Letter from Atkinson Pelham to J.E.B. Stuart, April 4th, 1863
Will Gen. J.E.B. Stuart please accept a trifling present from a berieved [sic] and afflicted family? A friend intended the enclosed Buttons as a present to our much lamented son John Pelham. 1 I intended to have sent to him about this time. They are of no intrinsic value; I know of no one to whom he felt more indebted for kindness & friendship than yourself.
Accept the gratitude of myself & family for your kind & disinterested attentions to our lamented boy. May you be long & safely shielded & protected in this horrible war is the fervent & sincere wish of your friend & humble Servt.
A. Pelham
1 In a letter from J.E.B. Stuart to his wife, undated, he writes: "I send you to keep for me the sleeve buttons and studs sent me by Mr. Pelham -- they were made originally for him [Pelham] but he was killed before they were sent thereupon his friends agreed that I should have them. I enclose his letter...the sleeve buttons are very pretty -- show them at Dundee." Dundee was the Price home in Hanover County. This letter is in the Virginia Historical Society Col¬lections, Richmond, Virginia.
This article first appeared in Volume 2, No. 3 of The Cannoneer.
