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23 “I Want Jimmie to Be Just Like Him” Had he been spared, another great battle would have made him a General, I think. Channing Price — The tragic news of John Pelham’s death reached Camp No-Camp approximately an hour before daybreak when a courier sent by Jeb Stuart galloped in with the painful information.1 With little fanfare and “much agitation of manner,” according to Heros von Borcke, the rider sadly stated that Pelham was dead. Some of the details were given to the startled onlookers. For many the announcement struck like a lightning bolt, as they blankly stared into space. A few of Pelham’s gunners openly wept without shame. Others, however, hesitated to believe that the handsome young man, who in so many perilous situations had never once been touched by enemy fire, could now be gone. Most were left to their own thoughts of how only a few hours earlier Pelham had vibrantly strolled through the camp, smiling and laughing. “His death created the most profound grief throughout the army and country,” noted one Confederate officer. Artillerist George W. Shreve agreed: “[Pelham’s] death cast a great gloom over us, and we seemed to realize that no one could fill his place, so brilliantly as he had done.”2 Undoubtedly, many conjured up past events of which Pelham had been such a part. Von Borcke expressed his own notions of the mood in camp: This sad intelligence spread through the whole camp in a few minutes, and the impression of melancholy sorrow it produced on all is beyond description , so liked and admired had Pelham been, and so proud were we of his gallantry. One after the other, comrades entered my tent to hear the confirmation of the dreadful news, which everybody tried as long as possible not to credit. Couriers and negroes assembled outside, all seemingly paralysed by the sudden and cruel calamity; and when morning came, instead of the usual bustling activity and noisy gaiety, a deep and mournful silence reigned throughouttheencampment.Iwasmuchtouchedbythebehaviourof Pelham’s negro servants, Willis and Newton, who, with tokens of the greatest distress, begged to be allowed at once to go and take charge of their master’s body—a permission which I was, however, constrained to refuse.3 314 / Chapter 23 That same day Channing Price penned a hurried note to his mother: “I have just time to write a few lines to give you some sad news. . . . the Yankees crossed at Kelly ’s ford and were met by Gens. Stuart & Fitz Lee with part of the latter’s brigade: they were repulsed with heavy loss at dark, but poor Pelham was killed.” Three days later Price wrote a longer letter to his mother in which he restated his gloom. In part, it read: “It is very dull & quiet at Hd. Qrs., only Capt. [Benjamin Stephen] White, Chiswell [Dabney],Thomas [Price], Capt. [John Esten] Cooke, Frank Robertson & myself being here, and over us all, in spite of the hard-heartedness which war produces, a feeling of gloom is hanging, caused by the loss of one to whom all were so much attached.”4 John Esten Cooke, in his war journal, wrote: “I have not had the heart to continue this journal from day to day. Poor Pelham is dead—killed in that terrific fight in Culpepper [sic]. It cast a shadow over me which I could not dispel, and is a mournful thought still. He was a brave noble fellow, and I had learned to love him. So we pass.” In his sorrow W. W. Blackford confined himself to his tent—the same tent he had so often shared with Pelham. Sadly, Blackford speculated what might have saved his friend from the tragedy on March 17. “If Pelham had stayed for breakfast at headquarters or at the horse artillery camp as he intended; if the locomotive had not come for the ammunition; if Pelham had not gotten a horse; and if his friend had not sent him to the rear as he did, Pelham would not have lost his life when he did. What a pity it was that none of these things had happened differently.”5 So shaken was Blackford that he did not mention Pelham again in his writings. Perhaps the one soldier in the entire Army of Northern Virginia who would miss Pelham the most was Jeb Stuart. More than a friend and a protégé, Pelham had been Stuart’s most consistent...

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