The Gallant John Pelham

Confederate Veteran
Volume 2, Number, 3, Page 74-75
March 1894

John D. Renfroe has written a thrilling story of Maj. John Pelham, "the boy artillerist," for the Courier Journal, from which the following is taken:

He was of " Kentucky stock," but born in Alabama, September 7, 1838. The London Times said he excelled any man of his age, on either side, in the great conflict.

Young Pelham was at West Point, and would have received his commission in a week, but he resigned and came South to enlist for his section. As a cadet he had dash and soldierly bearing. He always walked straight as a "bee line," and never looked back) no matter how much noise the other cadets made in his rear. He was considered the best athlete at West Point, and was noted for fencing and boxing.

"Then as now," said the writer, "at the academy, a cat, with its reputed plurality of lives, would be dead a dozen times in taking half the chances those laughing cadets would eagerly seek in the cavalry drill, but Pelham excelled them all." The Prince of Wales was struck with his horsemanship when he visited the academy in 1860. His horseback riding was marvelous, ana went down from class to class as a sort of tradition, and years afterward the cadets would talk of John Pelham's wonderful riding.

It is said he got through the lines into Kentucky by a fair Indiana maiden whose affections he won, which were stronger than her true patriotism. He reported at Montgomery, the Confederate capital, and was sent to Virginia. At Manassas he so interested "Jeb" Stuart that he had him organize a six gun battery. Of this battery were forty men from Talladega, under Lieut. Wm. McGregor, now living in Texas, and others, in charge of his " Napoleon " gun, from Mobile. This six gun battery became the nucleus of " Stuart's Horse Artillery."

At Cold Harbor he advanced one gun a third of a mile to the front, and for more than an hour it was the only gun on the Confederate left firing, drawing the attention of a whole Federal battery, until Stuart said to Stonewall Jackson: " General, all your artillery on the left is idle, nobody is firing except Pelham." After the battle the warm pressure of Jackson's hand told how well he had demeaned himself. Shortly after this Pelham drove a gunboat from the " White House" with one gun. He again received the thanks of Stonewall at second Manassas, where he thrust his guns forward almost into the enemy's columns, and used them with bloody effect. During this fight Jackson said to Stuart, pointing to the young artillerist at his guns: "General, if you have another Pelham, give him to me." He was then twenty three years old.

In the bloody repulse at Shepardstown his guns roared for hours. It was in this gory track that an instance occurred which illustrates his courage. He was with one gun far in advance of the others, when the enemy almost reached him, and Stuart ordered him to retire, but he begged successfully to be allowed to remain a little longer, but his cannoneers " scampered away" and left him alone. He loaded the piece and fired almost in the face of the enemy surging forward like a great billow, and then) mounting one of the lead horses, began to gallop away with the cannon, but had not proceeded far when the horse was shot from under him. Quickly cutting the traces, to be free from the dead animal, he mounted another, and it, too, was shot down immediately. He escaped with the gun only after a third horse had been shot.

At Sharpsburg he commanded nearly all the artillery on the Confederate left, and rent the blue lines with shot and shell.

But it was at Fredericksburg that the zenith of John Pelham's renown was reached. The flower of the South's young manhood was on the heights in double lines behind bristling and glimmering guns. Every soldier knew there was to be a fearful fight before the sun sank behind the western wood. The Federal army had crossed the Rappahannock, and was forming line of battle under cover of the river bank. Jackson, Stuart and Lee rode down the Confederate lines to the extreme right, followed by waves of cheers, where the Stuart Horse Artillery was parked. Stuart called to Pelham and said something. Then Pelham turned and galloped to his guns. Immediately he dashed down the heights, followed by one gun, at a gallop. It was the " Napoleon Detachment " of Mobile Frenchmen. Onward they rushed, far down to the foot of the heights, where the road forks. There they halted, unlimbered and prepared for action. Soon they saw moving toward them steadily, with measured tread, a long, compact blue line, their bayonets glistening in the streams of sunshine. There was a flash, a boom, the earth shook around Pelham'sNapoleon. Then there was a shrill, hideous, indescribable shriek of shell as it swirled through the charging lines of blue. The surging mass recoiled, halted, hesitated, then, with a demoniacal yell, pressed forward toward the single gun. The yell ceased, and for a moment there was a ghastly hush. And then there came thundering through the air from across the Rappahannock boom on boom. From southeast to east, from east to northeast! Then from the north came huge shells whirling death in their arms. Pelham had drawn upon himself the concentrated fire of half a dozen batteries twenty four guns, yet his gun continued to roar, and never failed to slaughter. No other gun on the Confederate side had yet opened, but this lone war dog howled on. And in the half lull between the boom of the cannon there floated above the noise a sound that seemed strange on that day of multitudinous terrors the Napoleon Detachment singing the Marseillaise as they fought their gun. Like infernal imps in tophet they flitted about in its smoke. Two armies looked on while the Mobile Frenchmen wrote history with blood. Time wore on. Still the gun roared, and the sound of its roaring thundered through the air. Gen. R. E. Lee said: " It is glorious to see such courage in one so young." In his report of the battle he spoke of no one but Pelham below the rank of Major General, terming him "the gallant Pelham." Pelham delayed the battle an hour. When his ammunition was spent he retired, and was assigned to the command of all the artillery on the Confederate right.

Amid shot and shell he had opened the great battle of Fredericksburg, and had become immortal. He was a Major of artillery then. His commission as Lieutenant Colonel was issued soon after, and only waited confirmation when he was killed at Kelly's Ford, on the Rappahannock, March 17, '63. He had gone to visit some ladies in Culpeper County, when he heard the cannonading and hurried to the scene. His artillery had not come up, but he galloped to a regiment that was wavering, and shouted: "Forward, boys! forward to victory and glory!" and at that moment was struck by the fragment of a shell that penetrated the brain, and he died shortly after midnight.

Gen. Stuart telegraphed to Hon. J. L. M. Curry, at present trustee of the great Peabody Fund, who then represented Pelham's Alabama district in the Confederate Congress:

"The noble, the chivalric, 'the gallant Pelham' is no more. He was killed in action yesterday. His remains will be sent to you to day. How much he was beloved, appreciated and admired let the tears of agony we shed and the gloom of mourning throughout my command bear witness. His loss is irreparable."

His remains were taken to Richmond, and lay in state at the Capitol, viewed by thousands. He was buried at Jacksonville, Ala., amid the scenes of his childhood. Gen. Stuart's general order to the division, announcing his death, concluded:

"His eyes had glanced over every battlefield of this army from the first Manassas to the moment of his death, and, with a single exception, he was a brilliant actor in all. The memory of 'the gallant Pelham,' his many virtues, his noble nature and purity of character are a sacred legacy in the hearts of all who knew him. His record was bright and spotless, and his career brilliant and successful."

He was calmly and recklessly brave, and saw men torn to pieces around him. without emotion, " because his heart and eye were upon the. stern work he was performing." Such is the brief but resplendent career of the "boy artillerist."

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The deeds of Pelham's nephew, who was a private in Terry's Texas regiment, caused the Texas Legislature to enact that, as he, "a hero in more than a hundred battles," had fallen while charging the enemy at Dalton, Ga., leaving no issue, the name of a certain child, a nephew, should be changed to Charles Thomas Pelham, to perpetuate his memory.