Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton (CSA)

William Nelson Pendleton BIRTH 26 Dec 1809 Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia, USA DEATH 15 Jan 1883 (aged 73) Lexington, Lexington City, Virginia, USA BURIAL Oak Grove Cemetery Lexington, Lexington City, Virginia

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_N._Pendleton

William Nelson Pendleton (December 26, 1809 – January 15, 1883) was an American teacher, Episcopal priest, and soldier. He served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, noted for his position as Gen. Robert E. Lee's chief of artillery for most of the conflict. After the war Pendleton returned to the priesthood and became a religious writer.

William Nelson Pendleton was born in 1809 in Richmond, Virginia. He grew up there on the plantation belonging to his parents, Edmund Pendleton and his wife Lucy (Nelson) Pendleton. His primary education came from private tutors and from attending John Nelson's School located in Richmond. Pendleton's family arranged for his older brother (Francis Walker Pendleton) to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, but when Francis expressed little military interest William went in his place. He entered West point in 1826 and graduated four years later, standing 5th out of 42 cadets.

Among Pendleton's classmates at West Point were future Confederate generals Joseph E. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and John B. Magruder (with whom he was roommates) as well as future statesman Jefferson Davis. He was appointed a brevet second lieutenant in the United States Army on July 1, 1830. That same day Pendleton was assigned to the 2nd U.S. Artillery as a full second lieutenant. His regiment was ordered to Fort Moultrie defending the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, but that fall Pendleton fell sick with malaria and was re-assigned to the arsenal in Augusta, Georgia to restore his health. On July 15, 1831, he married Anzolette Elizabeth Page, and they would have four children together. His only son, Alexander Swift "Sandie" Pendleton, would also serve the Confederacy as an aide to generals Stonewall Jackson, Richard Ewell, and Jubal Early and was mortally wounded during the Battle of Fisher's Hill in September, 1864. His daughter Susan would marry future Confederate general Edwin G. Lee on November 16, 1856.

Pendleton returned to West Point in 1831 to teach mathematics, and on October 27, 1832, he was transferred to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He resigned his U.S. Army commission a year later on October 31, 1833, reportedly due to the issue of nullification in his home state. In 1833 Pendleton joined the faculty at Bristol College in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, teaching mathematics. In 1837 he began serving in the same capacity at Newark College in Delaware. That same year Pendleton was ordained an Episcopal priest in the state of Pennsylvania, and in 1840 he began teaching at the Episcopal Boy's High School in Wilmington, Delaware. Three years later he relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1847 he gave up teaching and served as rector of All Saints' Church. In 1853 Pendleton returned to Virginia and became rector of Grace Church in Lexington, and was there when the American Civil War began.

When the American Civil War commenced in 1861, Pendleton chose to follow the Confederate cause. On March 16 he entered the Regular Confederate Artillery with the rank of captain, and on May 1 he was elected captain in the Virginia Artillery. He commanded a four-gun battery called the Rockbridge Artillery, naming his guns "Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John" after the Gospel writers. On July 2 Pendleton participated in the minor Battle of Falling Waters, where "he and his battery performed capably." On July 13, Pendleton was promoted to colonel and began serving as chief of artillery for Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's command during the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21. He was wounded in this fight, injured in an ear and his back.

Beginning in July 1861 Pendleton lead the artillery of the Confederate Army of the Potomac, and on March 14, 1862, he continued in this role after the renaming to the Army of Northern Virginia. On March 26 he was promoted to brigadier general. On July 3 Pendleton was again wounded when a mule from his artillery kicked him in the leg and possibly breaking one of his bones there. His most noted Civil War performance occurred during the 1862 Maryland Campaign. On the evening September 19 Lee gave Pendleton command of the rearguard infantry following the Battle of Shepherdstown, ordering him to hold the Potomac River crossings until the morning. Despite a commanding position from which to defend the fords, "Pendleton lost track of his forces and lost control of the situation." Awaking Lee after midnight, he frantically reported his position lost and all of his guns captured. This turned out to be a highly exaggerated and hasty account, as he lost only four guns, but he had pulled out the infantry "without sufficient cause." Richmond newspapers viciously reported on this incident for the remainder of the war, and unflattering rumors and jokes were spread by his own soldiers and throughout the army. At least one military court of inquiry was held to investigate Pendleton's actions at Shepherdstown.

Pendleton served with the Army of Northern Virginia for the rest of the conflict, taking part in the 1863 and 1864 major campaigns of the Eastern Theater. However during the final two years of the war, Pendleton's role was mostly administrative, and his active command was only of the reserve ordnance. Throughout the war, he continues in his religious calling, always preaching to his men. Pendleton surrendered with Lee's army at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, and was paroled from there and returned home.

After the war, Pendleton returned to Lexington and his rectorship of Grace Church, which he would hold for the rest of his life. There in Lexington, Virginia, he retained a strong friendship with Matthew Fontaine Maury, Francis Henney Smith, and Robert E. Lee, and played a significant role in persuading his former commander to move to Lexington himself to take up the presidency of the institution that was to become Washington and Lee University. Lee, in turn, became one of Pendleton's parishioners, and Lee's last public transaction in 1870 was at a Grace Church vestry meeting in which Lee led a group of church leaders in a mutual pledge to increase Pendleton's salary.(Source: Joseph William Jones' [former C.S.A.] "Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee.") Pendleton remained in Lexington until his death in 1883, and is buried in the city's Grace Church Cemetery.

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Pendleton_William_Nelson_1809-...

William Nelson Pendleton was an Episcopal priest and chief of artillery for the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865). No Confederate officer in the East generated less heat on the battlefield and more away from it than Pendleton. As Robert E. Lee's chief of artillery, he was responsible for hundreds of guns and thousands of cannoneers, but he never fully utilized the potential of the army's "long arm" in battlefield to merit his high standing. Pendleton's efforts usually resulted in controversy, the most scandalous occurring when he abandoned his command at the Battle of Shepherdstown on September 19, 1862. Yet Pendleton did make a few important contributions in reorganizing the artillery into the more efficient and effective battalion system that enabled battery commanders to maximize their limited firepower. Pendleton was also a man of the cloth and his attention to the spiritual needs of the rank-and-file must have endeared him to the pious Lee.

Pendleton was born on December 26, 1809, in Richmond, Virginia, spending his youth on a nearby plantation where he was educated by private tutors. In 1826 he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and formed close friendships with Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis before graduating fifth in his class four years later. He received a second lieutenant's commission in the Fourth Regiment of Artillery, an assignment that took him at various times to forts Moultrie, Hamilton, and Monroe, before he resigned on October 31, 1833. A religious awakening caused Pendleton to exchange the sword for the cloth, and four years after leaving the army he became an ordained Episcopal priest. He then shuttled among a number of colleges and private schools until 1853, when he finally settled at Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia, in a position he occupied until his death.

Shortly after Virginia passed its Ordinance of Secession Pendleton was elected, on May 1, 1861, to the captaincy of the Rockbridge Artillery, a Lexington-based unit composed of four guns that Pendleton aptly named after the early Christian figures Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Promotion quickly followed, and on July 13, 1861, Joseph E. Johnston confirmed Davis's recommendation and named Pendleton his chief of artillery at the rank of colonel. Despite rumors of cowardice at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, Pendleton was retained as Johnston's artillery commander, receiving a brigadier general's commission on March 26, 1862. In a debacle at Shepherdstown, Virginia, Pendleton—who was defending the army's rear guard as it retreated across the Potomac after the Battle of Antietam—nearly lost thirty-three cannon to a minor Union attack. Pendleton fled the scene, leaving his troops to fend for themselves. The fallout from his questionable behavior consumed the army in public controversy. One of his subordinates wrote in a Richmond newspaper, "By the way Pendleton is Lee's weakness. Pn is like the elephant, we have him & we don't know what on earth to do with him, and it costs a devil of a sight to feed him."

It is somewhat mystifying why Lee would retain Pendleton in such an important role as chief of artillery when that branch of service was extraordinarily disadvantaged in both ordnance and arms in comparison to its Union counterparts. Pendleton probably avoided a humiliating transfer or dismissal because of his close ties to President Davis and Lee's kindly feelings toward his old friend. Still, knowing people in high places did not alone save Pendleton. He was a useful administrator away from the battlefield and an energetic promoter of Christianity in camp. Even these achievements, however, could not change public perceptions. The soldiers made him a frequent target of ridicule, expressing their low regard for Pendleton in the nickname "Old Mother Pendleton."

After Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, Pendleton returned to his parish in Lexington, where he helped persuade Lee to accept the presidency of Washington College (later Washington and Lee University). For the next five years, the two men worked together on a variety of church and educational matters. When Lee died in 1870, Pendleton spoke at his funeral and then spent the remainder of his life canonizing his former superior. As a sidekick of the influential Jubal A. Early, Pendleton joined other ex-Confederates in advancing a Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War, often at the expense of others. For instance, Pendleton horribly distorted former Confederate general James Longstreet's performance at the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), in part to protect Lee from blame for the defeat. Carrying the shield of a Lost Cause crusader protected Pendleton from tough questions about his own spotty record in the Army of Northern Virginia. He died on January 15, 1883, and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery, next to his son Alexander Swift "Sandie" Pendleton, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's famous staff officer.

Time Line

December 26, 1809 - William Nelson Pendleton is born on a plantation near Richmond.

1826 - William Nelson Pendleton enters the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, soon becoming close friends with Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

1830 - William Nelson Pendleton graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, finishing fifth out of a class of forty-two cadets.

1830 - William Nelson Pendleton enters the U.S. Army as a 2nd lieutenant in the artillery.

1833 - William Nelson Pendleton resigns from the Regular Army.

1837 - William Nelson Pendleton is ordained as an Episcopal priest.

1853 - William Nelson Pendleton moves to Lexington, where he becomes the rector of Grace Episcopal Church.

May 1, 1861 - William Nelson Pendleton is elected captain of the Rockbridge Artillery.

July 13, 1861 - William Nelson Pendleton is promoted to colonel and assigned to the staff of Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston as chief of artillery.

March 26, 1862 - William Nelson Pendleton is promoted to brigadier general, a rank that he held for the remainder of the war.

September 16, 1862 - Confederate reserve artillery under William Nelson Pendleton protects Boteler's Ford near Shepherdstown. If Confederate general Robert E. Lee were forced to retreat from his invasion of the North, this would be his only route south across the Potomac River.

September 19, 1862 - Confederate general William Nelson Pendleton nearly loses the Army of Northern Virginia's Reserve Artillery to a Union attack at the Battle of Shepherdstown.

October–December, 1862 - Confederate general William Nelson Pendleton helps reorganize the Army of Northern Virginia's artillery into a battalion system.

April 9, 1865 - Along with Confederate generals James Longstreet and John B. Gordon, William Nelson Pendleton helps arrange the details for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.

1868 - William Nelson Pendleton receives the degree of doctor of divinity.

January 15, 1883 - William Nelson Pendleton dies in Lexington.