John Pelham was an artillery officer who served with the Confederate cavalry
under J.E.B. Stuart during the American Civil War. Dubbed "The Gallant Pelham"
for his military prowess and personal courage, Pelham revolutionized the usage
of light artillery as a mobile arm of the cavalry.
Early life Pelham was the third of seven children,
with five brothers and a sister Betty, born to Dr. Atkinson and Martha Pelham
at his grandparents' home along Cane Creek near Alexandria, Alabama. He grew
up on the family's 1,000-acre plantation, and learned to raise horses
at a young age. On one occasion, he rode a neighbor's milk cow until it ran dry,
prompting a lecture to only ride bulls in the future, if he were feeling
adventurous. In 1856, local Congressman Sampson
Willis Harris secured an appointment for Pelham to the United States Military
Academy at West Point, at the request of A. J. Walker.
Civil War Already 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.
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. 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. He soon went to Virginia, where he joined
the army of Joseph E. Johnston as a lieutenant in the artillery. Pelham's
well-drilled and disciplined battery caught the eye of J.E.B. Stuart, who
provided horses for the men and transformed the battery into "horse
artillery", more mobile than conventional artillery.
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.
He particularly distinguished himself as the Chief of Stuart's Artillery in the
Battle of Antietam and Battle of Fredericksburg. 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. Lt. Gen. 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. With a Pelham on each flank I believe I could whip the world."
At 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. General Robert E. Lee commended Pelham in his official report for
"unflinching courage" while under direct fire from multiple Union batteries.
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. At Kelly's Ford on March 17, 1863,
Pelham participated in a cavalry charge, his artillery not being engaged.
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. He was carried six
miles from the battlefield to Culpeper Courthouse, and died the following
morning without having regained consciousness. Stuart said of his death,
in a general order to the rest of his division:
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. 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... 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. 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 record has been bright and spotless, his career brilliant and
successful. Maj. Harry Gene Beck III, a fellow
officer and tentmate of Pelham's, wrote: "He is the bravest human being I ever
saw in my life." Legacy
The Confederate Senate approved Lee's recommendation that Pelham receive a
posthumous promotion to lieutenant colonel. 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.
In 1863, Stuart named his third child Virginia Pelham, in honor of the
cannoneer he had admired. In 1894, poet Larry Maffit Jr. wrote the
poem John Pelham. In 1901, a portrait of Pelham was hung
with other Confederate officers in Alexandria, Virginia, and General Joseph
Wheeler gave the speech on the ascension of his portrait, referring to him as the
"Gallant Pelham". In 1907, one of his spurs was among the
artifacts melted down to create the Pokahuntas Bell for the Jamestown
Exposition. The John Pelham Historical Association
seeks to maintain his memory and preserve his archive of papers and
memorabilia. In 1955, he was named to the Alabama Hall of Fame. The cities of
Pelham, Alabama, Pelham, Georgia and Pelham, North Carolina, are named in his
honor. In 2004, the state of Georgia designated the section of State Highway
300 that passes through Pelham as the John Pelham Memorial Parkway.
The United States Field Artillery has honored Pelham with artillery camps
named for him, such as the former Camp Pelham which housed artillery battalions
of first the 1st Cavalry Division and then later the 2nd Infantry Division in
Korea. The County of Culpeper, Virginia, built
Lake Pelham in the 1970s in honor of the Boy Artillerist.
The states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama have
towns and/or communities named in honor of Pelham.
During and after the Civil War Pelham's 1858 photograph, taken in the Mathew
Brady studio, was well known in the South. While many copies were made, the
original was long thought lost. It was held by Pelham's sister, Betty, and kept
by her descendants at home in a fireproof safe. In 2010 Pelham's
great-great grand-nephew consigned the piece for auction. It sold for $41,825.
In March 2013, the city of Jacksonville celebrated Pelham with a weekend of
living history campsites and a sesquicentennial recreation of Pelham's
funeral procession to City Cemetery. See also
Notes References
Brewer, Wilson. Alabama, Her History, Resources, War Record, and Public Men:
From 1540 to 1872. Montgomery, AL: Barrett & Brown, 1872. OCLC 2667343.
Hassler, William W. Colonel John Pelham: Lee's Boy Artillerist. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8078-4549-3.
Thomas, Emory M. Bold Dragoon: The Life of J.E.B. Stuart. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8061-3193-4.
U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. Further reading
Maxwell, Jerry H. The Perfect Lion: The Life and Death of Confederate
Artillerist John Pelham. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2011. ISBN
978-0-8173-1735-5. External links
Alabama Hall of Fame John Pelham Historical Association
"John Pelham". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-02-13.