Pelham's body was returned home and buried at City Cemetery in Jacksonville, Alabama where a statue erected downtown in 1909 commemorates the fallen Confederate officer. The Confederate Senate approved Lee's recommendation that Pelham receive a posthumous promotion to lieutenant colonel. Wikisource has original text related to this article: He was carried six miles (10 km) from the battlefield to Culpeper Courthouse, and died the following morning without having regained consciousness.Īn 1889 illustration of Pelham's death at Kelly's Ford. 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 was able to enfilade the entire advancing Federal lines of battle.Īt the Battle of 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. 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.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. He is noted 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. It is said, that he was able to get through the Union lines into Kentucky with the help of a fair Indiana female whose affections he won.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. On April 22, 1861, within weeks of graduation, he resigned from West Point and entered Confederate service as a lieutenant and ordinance officer posted to Lynchburg, Virginia. But what was especially remembered was his skills as a horseman he drew praise from none other than the Prince of Wales when he visited West Point in 1860. While there, he was considered the best athlete and was noted for his fencing and boxing. He enrolled in an experimental five-year curriculum at West Point in 1856. His early years were spent like many other young Southern boys growing up in that part of the country-school, and exploring the outdoors. Pelham was born in Benton City, Alabama, in 1838, the son of an Alabama planter and descendant of American painter Peter Pelham. Before the end of 1862, the artillery officer would be called “The Gallant Pelham,” and would redefine the concept of the flying battery for the Confederate artillery. He was a planter’s son from Alabama, John Pelham. The young leader of the battery was complimented on his coolness under fire. Lending support on the Confederate right was a mountain artillery unit that had been drilling for only three weeks. Although slowed by rain and mud, Hooker’s troops attacked Fort Magruder, the strongest section of the Rebel lines. During the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia, in May 1862, General Joseph Hooker’s Union forces were in pursuit of the withdrawing Confederates.
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