, in a general order to the rest of his division:Īn 1889 illustration of Pelham's death at Kelly's Ford. He was carried six miles (10 km) from the battlefield to Culpeper Courthouse, and died the following morning without having regained consciousness. Standing up in his stirrups, he urged his men to "Press forward, press forward to glory and victory!" Not long afterward, he was struck in the head by a fragment of an exploding Federal artillery shell. Pelham was, at the time, commanding only two guns that were in service, but with those batteries for a time enfiladed the entire advancing Federal lines of battle.Īt Kelly's Ford on March 17, 1863, Pelham participated in a cavalry charge, his artillery not being engaged. Lee commended Pelham in his official report for "unflinching courage" while under direct fire from multiple Union batteries. With a Pelham on each flank I believe I could whip the world." Īt Fredericksburg, Pelham's guns, positioned well in advance of the main Confederate lines, held up the entire flank of the Union Army of the Potomac for several hours, enabling the Confederates to repel a series of strong attacks. Stonewall Jackson said of him in his report on the battle, "It is really extraordinary to find such nerve and genius in a mere boy. At Sharpsburg, Pelham's guns, positioned on a rise known as Nicodemus Hill, repeatedly harassed the flanks of oncoming Union lines, causing numerous casualties and breaking up battle formations. ![]() He particularly distinguished himself as the Chief of Stuart's Artillery in the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) and Battle of Fredericksburg. Pelham was involved in every major military engagement of Stuart's cavalry from the First Battle of Bull Run to Kelly's Ford, more than 60 encounters. Stuart, who provided horses for the men and transformed the battery into " horse artillery", more mobile than conventional artillery. Pelham's well-drilled and disciplined battery caught the eye of J.E.B. Johnston as a lieutenant in the artillery. He soon went to Virginia, where he joined the army of Joseph E. Ultimately, Pelham resigned from West Point, just a few weeks before his planned graduation, in order to accept a commission in the militia of his home state of Alabama. In 1861, with graduation approaching and war breaking out, Pelham wrote to the new leader of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, inquiring as to whether he should leave West Point. Letter From John Pelham to Jefferson DavisĪlready in 1860, rumblings of Southern secession were affecting Pelham, his concerns that he would not be able to graduate expressed in letters he wrote home.
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