On January 19, 1865 the last gala social event of the Confederacy occurred as a virtual who’s who of the Confederacy gathered in Richmond’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for the wedding of “the most beautiful woman of her day and generation,” Hetty Cary to Brigadier General John Pegram. It would not be the last time this group would gather together, however. All would return to the very same church exactly three weeks later for the funeral of General Pegram who was killed on this day 142 years ago.
John Pegram:
John Pegram was born in Petersburg, Virginia on January 24, 1832. He was the oldest son of James West Pegram and his wife Virginia Johnson. John’s paternal grandfather had been a major general in the militia during the War of 1812 and was a second generation planter in Virginia. As one of twelve children and not being the oldest, James did not inherit the family plantation. He was therefore encouraged by his father to study law. In 1829, he married Virginia Johnson, the daughter of a wealthy planter and racehorse owner. The couple lived initially at Mr. Johnson’s plantation, but when James was offered the position of cashier at the Bank of Virginia’s Petersburg office, he readily accepted. Within a few years, the couple moved to Richmond, when James became president of the bank. Throughout his life, James continued the family’s longstanding tradition of public service, becoming an active Whig orator; and, sometime between 1830 and 1841, he was appointed a colonel and then brigadier general in the Virginia militia. By 1844, Virginia Pegram had given birth to five children, and James had accumulated sufficient capital to invest in plantations. In October 1844, James made a business trip to Mississippi to look over some potential investments. James was traveling on the steamboat Lucy Walker, named for the famous racehorse of the boat’s owner. It was heading down the Ohio River, when it stopped at Louisville where the owner of the boat challenged another steamboat at the city to a race to New Orleans. Leaving on October 23, the Lucy Walker ran into some mechanical trouble just 7 miles west of Louisville and stopped to make repairs. The boat was only on her second trip. The distracted crew was trying to make a hasty repair and allowed the water in the boilers to get too low. The boilers exploded killing 18 passengers, including James Pegram. The shock of James’ death left the family emotionally traumatized and financially reduced, though not ruined. Virginia moved her family back to her father’s plantation, but her father was having financially difficulties himself, so in a few years, Virginia took her family to Richmond and started a school for girls. The school remained open during the Civil War years and the income from the school and boarders at the house, allowed the Pegrams to live comfortably.
Virginia Pegram’s home and school at 106-108 Franklin Street in Richmond:
Based on John Pegram’s social status and the militia service of his father and grandfather, it was not surprising when John received an appointment to West Point in 1850. A good student, he adapted well to the military life. Pegram graduated 10th of 46 in the class of 1854, a class that included James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart. In the years following graduation, Pegram saw service in the cavalry as a second lieutenant of the 2nd Dragoons in the West, including California, Kansas and the Utah expedition against the Mormons. Most of this time was spent on staff duty as an adjutant of the 2nd Dragoons. He even briefly served as a cavalry instructor at West Point. He was given a leave of absence in 1858-9 to travel to Europe to observe the war between Italy and Austria. In 1860 he received orders for New Mexico but as he arrived there, the secession crisis began and he returned home when Virginia seceded, resigning his commission on May 10, 1861.
The Battle of Solferino in the War of Italian Unification of 1859. Pegram was a witness to this battle:
Pegram’s offered his services to Virginia and they were accepted, though for reasons unclear, negotiations about his rank and position took a few months. He finally accepted a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel in July 1861 and was assigned to command the 20th Virginia Infantry regiment and sent to the western part of the state, where Union forces were threatening to seize several counties. Pegram’s service in western Virginia was anything but glorious. Pegram’s command was part of Brigadier General Richard Garnett’s force. Pegram was not particularly well liked by his fellow Confederate officers, due to his arguing over seniority immediately upon arriving in western Virginia. Then, when tasked to defend a mountain pass in the Battle of Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861, Pegram permitted his unit to be flanked and cut off from Garnett’s main force. During the action he was thrown form his horse and injured. He was removed from the battlefield but retuned in time to be flanked by the Union forces. Lost in the mountains, hurting from his fall and unable to find Garnett, he was the victim of bad luck and his own poor leadership. Pegram’s reputation fell even further when he decided to unilaterally surrender his 554 man command. He made this decision while confined to bed due to his injury at Beverly, VA on July 13. He made no attempt to escape and was even uncertain where the closest Union forces were located. Nonetheless, he sent a courier to the Union commander, George McClellan, asking for surrender terms. In less than two months of combat, Pegram suffered the humiliation of being the first former U.S. Army officer captured during the war. His officers were irate and openly critical, the first but not last time this would happen.
The Rich Mountain Battlefield today:
Although all of his men were paroled immediately, Union officials were unable to decide how to handle Pegram, keeping him at Fortress Monroe for six months. Finally, in January 1862, Union officials exchanged Pegram for Colonel Orlando B. Willcox and paroled him in Baltimore. On parole, Pegram returned to Richmond in February. During his stay in Richmond, Pegram became romantically involved with the beautiful Hetty Cary. According to numerous sources, many besides John Pegram found the beautiful Miss Cary irresistible. Hetty was born in Baltimore, but her outspoken support of the Confederacy required her to leave in order to escape arrest as a sympathizer. Her stays in Richmond were well publicized and the attention paid her, especially by Confederate generals, was renowned. Despite the results in western Virginia, Pegram was still highly regarded, but there was a question as to his next assignment. He wanted a position in the Army of Northern Virginia and hoped for a generalship. But he was assigned to Pierre G.T. Beauregard and his western army, where he was needed as a military engineer. He was promoted to Colonel and left for Mississippi in July 1862. Before leaving for his new assignment, Pegram asked Hetty to marry him and she accepted. Mary Chestnut the famous Dixie diarist noted that, "She [Hetty] is engaged to General Pegram, who is promoted regularly after every one of his defeats. Shows what faith they have in him, a conspicuous mark of the confidence his superior officers have in his merits.”
Hetty Cary:
By the time Pegram arrived in Mississippi, Beauregard had been removed from command and Braxton Bragg had assumed command of the Army of Tennessee. However, Pegram did not serve as Chief Engineer for long; instead, he was assigned as Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith’s Chief of Staff and was in that role during the invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862. Smith failed to cooperate with Bragg and as a result, the whole affair turned out poorly for the Confederacy. Little is recorded about Pegram’s performance while serving as a staff officer, though he appears in much correspondence. However he must have done an acceptable job because he was promoted to Brigadier General on November 11, 1862. Pegram had long lobbied Smith for a line command, so when he was promoted to general, Smith assigned him to a small brigade of cavalry. It was composed, at various times, of the 1st Louisiana, 1st Georgia, 1st Florida, 1st and 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiments, the 16th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion and Huwald’s Tennessee Artillery Battalion. Initially, Pegram, John Hunt Morgan and Col. John S. Scott were the three cavalry brigade commanders in Kirby Smith’s cavalry force. Later, however, Scott’s Brigade was rolled under Pegram’s command. Serving under a variety of generals in the west, Pegram’s line assignments were neither happy nor successful. His efforts were marked by poor performance, controversy with subordinates as well as other brigadiers.
Edmund Kirby Smith:
At the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862, Pegram’s command was cited for poor intelligence gathering and slipshod performance. Brigadier General John Wharton, the only brigadier in Bragg’s army junior to Pegram, bluntly questioned Pegram’s ability to employ artillery effectively. His report clearly states that Pegram was unable to direct his battery at a critical moment of the battle. Interestingly, Pegram’s report of Stones River is missing. In early 1863, Pegram was directed to lead a cavalry raid into Kentucky. During that raid, Pegram had to deal with the discontent of two of his subordinates, Colonels Henry M. Ashby of the 1st Tennessee and John S. Scott of the 1st Louisiana. Scott in particular was a competent cavalry commander who did not seem to have any problem with previous or future commanders during the war. Both Scott and Ashby objected to Pegram’s tactical indecisiveness and both were outspoken in their criticism. The final skirmish of Pegram’s cavalry raid into Kentucky, on March 31, 1863 at Dutton’s Hill resulted in a numerically inferior Union force, outnumbered nearly 2 to1, defeating Pegram, even though the Confederate had an advantageous defensive position. That battle, near Somerset, Kentucky, generated greater personal animosity between Pegram and Scott, who each blamed the other for the Confederate defeat. In any event, Pegram lost several hundred men as prisoners as well as most of the cattle he had gathered on the raid to feed Bragg’s army.
Col. John Scott’s Final Review of the 1st Louisiana Cavalry at the end of the war:
A month later, in one of the ironies of the war, Pegram faced Brigadier General Orlando B. Willcox, the man for whom he had been exchanged the previous year, in a battle on May 1, 1863. Pegram’s Brigade was assigned to picket the Cumberland River and defend two northern Tennessee counties. Willcox was able to surprise Pegram and drive him back from the river. Pegram blamed the defeat on a lack of forage for his horses, along with the threat provided by eleven Union infantry regiments supporting Willcox. But Pegram’s superior in east Tennessee, Major General Dabney Maury, was appalled that Pegram had withdrawn and in a series of messages Maury cajoled, pleaded and ordered Pegram to regain the position. Maury was removed from command soon thereafter and his successor, Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner, also had no better luck with Pegram. He wrote scathing and tutorial like letters to Pegram, telling him in veiled language to get his act together. Buckner would counsel Pegram in two areas: personal relations with volunteers and improper logistics planning and execution. As the year progressed, Pegram assumed temporary command of east Tennessee when Buckner left for service with Bragg. Then his brigade became part of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command and Pegram would serve under that legendary cavalryman for several months. Pegram’s service with Forrest seems to have been largely uneventful. Forrest was well known for giving explicit orders and Pegram probably did not have to execute tactical judgments as he would have in a semi-independent command, such as during his raids or when stationed on picket duty along the Cumberland. Under Forrest he participated in the Battle of Chickamauga.
General Orlando Willcox, observing a cock fight:
It is not clear why Pegram’s personal relations with other officers were so poor. There are several possibilities. First, Pegram was an aristocratic member of the planter class and many of the volunteers in his commands were mountain people or farmers who had little in common with their slave-owning commander. That situation was true both in western Virginia and in the western armies. Second, Pegram was a West Pointer and former cavalry officer; he was used to the strict discipline and well trained troops of the regular army. Handling volunteers, and especially volunteer officers who resented West Pointers, did not come naturally to many regulars and perhaps Pegram was one of them. By early October he was ordered to Virginia and this transfer seems to have ended his problems with subordinates and contemporaries, perhaps his social standing and professional demeanor were more acceptable there. Pegram had many reasons for wanting to return to Virginia. Foremost among them was his fiancée, Hetty Cary. Upon returning east, Pegram was assigned to an infantry brigade in Jubal Early’s Division of Richard Ewell’s Second Corps. An all Virginia brigade composed of the 13th, 31st, 49th, 52nd and 58th Infantry regiments, Pegram could not have asked for a better assignment. Pegram assumed command in time to take part in the Mine Run Campaign but his unit was not engaged in any combat. At the start of the Overland Campaign in May 1864 he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Wilderness, on May 5, 1864. This wound disabled him for several months and he did not return to his command until August of 1864 near the end of Early’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign. In his first battle back at Third Winchester, his division commander, Robert Rodes was killed and Pegram assumed command of the division. Although he rose to command a division, with the responsibility of a major general, he was never promoted to that rank. He would command this division at the Battles of Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek that ended the Second Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Pegram’s reputation in Lee’s army was pretty good. Many accounts speak of his personal bravery, handsome appearance, cavalier demeanor and faithful piety. But even in Lee’s army there seems to have been a question of his ability. A careful reading of Henry Kyd Douglas’ war memoirs suggests this. Douglas rose from a position as a junior staff officer to Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson to command of the Stonewall Brigade in Pegram’s Division in the final months of the war. He was a close friend of Pegram’s but found fault with Pegram’s tactical handing of troops. Given the way the post-war veterans such as Lieutenant General John B. Gordon and Douglas wrote about their fallen comrades-in-arms in glowing terms, Douglas’ slight criticism is probably an indictment of Pegram’s abilities. Most former Confederates subjected only James Longstreet and other designated culprits to direct criticism. Pegram, the fallen cavalier was no culprit, still Douglas recorded a few incidents in his classic memoir I Rode with Stonewall that are less than flattering of Pegram. The first incident where Douglas criticized Pegram was at Cedar Creek in October 1864. Major General Philip Sheridan was in the midst of routing Early and the Confederate forces were retreating. Douglas and several hundred men formed a hasty defense in order to provide protection to the Confederate artillery and wagon train, parked close to their rear. Pegram came by, and using Douglas’ word, "unfortunately" ordered the men to the rear, thinking the position untenable. Douglas tried to fight with a few men, but was captured along with the artillery and trains. Cedar Creek marked the end of a disastrous campaign in the Valley and Pegram’s division was sent to rejoin Lee at Petersburg in December 1864. By this time, Lee’s army stretched from north of Richmond to south of Petersburg, where Pegram’s unit was assigned. Though the siege was hard duty, Pegram found more than enough time off to enjoy Virginia society and Miss Cary.
Henry Kyd Douglas:
In January, Pegram requested leave for "urgent business" and left his division to marry Hetty Cary on January 19, 1865. Douglas recalled, “One of the handsomest and most loveable men I ever knew wed to the handsomest woman in the Southland.” Hetty’s cousin Mrs. Burton Harrison recalled the gala event after the war:
Douglas in his memoirs also recalled the foreshadowing of doom at the ceremony recalling that when Hetty’s veil ripped as she entered the sanctuary that “the veil was nearly torn from her face as she approached the altar. A superstitious murmur passed through the immense congregation, but they went on to their fate.” Hetty and her mother accompanied Pegram back to his division that night and they honeymooned in a small farmhouse in Dinwiddie County that was serving as his headquarters.
An invitation to the wedding of John and Hetty:
On February 2, Pegram’s corps commander, James Gordon, perhaps in a move to raise morale, arranged a review of Pegram’s division and invited the new Mrs. Pegram as a guest. Many of the generals of the army attended, including Robert E. Lee. All wished to meet and greet the new Mrs. Pegram. Gordon, in true gentlemanly form, withdrew as the troops started to pass in review, leaving Mrs. Pegram alone with Lee to take the salute of the men who cheered the Baltimore beauty as they passed in review. Douglas recalled that she was “sitting [on] her horse like the Maid of France and smiling upon them with her marvelous beauty.” Two days later the Union forces began pressing the Confederates near Hatcher’s Run. Lieutenant General U.S. Grant was once more trying to stretch Lee’s defenses to the south to a breaking point. After a day of skirmishing, the Union forces had started to drive back the Confederates, who were then reinforced. On the evening of February 5, Pegram was given the mission of attacking to regain the lost ground. He spent the last night of his life talking to future novelist and author John Esten Cooke a member of his staff. Cooke recalled that Pegram seemed to think this would be his last battle.
Hetty Cary Pegram:
The next morning, Pegram placed Douglas’ brigade at the front and ordered him to probe the Union position near Dabney’s Steam Sawmill on Hatcher’s Run, which Pegram thought consisted only of cavalry. In reality it was the entire Union V Corps. As Douglas’s men stepped off toward battle, Pegram returned to his headquarters for a breakfast with his bride. Before they were finished, the sounds of the battle reached them. Pegram took leave of his wife and headed for the front, while she took an army ambulance into Petersburg to visit with her mother who was visiting friends there. Pegram arrived on the scene as his men attacked Union positions near the waste pile of sawdust from the mill that had become the vortex of the battle. Pegram in preparation for an attack on the sawmill, visited his skirmishers and gave his last order to Capt. Samuel Buck who commanded them. Pegram told Buck to have his riflemen, “conform to my movement” as the division passed through the front. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a Union sharpshooter’s round hit him square in the chest piercing his heart. Pegram crumpled momentarily in the saddle and Major John H. New of Pegram’s staff said that Pegram only managed to say, “I am badly—take me off the field.” Douglas remembered, “I jumped from my horse and caught him as he fell and with assistance took him from his horse. He died in my arms, almost as soon as he touched the ground.” His body was placed on a blanket and soldiers carried him to the rear where he was placed in an ambulance and carried back to his headquarters. Douglas had the body taken to his own personal room and laid out on his bed. As evening approached, Douglas and Gordon argued over who should break the news to Hetty, who was at that moment on her way back to headquarters with her mother. Hetty had only received one report during the day and that was early in the day, indicating her husband was in the thick of the fight but unharmed. Gordon said to Douglas, “You must do it Douglas.” But Douglas replied “Heavens! General—I’ll lead a forlorn hope—do anything that is war—but not that. Send Major New. He’s married and knows women; I don’t.” Douglas continued his recollection “an hour after [his argument with Gordon], as the General lay, dead, on my bed, I heard the ambulance pass outside the window, taking Mrs. Pegram back to their quarters. New had not seen her yet and she did not know; but her mother was with her. A fiancée of three years, a bride of three weeks, now a widow!” According to Hetty’s mother, no one told them of the general’s demise until the next morning.
Battlefield Marker at Hatcher’s Run:
General Gordon wrote in his memoirs that “In one of General Grant’s efforts to break through my lines, General John Pegram, one of the most accomplished commanders, fell, his blood reddening the white snow that carpeted the field.” The Richmond Whig in its edition two days later wrote, “Though unsuccessful early in the war, General Pegram had lately established an enviable reputation as a gallant soldier and an able efficient officer.” The aftermath of his death showed the depth of feeling for him. Lee’s wife sent a personal note as did the general. The general wrote:
Three weeks to the day after Pegram stood at the altar to wed Hetty, his casket was placed on the exact same spot where he said his vows in St. Paul’s. One of Robert E. Lee’s sons, Custis, accompanied Hetty Pegram at the funeral. All Richmond society mourned the fallen hero.
Mrs. Harrison who had so vividly recalled the wedding also recalled the funeral:
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, where Pegram’s wedding and funeral were held:
Less than two months after John’s funeral, his younger brother, Col. Willie Pegram, was killed at the Battle of Five Forks on April 2, 1865. That battle sealed the fate of Richmond and Petersburg. Jefferson Davis was attending services in St. Paul when the news arrived from Lee that he was forced to abandon Richmond and Petersburg due to defeat in that battle. The death sites of the two Pegram brothers are less than five miles from each other. They now lie buried side by side in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
John Pegram’s grave in Hollywood Cemetery:
[This message has been edited by BQ78 (edited 2/6/2009 9:26a).]
John Pegram:
John Pegram was born in Petersburg, Virginia on January 24, 1832. He was the oldest son of James West Pegram and his wife Virginia Johnson. John’s paternal grandfather had been a major general in the militia during the War of 1812 and was a second generation planter in Virginia. As one of twelve children and not being the oldest, James did not inherit the family plantation. He was therefore encouraged by his father to study law. In 1829, he married Virginia Johnson, the daughter of a wealthy planter and racehorse owner. The couple lived initially at Mr. Johnson’s plantation, but when James was offered the position of cashier at the Bank of Virginia’s Petersburg office, he readily accepted. Within a few years, the couple moved to Richmond, when James became president of the bank. Throughout his life, James continued the family’s longstanding tradition of public service, becoming an active Whig orator; and, sometime between 1830 and 1841, he was appointed a colonel and then brigadier general in the Virginia militia. By 1844, Virginia Pegram had given birth to five children, and James had accumulated sufficient capital to invest in plantations. In October 1844, James made a business trip to Mississippi to look over some potential investments. James was traveling on the steamboat Lucy Walker, named for the famous racehorse of the boat’s owner. It was heading down the Ohio River, when it stopped at Louisville where the owner of the boat challenged another steamboat at the city to a race to New Orleans. Leaving on October 23, the Lucy Walker ran into some mechanical trouble just 7 miles west of Louisville and stopped to make repairs. The boat was only on her second trip. The distracted crew was trying to make a hasty repair and allowed the water in the boilers to get too low. The boilers exploded killing 18 passengers, including James Pegram. The shock of James’ death left the family emotionally traumatized and financially reduced, though not ruined. Virginia moved her family back to her father’s plantation, but her father was having financially difficulties himself, so in a few years, Virginia took her family to Richmond and started a school for girls. The school remained open during the Civil War years and the income from the school and boarders at the house, allowed the Pegrams to live comfortably.
Virginia Pegram’s home and school at 106-108 Franklin Street in Richmond:
Based on John Pegram’s social status and the militia service of his father and grandfather, it was not surprising when John received an appointment to West Point in 1850. A good student, he adapted well to the military life. Pegram graduated 10th of 46 in the class of 1854, a class that included James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart. In the years following graduation, Pegram saw service in the cavalry as a second lieutenant of the 2nd Dragoons in the West, including California, Kansas and the Utah expedition against the Mormons. Most of this time was spent on staff duty as an adjutant of the 2nd Dragoons. He even briefly served as a cavalry instructor at West Point. He was given a leave of absence in 1858-9 to travel to Europe to observe the war between Italy and Austria. In 1860 he received orders for New Mexico but as he arrived there, the secession crisis began and he returned home when Virginia seceded, resigning his commission on May 10, 1861.
The Battle of Solferino in the War of Italian Unification of 1859. Pegram was a witness to this battle:
Pegram’s offered his services to Virginia and they were accepted, though for reasons unclear, negotiations about his rank and position took a few months. He finally accepted a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel in July 1861 and was assigned to command the 20th Virginia Infantry regiment and sent to the western part of the state, where Union forces were threatening to seize several counties. Pegram’s service in western Virginia was anything but glorious. Pegram’s command was part of Brigadier General Richard Garnett’s force. Pegram was not particularly well liked by his fellow Confederate officers, due to his arguing over seniority immediately upon arriving in western Virginia. Then, when tasked to defend a mountain pass in the Battle of Rich Mountain on July 11, 1861, Pegram permitted his unit to be flanked and cut off from Garnett’s main force. During the action he was thrown form his horse and injured. He was removed from the battlefield but retuned in time to be flanked by the Union forces. Lost in the mountains, hurting from his fall and unable to find Garnett, he was the victim of bad luck and his own poor leadership. Pegram’s reputation fell even further when he decided to unilaterally surrender his 554 man command. He made this decision while confined to bed due to his injury at Beverly, VA on July 13. He made no attempt to escape and was even uncertain where the closest Union forces were located. Nonetheless, he sent a courier to the Union commander, George McClellan, asking for surrender terms. In less than two months of combat, Pegram suffered the humiliation of being the first former U.S. Army officer captured during the war. His officers were irate and openly critical, the first but not last time this would happen.
The Rich Mountain Battlefield today:
Although all of his men were paroled immediately, Union officials were unable to decide how to handle Pegram, keeping him at Fortress Monroe for six months. Finally, in January 1862, Union officials exchanged Pegram for Colonel Orlando B. Willcox and paroled him in Baltimore. On parole, Pegram returned to Richmond in February. During his stay in Richmond, Pegram became romantically involved with the beautiful Hetty Cary. According to numerous sources, many besides John Pegram found the beautiful Miss Cary irresistible. Hetty was born in Baltimore, but her outspoken support of the Confederacy required her to leave in order to escape arrest as a sympathizer. Her stays in Richmond were well publicized and the attention paid her, especially by Confederate generals, was renowned. Despite the results in western Virginia, Pegram was still highly regarded, but there was a question as to his next assignment. He wanted a position in the Army of Northern Virginia and hoped for a generalship. But he was assigned to Pierre G.T. Beauregard and his western army, where he was needed as a military engineer. He was promoted to Colonel and left for Mississippi in July 1862. Before leaving for his new assignment, Pegram asked Hetty to marry him and she accepted. Mary Chestnut the famous Dixie diarist noted that, "She [Hetty] is engaged to General Pegram, who is promoted regularly after every one of his defeats. Shows what faith they have in him, a conspicuous mark of the confidence his superior officers have in his merits.”
Hetty Cary:
By the time Pegram arrived in Mississippi, Beauregard had been removed from command and Braxton Bragg had assumed command of the Army of Tennessee. However, Pegram did not serve as Chief Engineer for long; instead, he was assigned as Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith’s Chief of Staff and was in that role during the invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862. Smith failed to cooperate with Bragg and as a result, the whole affair turned out poorly for the Confederacy. Little is recorded about Pegram’s performance while serving as a staff officer, though he appears in much correspondence. However he must have done an acceptable job because he was promoted to Brigadier General on November 11, 1862. Pegram had long lobbied Smith for a line command, so when he was promoted to general, Smith assigned him to a small brigade of cavalry. It was composed, at various times, of the 1st Louisiana, 1st Georgia, 1st Florida, 1st and 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiments, the 16th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion and Huwald’s Tennessee Artillery Battalion. Initially, Pegram, John Hunt Morgan and Col. John S. Scott were the three cavalry brigade commanders in Kirby Smith’s cavalry force. Later, however, Scott’s Brigade was rolled under Pegram’s command. Serving under a variety of generals in the west, Pegram’s line assignments were neither happy nor successful. His efforts were marked by poor performance, controversy with subordinates as well as other brigadiers.
Edmund Kirby Smith:
At the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862, Pegram’s command was cited for poor intelligence gathering and slipshod performance. Brigadier General John Wharton, the only brigadier in Bragg’s army junior to Pegram, bluntly questioned Pegram’s ability to employ artillery effectively. His report clearly states that Pegram was unable to direct his battery at a critical moment of the battle. Interestingly, Pegram’s report of Stones River is missing. In early 1863, Pegram was directed to lead a cavalry raid into Kentucky. During that raid, Pegram had to deal with the discontent of two of his subordinates, Colonels Henry M. Ashby of the 1st Tennessee and John S. Scott of the 1st Louisiana. Scott in particular was a competent cavalry commander who did not seem to have any problem with previous or future commanders during the war. Both Scott and Ashby objected to Pegram’s tactical indecisiveness and both were outspoken in their criticism. The final skirmish of Pegram’s cavalry raid into Kentucky, on March 31, 1863 at Dutton’s Hill resulted in a numerically inferior Union force, outnumbered nearly 2 to1, defeating Pegram, even though the Confederate had an advantageous defensive position. That battle, near Somerset, Kentucky, generated greater personal animosity between Pegram and Scott, who each blamed the other for the Confederate defeat. In any event, Pegram lost several hundred men as prisoners as well as most of the cattle he had gathered on the raid to feed Bragg’s army.
Col. John Scott’s Final Review of the 1st Louisiana Cavalry at the end of the war:
A month later, in one of the ironies of the war, Pegram faced Brigadier General Orlando B. Willcox, the man for whom he had been exchanged the previous year, in a battle on May 1, 1863. Pegram’s Brigade was assigned to picket the Cumberland River and defend two northern Tennessee counties. Willcox was able to surprise Pegram and drive him back from the river. Pegram blamed the defeat on a lack of forage for his horses, along with the threat provided by eleven Union infantry regiments supporting Willcox. But Pegram’s superior in east Tennessee, Major General Dabney Maury, was appalled that Pegram had withdrawn and in a series of messages Maury cajoled, pleaded and ordered Pegram to regain the position. Maury was removed from command soon thereafter and his successor, Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner, also had no better luck with Pegram. He wrote scathing and tutorial like letters to Pegram, telling him in veiled language to get his act together. Buckner would counsel Pegram in two areas: personal relations with volunteers and improper logistics planning and execution. As the year progressed, Pegram assumed temporary command of east Tennessee when Buckner left for service with Bragg. Then his brigade became part of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command and Pegram would serve under that legendary cavalryman for several months. Pegram’s service with Forrest seems to have been largely uneventful. Forrest was well known for giving explicit orders and Pegram probably did not have to execute tactical judgments as he would have in a semi-independent command, such as during his raids or when stationed on picket duty along the Cumberland. Under Forrest he participated in the Battle of Chickamauga.
General Orlando Willcox, observing a cock fight:
It is not clear why Pegram’s personal relations with other officers were so poor. There are several possibilities. First, Pegram was an aristocratic member of the planter class and many of the volunteers in his commands were mountain people or farmers who had little in common with their slave-owning commander. That situation was true both in western Virginia and in the western armies. Second, Pegram was a West Pointer and former cavalry officer; he was used to the strict discipline and well trained troops of the regular army. Handling volunteers, and especially volunteer officers who resented West Pointers, did not come naturally to many regulars and perhaps Pegram was one of them. By early October he was ordered to Virginia and this transfer seems to have ended his problems with subordinates and contemporaries, perhaps his social standing and professional demeanor were more acceptable there. Pegram had many reasons for wanting to return to Virginia. Foremost among them was his fiancée, Hetty Cary. Upon returning east, Pegram was assigned to an infantry brigade in Jubal Early’s Division of Richard Ewell’s Second Corps. An all Virginia brigade composed of the 13th, 31st, 49th, 52nd and 58th Infantry regiments, Pegram could not have asked for a better assignment. Pegram assumed command in time to take part in the Mine Run Campaign but his unit was not engaged in any combat. At the start of the Overland Campaign in May 1864 he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Wilderness, on May 5, 1864. This wound disabled him for several months and he did not return to his command until August of 1864 near the end of Early’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign. In his first battle back at Third Winchester, his division commander, Robert Rodes was killed and Pegram assumed command of the division. Although he rose to command a division, with the responsibility of a major general, he was never promoted to that rank. He would command this division at the Battles of Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek that ended the Second Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Pegram’s reputation in Lee’s army was pretty good. Many accounts speak of his personal bravery, handsome appearance, cavalier demeanor and faithful piety. But even in Lee’s army there seems to have been a question of his ability. A careful reading of Henry Kyd Douglas’ war memoirs suggests this. Douglas rose from a position as a junior staff officer to Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson to command of the Stonewall Brigade in Pegram’s Division in the final months of the war. He was a close friend of Pegram’s but found fault with Pegram’s tactical handing of troops. Given the way the post-war veterans such as Lieutenant General John B. Gordon and Douglas wrote about their fallen comrades-in-arms in glowing terms, Douglas’ slight criticism is probably an indictment of Pegram’s abilities. Most former Confederates subjected only James Longstreet and other designated culprits to direct criticism. Pegram, the fallen cavalier was no culprit, still Douglas recorded a few incidents in his classic memoir I Rode with Stonewall that are less than flattering of Pegram. The first incident where Douglas criticized Pegram was at Cedar Creek in October 1864. Major General Philip Sheridan was in the midst of routing Early and the Confederate forces were retreating. Douglas and several hundred men formed a hasty defense in order to provide protection to the Confederate artillery and wagon train, parked close to their rear. Pegram came by, and using Douglas’ word, "unfortunately" ordered the men to the rear, thinking the position untenable. Douglas tried to fight with a few men, but was captured along with the artillery and trains. Cedar Creek marked the end of a disastrous campaign in the Valley and Pegram’s division was sent to rejoin Lee at Petersburg in December 1864. By this time, Lee’s army stretched from north of Richmond to south of Petersburg, where Pegram’s unit was assigned. Though the siege was hard duty, Pegram found more than enough time off to enjoy Virginia society and Miss Cary.
Henry Kyd Douglas:
In January, Pegram requested leave for "urgent business" and left his division to marry Hetty Cary on January 19, 1865. Douglas recalled, “One of the handsomest and most loveable men I ever knew wed to the handsomest woman in the Southland.” Hetty’s cousin Mrs. Burton Harrison recalled the gala event after the war:
quote:
The engagement of my cousin Hetty Cary to Brigadier- General John Pegram having been announced, their decision to be married on January 19 was a subject of active interest. My aunt, Mrs. Wilson Miles Cary, of Baltimore, had before Christmas obtained from Mr. Lincoln, through General Barnard (chief of the United States Engineer Corps, married to her adopted daughter), a pass to go to Richmond to visit her children. The presence of Mrs. Cary gave General Pegram opportunity to urge that his marriage should not be longer delayed, and such preparations as were possible were hurried on.
My aunt was stopping at the house of her niece, Mrs. Peyton, whence the ceremony took place. On the evening of January 19 all our little world flocked to St. Paul's Church to see the nuptials of one called by many the most beautiful woman in the South, with a son of Richmond universally honored and beloved.
Two days before, I being confined to my room with a cold, Hetty had come, bringing her bridal veil that I, with our mothers, might be the first to see it tried on her lovely crown of auburn hair. As she turned from the mirror to salute us with a charming blush and smile, the mirror fell and was broken to small fragments, an accident afterward spoken of by the superstitious as one of a strange series of ominous happenings.
While a congregation that crowded floor and galleries of the church waited an unusually long time for the arrival of bride and groom, my aunt and the other members of our family being already in their seats, I stood in the vestibule outside with Burton Harrison and Colonel L. Q. C. Lamar, speculating rather uneasily upon the cause of the delay. Mr. Harrison told us that Mrs. Davis (who tenderly loved and admired the bride) had begged to be allowed to send the President's carriage to drive her to the church, and he was sure it had been in prompt attendance at Colonel Peyton's door. Directly after, a shabby old Richmond hack drove up, halting before the church, and from it issued the bride and groom, looking a little perturbed, explaining that at the moment of setting out the President's horses had reared violently, refusing to go forward, and could not be controlled, so that they had been forced to get out of the carriage and send for another vehicle, at that date almost impossible to secure in Richmond.
When the noble-looking young couple crossed the threshold of the church, my cousin dropped her lace handkerchief and, nobody perceiving it, stooped forward to pick it up, tearing the tulle veil over her face to almost its full length, then, regaining herself, walked with a slow and stately step toward the altar. As she passed there was a murmur of delight at her beauty, never more striking. Her complexion of pearly white, the vivid roses on her cheeks and lips, the sheen of her radiant hair, and the happy gleam of her beautiful brown eyes seemed to defy all sorrow, change, or fear. John Pegram, handsome and erect, looked as he felt, triumphant, the prize-winner - so the men called him - of the invincible beauty of her day. Miss Cary's brother, Captain Wilson Miles Cary, representing her absent father, gave away the bride. After the ceremony we, her nearest, crowded around the couple, wishing them the best happiness our loving hearts could picture.
General Pegram's mother, brothers, and sisters did the same; then, as they passed out, all eyes followed them with real kindness and unalloyed good feeling. There was but a small reception afterward, but one felt in the atmosphere a sense of sincere gladness in happy love, very rare on such occasions.
Douglas in his memoirs also recalled the foreshadowing of doom at the ceremony recalling that when Hetty’s veil ripped as she entered the sanctuary that “the veil was nearly torn from her face as she approached the altar. A superstitious murmur passed through the immense congregation, but they went on to their fate.” Hetty and her mother accompanied Pegram back to his division that night and they honeymooned in a small farmhouse in Dinwiddie County that was serving as his headquarters.
An invitation to the wedding of John and Hetty:
On February 2, Pegram’s corps commander, James Gordon, perhaps in a move to raise morale, arranged a review of Pegram’s division and invited the new Mrs. Pegram as a guest. Many of the generals of the army attended, including Robert E. Lee. All wished to meet and greet the new Mrs. Pegram. Gordon, in true gentlemanly form, withdrew as the troops started to pass in review, leaving Mrs. Pegram alone with Lee to take the salute of the men who cheered the Baltimore beauty as they passed in review. Douglas recalled that she was “sitting [on] her horse like the Maid of France and smiling upon them with her marvelous beauty.” Two days later the Union forces began pressing the Confederates near Hatcher’s Run. Lieutenant General U.S. Grant was once more trying to stretch Lee’s defenses to the south to a breaking point. After a day of skirmishing, the Union forces had started to drive back the Confederates, who were then reinforced. On the evening of February 5, Pegram was given the mission of attacking to regain the lost ground. He spent the last night of his life talking to future novelist and author John Esten Cooke a member of his staff. Cooke recalled that Pegram seemed to think this would be his last battle.
Hetty Cary Pegram:
The next morning, Pegram placed Douglas’ brigade at the front and ordered him to probe the Union position near Dabney’s Steam Sawmill on Hatcher’s Run, which Pegram thought consisted only of cavalry. In reality it was the entire Union V Corps. As Douglas’s men stepped off toward battle, Pegram returned to his headquarters for a breakfast with his bride. Before they were finished, the sounds of the battle reached them. Pegram took leave of his wife and headed for the front, while she took an army ambulance into Petersburg to visit with her mother who was visiting friends there. Pegram arrived on the scene as his men attacked Union positions near the waste pile of sawdust from the mill that had become the vortex of the battle. Pegram in preparation for an attack on the sawmill, visited his skirmishers and gave his last order to Capt. Samuel Buck who commanded them. Pegram told Buck to have his riflemen, “conform to my movement” as the division passed through the front. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a Union sharpshooter’s round hit him square in the chest piercing his heart. Pegram crumpled momentarily in the saddle and Major John H. New of Pegram’s staff said that Pegram only managed to say, “I am badly—take me off the field.” Douglas remembered, “I jumped from my horse and caught him as he fell and with assistance took him from his horse. He died in my arms, almost as soon as he touched the ground.” His body was placed on a blanket and soldiers carried him to the rear where he was placed in an ambulance and carried back to his headquarters. Douglas had the body taken to his own personal room and laid out on his bed. As evening approached, Douglas and Gordon argued over who should break the news to Hetty, who was at that moment on her way back to headquarters with her mother. Hetty had only received one report during the day and that was early in the day, indicating her husband was in the thick of the fight but unharmed. Gordon said to Douglas, “You must do it Douglas.” But Douglas replied “Heavens! General—I’ll lead a forlorn hope—do anything that is war—but not that. Send Major New. He’s married and knows women; I don’t.” Douglas continued his recollection “an hour after [his argument with Gordon], as the General lay, dead, on my bed, I heard the ambulance pass outside the window, taking Mrs. Pegram back to their quarters. New had not seen her yet and she did not know; but her mother was with her. A fiancée of three years, a bride of three weeks, now a widow!” According to Hetty’s mother, no one told them of the general’s demise until the next morning.
Battlefield Marker at Hatcher’s Run:
General Gordon wrote in his memoirs that “In one of General Grant’s efforts to break through my lines, General John Pegram, one of the most accomplished commanders, fell, his blood reddening the white snow that carpeted the field.” The Richmond Whig in its edition two days later wrote, “Though unsuccessful early in the war, General Pegram had lately established an enviable reputation as a gallant soldier and an able efficient officer.” The aftermath of his death showed the depth of feeling for him. Lee’s wife sent a personal note as did the general. The general wrote:
quote:
My dear Mrs Pegram
I cannot find words to express my deep sympathy in your affliction, my sorrow at your loss. God alone can give you strength to bear the blow he has inflicted, and since it has been death by his hand I know it was sent in mercy. As dear as your husband was to you, as necessary apparently to his Country and as important to his friends, I feel assured it was best for him to go at the moment he did. His purity of character, his services to the Country and his devotion to his God, prepared him for the peace and rest he now enjoys. We are left to grieve at his departure, cherish his memory and prepare to follow. May God give us his Grace, that through the mediation of his blessed Son, we may be ready to obey his gracious Summons.
Truly and affy your friend
R E Lee
Petersburg 11 Feb '65
Mrs Hetty Pegram
Three weeks to the day after Pegram stood at the altar to wed Hetty, his casket was placed on the exact same spot where he said his vows in St. Paul’s. One of Robert E. Lee’s sons, Custis, accompanied Hetty Pegram at the funeral. All Richmond society mourned the fallen hero.
Mrs. Harrison who had so vividly recalled the wedding also recalled the funeral:
quote:
General Pegram's coffin, crossed with a victor's palms beside his soldier's accoutrements, occupied the spot in the chancel where he had stood to be married. Beside it knelt his widow swathed in crape. Again Dr. Minnegerode conducted the ceremony, again the church was full. Behind the hearse, waiting outside, stood his war charger, with boots in stirrups. The wailing of the band that went with us on the slow pilgrimage to Hollywood will never die out of memory.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, where Pegram’s wedding and funeral were held:
Less than two months after John’s funeral, his younger brother, Col. Willie Pegram, was killed at the Battle of Five Forks on April 2, 1865. That battle sealed the fate of Richmond and Petersburg. Jefferson Davis was attending services in St. Paul when the news arrived from Lee that he was forced to abandon Richmond and Petersburg due to defeat in that battle. The death sites of the two Pegram brothers are less than five miles from each other. They now lie buried side by side in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
John Pegram’s grave in Hollywood Cemetery:
[This message has been edited by BQ78 (edited 2/6/2009 9:26a).]
