John Pegram

[Korrigan]

220 CSA John Pegram ldr_CSA_Pegram $Cavalryman NULL NULL NULL 1 1 1 46 General 1 NULL 5 1 1


John Pegram was born in Virginia on January 24, 1832. He graduated tenth in a class of 46 from the United States Military Academy in 1854 and served mainly in the west, including a brief stint as an assistant instructor of cavalry at West Point in 1857. He eventually became adjutant of the Second Dragoons and returned to the frontier. In 1858, he was given leave of absence for two years to travel in Europe.
Pegram returned from abroad and continued in the United States Army until May 10, 1861, when he resigned and was commissioned a captain of Confederate cavalry. Promotions came quickly to Pegram, who found himself a lieutenant colonel by the summer of 1861. He was captured following the Battle of Rich Mountain, along with with half his command, but was later exchanged.

After his return to duty in July of 1862, Pegram joined was assigned to the staff of General Braxton Bragg in Mississippi as chief of engineers and later became chief of staff of General Edmund Kirby Smith, who was in command in eastern Tennessee. In November he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of a cavalry brigade. During the Battle of Chickamauga, he commanded a division of Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry corps.

Pegram was finally transferred to Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, where he was given command of an infantry brigade in Jubal Early's division of the Second Corps. He was seriously wounded in the Wilderness but recovered and returned to take part in Early's subsequent disastrous campaign against Union General Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 1864.

In December 1864, Pegram's division was sent to the lines around Petersburg under John B. Gordon. The young general took advantage of his proximity to Richmond to wed his fiancee Hetty Cary, who was living in Richmond. The wedding took place at St. Paul's Church on January 19, 1865. Three weeks later, Pegram would return to St. Paul's -- but this time in a casket; he was killed instantly at Hatcher's Run on Fenruary 6 as he tried to rally his troops. The same minister who had married him read his funeral service and oversaw his burial in Hollywood Cemetery.



Proposition: 3-1-1

[Korrigan]

JOHN PEGRAM
(Fell at the head of his Division February 6, 1865--aged 33)
by W. Gordon M'Cabe


What shall we say now of our knight,
Or how express the measure of our woe
For him who rode the foremost in the fight,
Whose good blade flashed so far amid the foe?

Of all his knightly deeds what need to tell?
That good blade now lies fast within its sheath.
What can we do but point to where he fell,
And like a soldier, met a soldier's death?

We sorrow not as those who have no hope,
For he was pure in heart as brave in deed.
God pardon us if blind with tears we grope,
And love be questioned by the hearts that bleed.

And yet....oh, foolish and of little faith.....
We cannot choose but weep our useless tears.
We loved him so, we never dreamed that death
Would dare to touch him in his brave young years.

Ah, dear browned face, so fearless and so bright,
As kind to friend as thou was stern to foe,
No more we'll see thee radiant in the fight....
The eager eyes...the flush on cheek and brow;

No more will greet the lithe, familiar form
Amid the surging smoke, with deaf'ning cheer;
No more shall soar above the iron storm
Thy ringing voice in accents sweet and clear.

Aye, he has fought the fight and passed away,
Our grand young leader smitten in the strife;
So swift to seize the chances of the fray,
And careless only of his noble life.

He is not dead, but sleeps. Well we know
The form that lies to-day beneath the sod
Shall rise that time the golden bugles blow,
And pour their music through the courts of God.

And there amid our great heroic dead,
The war-worn sons of God whose work is done,
His face shall shine as they, with stately tread,
In grand review sweep past the jasper throne.

Let not our hearts be troubled. Few and brief
His days were here, yet rich in love and faith.
Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief,
And grant thy servants such a life and death.