William Pegram William Ransom Johnson Pegram , known as " Willie " or " Willy " , ( June 29 , 1841 – April 2 , 1865 ) was an important young artillery officer in Robert E . Lee ' s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War . He was mortally wounded in the Battle of Five Forks . He was the younger brother of Confederate General John Pegram , who was also killed in action . His grandfather , John Pegram , was a major general during the War of 1812 . Early life . Born in a house along Main Street in Richmond , Virginia , Pegram was a student at the University of Virginia ' s law school when the Civil War broke out in 1861 . Civil War . Pegram quickly enlisted in an artillery battery from Richmond known as the " Purcell Artillery " in April 1861 . The youthful Pegram would become General A . P . Hill ' s favorite artillery officer . He gained a reputation for his scholarly looks — extreme nearsightedness required that he wear his gold - rimmed spectacles even in the heat of battle – and for his utter fearlessness in battle . Confederate General Henry Heth commented that Pegram was " one of the few men who , I believe , was supremely happy when in battle . " One of his soldiers recalled that Pegram thought " A soldier should always seek the most desperate post that has to be filled . " Pegram amassed a commendable combat record during the Civil War , first with A . P . Hill ' s famous " Light Division " and then with Hill ' s Third Corps . He fought in virtually every major action in the Eastern theater in which the Army of Northern Virginia was engaged . Willy Pegram rose through the ranks from private to colonel of artillery in command of sixty guns . There was a movement afoot to make him a general , but nothing ever came of it . It is said that both division level commanders Henry Heth and Richard H . Anderson separately asked for his promotion and assignment to command of an infantry brigade , and A . P . Hill endorsed Heth ' s recommendation of Pegram : " No officer of the Army of Northern Virginia has done more to deserve this promotion than lieutenant colonel Pegram . " But Lee did not promote Pegram , saying , " He is too young — how old is Colonel Pegram ? " Heth had answered : " I do not know , but I suppose about 25 . " Lee replied : " I think a man of 25 is as good as he ever will be ; what he acquires after that age is from experience ; but I can ' t understand , when an officer is doing excellent service where he is , why he should want to change . " And so , the recommendations for Pegram to be promoted were returned with the statement that " the artillery could not lose the services of so valuable an officer . " Indeed , many thought that Pegram was the best gunner in the Army of Northern Virginia . Willy ' s older brother , John , was a West Point graduate of the class of 1854 . John was killed at the Battle of Hatcher ' s Run in February 1865 . The death devastated Willy , who had always been close to his older brother . Death . Willy Pegram once stated , " Men , whenever the enemy takes a gun from my battery , look for my dead body in front of it . " On April 1 , 1865 , at the Battle of Five Forks , a battle Southern historian Douglas Southall Freeman deemed " a day of disaster not to be recorded solely in terms of four guns lost or of good soldiers captured , " Pegram finally suffered the loss of one of his guns while he lay mortally wounded beside it . He lingered into the evening , dying at 8 o ' clock the next morning . He was buried in Richmond ' s Hollywood Cemetery . Pegram went by the nickname of Willy or Willie . His family members apparently used the spelling of " Willy " as does his modern biographer . Freeman , and many other Civil War authors , spell the name as " Willie . " General Joseph R . Anderson , of Tredegar Iron Works fame , married Pegram ' s sister Mary Evans in 1881 .