Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/476

 "The Gallant Pelham" and His Gun at Fredericksburg.

Letter from Major H. B. McClellan.

Rev. J. Wm. Jones, D. D.,

Secretary of the Southern Historical Society :

Dear Sir, — My attention has recently been called to a publication entitled " Contributions to a History of the Richmo7id Howitzer Battalion, Pamphlet No. j," which contains, on page 58, a letter from Reuben B. Pleasants, Sergeant of the Second company, in which the claim is made that the praise which was bestowed by General R. E. Lee, General J. E B. Stuart, and by others, upon Major John Pelham, of the Stuart Horse Artillery, for the gallantry with which he fought one Napoleon gun upon the extreme Confederate right, at the open- ing of the battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th of December, 1862, really belongs to a gun of the second company of the Richmond Howitzer Battalion, which was served by Sergeant Pleasants himself

I make the following extracts from Sergeant Pleasant's letter. He says :

" Soon after the war, I read a volume of ' so-called ' history, writ- ten, I think, by Howison, in which was an account of the gallant con- duct of Pelham' s artillery in the battle of Fredericksburg, ascribing to Pelham and his command what was really the work of the first detachment of our old Second company, even crediting our killed and wounded to the Horse Artillery."

" Subsequently, I read substantially the same in General Lee's re- port of the engaement. I have also read allusions of the same tenor in articles contributed to the Southern Histo7'ical Society Papers.

" I have, at each repetition of the error, thought I would write some- thing for publication, giving the truth of this affair (which all seem to think so gallant and glorious), but until now neglected to do so.

"General Alexander says {Souther?i Historical Society Pafers, Nos. 10 and 11 of Volume X, page 446), that 'Lieutenant Pelham, of Alabama, approached close upon the enemy's left flank with only two guns, and so punished his Une of battle that the advance was checked until Pelham could be driven off, an operation which it took four bat- teries an hour to accomplish.'

"Now, on that morning after an all-night march with Jackson's corps, from near Port Royal, our battery, with a number of other

