The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-15

UnQuestionably, John Pelham was, the foremost young man in that bright galaxy of youthful heroes who drew sword in the defense ot the lost cause. And 1t is fitting that in one of the first chapters of this association to be organized In tnis, his native State of Alabama, and in the foremost city of that State. his name should be honoTed
 The subject of this sketh came of pa triotic revolutionary stock. Ills grand father, Charles Pelham of Virginia, was a lieutenant in the regiment of Col Pat rick Henry and served in many battles of the Revolution. His father. Dr. At- kinson Pelham (so-called from his noth- CTS family name) was . graduate of the Pennsylvania Medical College. and came from Kentucky to Calhoun cthen Ben- ton) County, Ala. in the year 1SS7, and was married in the same year to Miss McGehee. whose family had removed from North Carolina to Alabama some i've years previous
 In Calhoun County. on September !. 1SSS was born their famous son. John, near the little town of Alexandria, which takes its name from the unique and beautiful valley in which 1t lies-the most fertile and lovely of our State-almost entirely enciroled by the foothills of the same range Of mountains within our view. In this favored spot. we might almost say the happy valley" John Pelham spent his boyhood.
 He and his brothers, of whom there were four, were flashing, daring youths, famed throughout the surrounding coun- try for their courage and enterprise in boyish sports. Of John 1t IS said he once fought a larger schoolmate till he tainted from exhaustion. In B56 through the influence of the Hon. A. J. Walker, af- terwards Chief Justice of Alabama. our young compatriot received the appoint ment of cadet at United States Military Academy at West Point. He entered the only five year class ever organized at West Point, which accounts for bis pres ence there in 1881. His standing in his class was rather low, but he was a noted athlete, his skill as a horseman attract ing the attention of the Prince of Wales, when on a visit to West Point In April, 1861. within two months of his gradua- ton, after his commission as an officer in the United States Army had been passed upon, he resigned from West Point and reported at Montgomery, Ala, the Capital Of the Confectionery, for ser vice in the Confederate States Army. He was at once made First Lieutenant of Artillery and ordered to take charge of the ordnance at Lynchburg, Va. From there he was sent to Winchester as drill- master of artillery. where his services were most efficient. Subsequently he was ordered to report to Gen. J. E. B. Stu art for service in his horse artillery. It Is told of him that while on his way to General Stuart's heaoquarters he came upon two Yankee soldiers. disarmed and captured them, surrendering them to General Stuart on his arrival at his head quarters, thus showing in the outset of his career as a soldier his tact and abil- ity in overcoming superior numbers. On July a, 1881, we find Lieutenant Pelham on the battlefield of First Manassas, the first great battle of the war, where he displayed in handling his guns the sa- gacity of @ veteran. the coolness, dash and daring of a Mareschal Ney, and won the plaudits of his superior officers. In this connection we may say that while modest, even timid, in the presence of ladies, he became when confronted by the enemy in battle, the apotheosis of courage, the very genius of war incar- nate, knowing no such thing as fear. no such thing as confusion After the bat tie of First Manassas. General Stuart en- trusted the young Lieutenant with the organization of a battery of six pieces or horse artillery and in the fall of 1881 he received the requisite number of men from Alabama, Maryland and Virginia.
 forty of these being from Talladega, under the command of the brave Lieu-
 tenant William McGregor. Like his
 great Chieftain, our beloved Lee, Pel- ham had an unerring eye for strategic position and whenever there was oppor- tunity for choice. never failed to place the opposing forces at disadvantage. At Cedar Mountain, for instance, while his hot ttoYxr hry kha ld1rN ]H battle from the enemy's fire. he with drew one of his pieces and led kin person around the mountain side, opened in ann bush, with no support of cavalry or in- fantry upon a troop of the enerny's cav- airy, routing them in great disorder-a daring feat. his commanding General said, uneQualed in the annals of war; Napo- leon, when his advancing troops had been swept, column after column, from the bridge at Lodi, seizing the colors of regiment and leading the charge when the missiles of death were sweeping de- struction around, was not a more impos- ing spectacle of valor than the beardless Pelham at Seven Pines, when manning gun in person he swept back the ad- vancfng enemy almost from the very muzzle of the cannon. But 1t was at fredericksburg that he reached the cu- | max of his renown. With one Napoleon gun he went to the foot of Marie's | Heights and opened the battle. drawing upon himself the concentrated fire of half | dozen batteries. A perfect storm of shot and shell ragged around him, but he stood his ground and fought with dogged pertinacity against such odds that General Lee. from his eminence on the hill. exclaimed. 'Tt is glorious to see such courage in one so young," and Jack son added. with @ Pelham on each flank could vanQuish the world" At last, under imperative orders and with ammunition almost exhausted, he fell l back and took oomand of the artillery on the right of ;he army. He advanced his pieces on the retiring enemy and at night | fall was laundering on their bleeding rear.
 In over half hundred engagements. in less than two years of service from First Manassas to Kellys Ford, where he fell he was present with one exception. fin every battle, and in each and every one was brilliant actor, so intrepid, so dar- Ing. that he became known as The Gal lant Pelham." even as Jackson is called
 StonewalP'-a title, l may add, which was bestowed by our great commander Robert E. Lee, than whom was never man more just, nor less prone to exag- geration.
 But this brilliant young man, already Major and with his commission as Lien tenant Colonel issued and only waited confirmation by the Senate, was not to be spared to his country. On March IT lS6S' he was killed at Kelly's Ford, on