Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/393

 [From Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch, March 29, 1908.]

General Lee Called Him "the Gallant Pelham"—Records Prove His Bravery.

Editor of the Times-Dispatch:

Sir,—There appeared in the Times-Dispatch of February 16th over my signature a few words of tribute to Major James Breathed, of the Stuart Horse Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia. The Times-Dispatch very kindly gave me space in their widely circulated paper and published the above mentioned tribute. I come before you again asking that I be granted the same courtesy, that I may place upon the grave of the gallant Major John Pelham (the organizer and first captain of the celebrated Stuart Horse Artillery) a few forget-me-nots and sprigs of laurel, that those who did not have the great privilege of knowing the gallant boy-major may read in a measure of what manner of man he was and how he was esteemed by all of those whom he came in contact with, from the immortal R. E. Lee to the most humble private in the ranks. Pelham and Breathed were in the same battery; kindred spirits indeed; loyal to the cause of the South; terrible hard fighters, with a stubbornness that would not yield; an aggressiveness that was irresistible. The gallant Pelham (as he was called by General R. E. Lee) was born in Calhoun county, Ala., near Alexandria, September 7, 1838. His father, Dr. Atkinson Pelham, came to the county from Kentucky in 1837, and was for many years a prominent physician. His mother was a Miss McGehee, whose family came from Person county, N. C, to Calhoun county about 1832.

John Pelham was appointed to the United States Military Academy from Alabama July 1, 1856, aged seventeen years and nine months, through the influence of the representative of his district, the Hon. S. W. Harris, at the request of Hon. A. J. Walker. His standing in the class was low, but his commission was passed on, and he would have received it had he remained