Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
John Pelham was born on September 7, 1838, in Calhoun County, Alabama, and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, submitting his resignation along with fellow cadet and future Confederate General Thomas Rosser on April 22, 1861, two weeks shy of graduation.  
 
Major Pelham became the commander of General J.E.B. Stuart’s horse artillery and earned a reputation as an artillery genius, with the highlights of his career occurred at Antietam and Fredericksburg.  Positioned on Nicodemus Heights, a rise north of Sharpsburg (and west of the Antietam battlefield), Pelham’s guns maneuvered to harry the Union advance in the cornfield area with an enfilading fire into the flanks of the varied attacks.  General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s battle report reflected that, “It is really extraordinary to find such nerve and genius in a mere boy. With a Pelham on each flank I believe I could whip the world.” During the Battle of Fredericksburg, General Robert E. Lee styled the young major the “Gallant Pelham”.  At Fredericksburg, Pelham took two guns in advance of the Confederate right wing, and with those cannon he completely held up the entire left wing advance of the Union Army.
 
In a letter written just five weeks before Pelham’s death, General Stuart wrote, in part:
 
I have already made several urgent recommendations for the promotion of Major John Pelham, my chief of artillery, which have not been favorably considered by the War Department. The battle of Fredericksburg, forming a fresh chapter in his career of exploits without parallel, I feel it to be a duty, as well as a pleasure, to earnestly repeat what I have already said on his behalf, and to add that, if meritorious conduct in battle ever earned a promotion, Major John Pelham of Alabama, should be appointed Colonel of Artillery… Pelham’s known ability as an artillery officer has won for him the confidence of generals in command who unhesitatingly entrust to him the artillery thus brought together from various batteries. It has been alleged that he is too young. Though remarkably youthful in appearance there are generals as young with less claim for that distinction, and no veteran in age has ever shown more coolness and better judgment in the sphere of his duty.
 
By the time of the Battle of Kelly’s Ford on March 17, 1863, Major Pelham was the veteran of 60 engagements.  Pelham joined in the cavalry fight at Kelly’s Ford even though his artillery was not on the field and was in the thick of the fray when a piece of shrapnel struck him in the back of the head. He was draped over his horse and taken to the Shackelford house.  That evening, doctors removed the tiny piece of shrapnel, but Pelham died about 1 a.m. the next morning.
 
John Pelham was promoted to Lt. Colonel after his death.
 
The monument was dedicated in 1981 and is located in the C. F. Phelps Wildlife Management Area on the south bank of the Rappahannock River.