"Gallant" Pelham
Anyone who has undertaken even casual reading on the subject of "the gallant Pelham" will have realized that very few points have not, at some time, somewhere, been contradicted in print. This holds true for some matters that might be declared established, insofar as anything pertaining to persons and events of a century and more ago may be so declared. There is no reason to question, for instance, his native state, yet one Pulitzer Prize-winning author referred to Pelham as "the slim and beaming Virginian." Such lapses may be either amusing or annoying, depending on the state of mind of the reader at the time. Schooled to expect such (and more credible) variations, then, the reader may find almost monotonous the reiteration of one immutable "fact," in volume after volume, viz: General Robert E. Lee attached the adjective "gallant" to Pelham's name when reporting on the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Army and the public, struck by the unusual gesture, or the aptness of the connotation and denotation (not to mention the pleasing metre), adopted the appellation.
That this "fact" has been accepted is remarkable in an era of debunkers, when a morsel of evidence with which to question the taIe has long existed: John Esten Cooke's popular poem, "The Song of the Rebel." Published in The Southern Illustrated News on January 24, 1863, it was dated December 1, 1862. InternaI evidence tends to substantiate its authorship prior to the Battle of Fredericksburg, fought on December 13, 1862.
Among the poem's "nobIe band" of defenders of the South are listed "Gregg" and "Cobb," presumably Maxcey Gregg and Tom Cobb, generals both of whom were killed in the battle. Certainly, Cooke was notoriously careless in his writing, but to include two recently slain generals among current defenders of the South would have marked new levels of obtuseness. (Cooke, however, could not forbear devoting no less than two verses to Turner Ashby, killed June 6, 1862, but, distinctly, as a "phantom," whose spirit remained to inspire the Army.) Further on in the poem, he named some of the Army's distinguished artillerists, including, of course, '" gallant Pe lham, , of youthful, modes t mein" [sic].
The description is, of course, not unusual. Noteworthy, however, is the use of inverted commas, not applied to the numerous other adjectives in the poem.
One cannot altogether discount the possibility, though, that the poem was written following the Battle of Fredericksburg, that the sobriquet was excerpted from Lee's official report, and "the gallant Pelham" was given as a quotation in Cooke's poem. Writing in April 1863 Cooke recorded that "the great Commander-in-Chief...gave him the name in his report of 'the gallant Pelham'." The verb implies, if it does not state, that the name had its origin there. The phrase remained intact when Cooke rewrote the piece in June 1865.
That Lee used the adjective "gallant" in referring to Pelham is easily verifiable (O.R., Vol. XXI, p. 547). If Lee knowingly applied an adjective connected with Pelham by popular usage, he not only acknowledged his awareness of its currency, but in effect gave it his official endorsement.
If the name did not begin with Lee's report, where did it originate? Stuart had employed it, without quotes , in much earlier official reports where Lee, at least, and possibly Cooke would have seen it; but how would it have circulated? In "The Song of the Rebel," Cooke may have been propagating an embellishment or he may have been creating one. Either way, "the gallant Pelham" was now a popular usage, and it was used in Stuart's General Orders No.9 and in Henry Kyd Douglas' diary memorandum of March 19, 1863.
As well to ask, "Whence 'Stonewall' Jackson?" Folklore has a life of its own, which will not be denied. Dur ing his Iifetime John Pelham became "gallant Pelham." The "when" and "how" are a curiosity; that they have not been challenged, when the record is replete with questions and errors, is ironic. Any answers only enhance the reputation of the man so honored.
This article first appeared in Volume 4, No. 6 of The Cannoneer.
Source:
John Esten Cooke, "The Song of the Rebel," ed. by Richard Harwell,
The Confederate Museum, Richmond, n.d. [1956].
John Esten Cooke, Outlines from the Outpost, ed. by Richard Harwell,
Chicago, R. R. Donnelly & Sons, 1961.
Douglas S. Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants, Vol. 2.
Charles G. Milham, Gallant Pelham: American Extraord inary.
John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray.
Jay Monaghan, Custer: The Life of General George Armstrong Custer (Lincoln,
Neb., Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1971, pp. 15, 25).
Henry Kyd Douglas, I Rode with Stonewall.
