from the hands of the well known young leader. What terrified the foe was the guage of success to our own men. The roar of Pelham's Napoleons was a welcome sound. When the deep-mouthed thunder of those guns was heard, the faintest took heart, and the contest assumed a new phase to all
for that sound had proved on many a field the harbinger of Victory. At Manassas, Williamsburg, Cold Harbour, Groveton, Oxhill, Sharpsburg, Sheppardstown, Kearneysville, Aldie, Union, Upperville, Markham, Barbee's, Bazel River and Fredericksburg—at these and many other places, he fought his Horse Artillery, and handled it with heroic contempt of danger! One day, when I led him to speak of his career, he counted up something like sixty battles, great and small, which he had been in, and in every one he had borne a prominent part. Talk with the associates of the young leader in those hard-fought battles, and they will tell you a hundred instances of his dauntless courage. At Manassas, he took position in a place so dangerous, that an officer, who had followed him up to that moment, rode away with the declaration, that "if Pelham was fool enough to stay there, he was not." But General Jackson thanked him, as he thanked him at Cold Harbour, when the brave young soldier came back covered
with dust from fighting his Napoleon — the light of victory in his eyes. At Markham, while he was fighting the enemy in front, they made a circuit and charged him in the rear; but he turned his gun about, and fought them, as before, with his "French Detachment," singing the loud, triumphant Moensacilois as that same Napoleon gun broke their ranks and drove them back. All that whole great movement was a marvel of hard fighting, however, and Pelham was the hero of the stout, close struggle, as he was of the hot contest on the right at Fredericksburg. Any other chief of artillery might have sent his men in, leaving the direction of the guns to such officers as the brave Captain Henry; but this did not suit the young chieftain. He must go himself with the one gun forward, and beside that piece he remained until it was ordered back - directing his men to lie down, but sitting his own horse, and intent solely upon the movements and designs of the enemy, wholly careless of the "fire of hell" hurled against him. It was glorious, indeed, as General Lee declared, to see such heroism in the boyish artillerist and well might General Jackson speak of him in terms of "exaggerated compliment" and ask General Stuart "if he had another Pelham, to give him to him!"
Modest, brave, loving and beloved—the famous soldier, the charming companion, passed away from the friends who cherished him, leaving a void which no other being can fill. Alabama lent him to Virginia for a time; but, alas! the pale face smiles no more as he returns to her. Many mourn his early death here where his glory was won, as in the southern land from whence he came. To these
the wile circle who loved him for his great qualities, and his kind, good heart—his loss is irreparable, as it is to the whole land. The "breed of
noble minds" like his is not numerous, and, when such forms disappear, the gap is hard to fill—the struggle for our liberties is more arduous than before. But the memory of this threat young soldier still remains with us—his name is immortal in history as in many hearts which throbbed at his death.
