WILLIAM D. PENDER.
[WILLIAM D. PENDER.]
BY W. A. MONTGOMERY.
Among the glorious number of heroic spirits who laid down their lives for this pre-doomed undertaking [the secession of the Confederate States] not one was more conspicuous for courage and loyalty, and but few, if any, for skill and leadership, than the subject of this sketch, General William Dorsey Pender. He was born in Edgecombe county, N. C., on the 6th of February, 1834, at the country home of his father, James Pender, Esq. His paternal ancestry is of ancient English stock, the name being as old as English history itself. The first of the family to come to America was Edwin, who, in the reign of Charles II., settled near Norfolk, Virginia. A descendant of the same name, grandfather of General Pender, removed from Norfolk to Edgecombe, on Town Creek, where he owned and died possessed of large landed interests and slaves. On one of these plantations, inherited by his father, General Pender was born. His mother was Sarah Routh, a sister of the mother of the late Hon. R. R. Bridgers, and the daughter of William Routh, Esq., of Tidewater, Virginia.
General Pender lived where he was born until he was fifteen years of age, when he entered, as a clerk, the store of his brother, Mr. Robert D. Pender, in Tarboro. This employment was distasteful to him from the first. The martial spirit was already strongly developed in him, and the opportunity soon presented itself for him to begin a military education and training. He entered the Military Academy at West Point as a cadet on the first of July, 1850, having been recommended as a suitable candidate by the Hon. Thomas Ruffin, who was then the member of Congress from his district. The friendship of Mr. R. R. Bridgers, which lasted through life, procured for him the appointment. He was graduated in 1854, standing nineteenth in his class. In this class were G. W. Custis Lee, Stephen D. Lee, J. E. B. Stuart and other distinguished military men. As cadet he was modest and unassuming in his intercourse with his fellows, respectful to his instructors and tractable to the discipline of the institution. Upon his graduation he was assigned to the First Artillery as Brevet Second Lieutenant and the same year was made Second Lieutenant of the Second Artillery. In the year 1855 he was transferred, at his own request, to the First Regiment of Dragoons, and in 1858 was promoted to a first lieutenancy. From the time he entered the dragoons he saw service in the field in all its phases, camp, frontier, and scouting; fighting in New Mexico, California, Washington and Oregon. He was engaged in many skirmishes, and in as many as three battles with the Indians—one of the engagements being with the Apaches at Amalgré Mountain, on March 20, 1856; another at the Four Lakes, September 1, 1858, and the other on the Spokane Plains, September 3, 1858. He took a conspicuous part in these engagements, and was mentioned with credit in the reports of them. Lieutenant Lawrence Kip, in his Army Life on the Pacific, narrates the following incident which occurred at the battle of Spokane Plains: "Lieutenant Pender, while in the woods, returning from the rear, where he had been on duty connected with ordering up the balance of the troops, was suddenly attacked by an Indian chief. To his dismay, the Lieutenant discovered that his sabre had become entangled in the scabbard and would not draw. Quick as thought one hand grasped the savage's arm, the other his neck, and in this manner, hugging him close and galloping into ranks, he lifted him from his horse and hurled him back among the men, who soon dispatched him." He was made Adjutant of the First Dragoons November 8, 1860, and served with that rank, with the headquarters at San Francisco, until January 31, 1861, when he was detached and ordered to report at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on recruiting service.
On the 3d of March, 1859, he had married Miss Mary Frances Shepperd, daughter of the Hon. Augustine H. Shepperd, at Good Spring, the country-seat of the bride's father, near Salem, North Carolina. Shortly after the marriage he returned to his command, then in Washington Territory, his wife accompanying him and remaining with him until they returned to the east, arriving at Washington in the latter part of February, 1861. There they remained a few days, and on the 3d of March, the day before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, they left for North Carolina. This short stay at Washington at this juncture was a crisis in the young officer's life. He had seen a sectional feeling arise in the army. He now found the people divided. The Confederate Government was already established; troops had been organized and drilled in the South and Fort Sumter invested. He was perplexed as to what he ought to do; whether to continue in the service of the United States or resign his commission; for in case of war he could not take part against the South, and this would be required of him if he held his commission in the army. He became satisfied, after considering carefully the situation and observing closely the tendency of affairs, that war was inevitable, and from his knowledge of the character and temper of the two sections he knew the war would be a terrible one. He determined to cast his lot with his people of the South, and on the 21st of March resigned his commission in the army, and immediately offered his services to the Confederate Government at Montgomery. He was appointed captain in the artillery service of the provisional army, but was shortly afterwards sent by the government to Baltimore to take charge of the Confederate recruiting depot at that place.
The time has passed when the motives of the men who resigned their commissions in the armies of the United States and took service afterwards in the Confederate armies can be impugned. Impartial history has pronounced their conduct natural, consistent, and sincere. In this connection it is interesting to recall a sentence from the memorable address of Mr. Edmunds in the United States Senate in 1883, on the life and character of Senator B. H. Hill: "The notion of fidelity to one's own State, whether her cause be thought wise and right or not, is almost a natural instinct; and whether it be defensible on broad grounds or not, who does not sympathize with it?"
In the first week of May, 1861, when North Carolina began to organize her volunteer troops, Captain Pender returned and entered her service at the "Old Fair Grounds," near Raleigh, Governor Ellis appointing him to drill and instruct the officers of the companies of the First Regiment—the Bethel Regiment. After that regiment was dispatched to Virginia he was assigned to duty as Commandant of the Camp of Instruction at Garysburg, and, upon the formation there of the Third Regiment of Volunteers, was elected its colonel on the 16th of May, 1861. At this time he was twenty-seven years old, about five feet ten inches in height, well formed and straight; graceful in his carriage; with large, lustrous, dark eyes, dark-brown hair, an olive complexion, head almost faultless in shape, a mouth clear cut, and lips firmly compressed, and a voice soft, low, and distinct. The combined dignity and ease of his manner charmed all who came about him. The sweet modesty of his unassuming bearing was so striking that it won all to him; and this characteristic is always mentioned, even now, by those who knew him, as one of his most attractive charms; and it underwent no diminution in after years when he had won such distinguished military honors. His modest and unassuming character was not always understood by those who did not know him well. The following is an instance: He had fought more than half a dozen pitched battles under General Jackson before the two ever met socially. One day General Jackson said to Major Avery, who was well acquainted with them both: "What sort of a man is General Pender? I'm embarrassed at his never having been to see me. I know he is a fine soldier, gallant and skillful on the field, and his troops are well disciplined. I never fail to be impressed with his camps; they are always clean, orderly and comfortable. I've made it a rule, though, never to recommend an officer for promotion unless I have a personal and social acquaintance with him, and this will some day embarrass me."
However, from the beginning of his career to the end of it he knew the value of discipline, and though of a kind and gentle disposition he was firm in the management of his men. Throughout the entire period of his service the camps of his troops always showed the marks of order and system and the men the effects of training and discipline.