Booknotes: Glorious Courage

New Arrival:

• Glorious Courage: John Pelham in the Civil War by Sarah Kay Bierle (Savas Beatie, 2025).

Major John Pelham had numerous things going for him on his path to legendary status among Civil War artillerymen. In Pelham, youth and high bravery were complemented with great leadership and competence, the combination drawing the personal attention and approbation of Lee himself. He was the Confederate Army's premier handler of horse artillery, and in commanding the long arm of Jeb Stuart's cavalry there was never a lack of visibility. Being mortally wounded in battle during the peak period of the Army of Northern Virginia's dominance of the eastern theater (in a reckless charge at Kelly's Ford in March 1863) further cemented Pelham's place among the Confederacy's most celebrated military martyrs.

From the description: "“It is glorious to see such courage in one so young!” So declared Confederate General Robert E. Lee on December 13, 1862, during the battle of Fredericksburg as he watched Major John Pelham fight at least five Union batteries with just one lone gun. The dashing and handsome 24-year-old Alabama officer earned the compliments and admiration of his men, the war gods of Virginia (Lee, Jackson, and Stuart), and Southern society—all while helping transform the concept of horse artillery on Civil War battlefields across Virginia and Maryland."

Sarah Kay Bierle's Glorious Courage: John Pelham in the Civil War, part of the Emerging Civil War series, "reconsiders Pelham’s extraordinary, if short, life." Her biography explores his battlefield greatness as well as his flaws. The resulting portrait frames Pelham's "place in history as he lived it, not varnished with the perspectives shoved upon him by later generations."

The book is a cradle to grave biography that covers Pelham's early life, his West Point education, his Civil War activities, and his historical memory. As we've come to expect from ECW titles in general, copious photographs and other illustrations pack the volume along with eight maps tracing Pelham's campaign and battlefield exploits. Other aspects of Pelham's life and Civil War career, such as his relationships with women, his parallels with G.A. Custer, and the CVBT's preservation efforts at "Pelham's Corner" (Fredericksburg), are explored in the appendix section.