Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-01-25

bloody effect. During tins fight
jackson said to Stuart, pointing to
the young artillerist at his guns:
General, # you have another Pei
ham give him to me-" He was
then 23 years old.
In the bloody repulse the Federals
received at Shepardstown his guns
roared fer hours, and little later
he was with Stuart in the bloody
track he made from Aldie to Mark
hams, fighting the immense odds
l0f tho foe till they were within q few
yards of his guns, and drawing off
to a better position only to fight
again. 1t was in this CORY track
that an instance occurred which IL
lustrates 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 to be allowed
to remain little longer, which re-
quest was granted. His cannoneers
scampered away and left him alone.
He loaded the piece and fred al
most in the face of the enemy surg
ing forward like 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 free the dead animal. he
mounted another, and it, too, was
shot down Immediately. He es-
capped with the gun only after a
third horse had been shot down and
cut from the traces. At Sharps-
burg he commanded nearly all the
artillery on the Confederate left,
ana rent the Dlue lines.
WITH SHOT AND SHELL.
But it was at Fredericksburg that
the zenith of John Pelham's re-
nown was reached. The martial
king of the proudest nation in all
the tides of time might well envy
If thesshades in yalhalla are given
that priyilege--the glory that crown
ed the "boy artillerist' in that stu
pendous fight and revelry of death.
All was quiet in the Confederate
army at Fredericksburg on the
morning of the 18th of December,
1862. The flower of the South's
young manhood was there on the
heights in douhle lines behind brist-
ling bayonets and grimmer guns.
Every soldier knew there was to be
a fearful fight bofore the sun sank
behind the Western wood. The
Federal Army had crossed the Rap
pahannock, 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 gallop-
ed to his guns. Immediately he
dashed down the heights followed
by one gun at gallop. 1t was the
Napoleon Detachment" of Mobile
Frenchmen. Onward they rushed
far down the foot of the heights
where the road forks. There they
halted, unlimbered and prepared
for action. The mist that over
spread the field cleared away and
the men from the South saw NOV
ing toward them steadily, swiftly,
with measured tread, long, com
pact, blue line. On swept the fierce
men in blue, their bayonets glisten-
ing in the streams of sunshine that
stole through the fog. There was
a flash, boom, the earth shook
Pelham's Napoleon had beloved.
Then there was a shrill, hideous,
indescribable shrek of shell as it
swirled in the air and went crashing
through the charging lines of blue.
The surging mass recoiled, halted,
hesitated, then with demoniacal
yell pressed forward toward the sim
gle gun. The yell ceased, and for
moment
THERE WAS A CHASTITY Hush.
And then-there came thunder
ing through the chilly December
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. Pei
ham had drawn upon himself the