Lee's shattered brigades, somewhat gotten together after the fights around Richmond, commenced the Maryland campaign. It was begun to get rid of McClellan around Richmond, and also to strike General Pope, who was advancing from Washington with another army by way of Culpeper, before he and McClellan could unite.
Jackson moved off first, and finding the enemy at Cedar Run, or Slaughter Station, on the Rapidan, he attacked at once. He had his hands full, and for a time the battle seemed to be lost. At the supreme moment Pender came on the scene, and, by a beautiful flank movement, skillfully and energetically made, reanimated the wavering Confederate line, and in a general advance the enemy was beaten off the field. General Pender, in his official report of this battle, makes mention of a young soldier, then serving with him, who is now the accomplished editor of the News and Observer, in terms most complimentary: "Captain Ashe, my Assistant Adjutant-General, deserves notice for his conduct, being found almost at every point almost at the same time, cheering on the men."
At second Manassas, a few days afterwards, Jackson's Corps received every attack of nearly the whole of the Federal army without yielding. The fire was delivered very often during that day at not more than ten paces. There General Pender was like Ney. The all-importance of holding the line until Longstreet should arrive was appreciated by him. He exposed himself here almost recklessly. At Ox Hill, or Chantilly, where General Phil. Kearney was killed, General Pender again led the movement. He was wounded here again. On these fields his superior generalship was conspicuously displayed. From these battles his reputation was established as a skillful leader. At Winchester, Harper's Ferry, and Sharpsburg he was a commanding figure, always in place, with his troops well in hand on the march and in battle. His superiors in rank in every movement confided in his skill as well as in his courage.
The battle of Fredericksburg ended the campaign of 1862. In this battle General Pender received the highest encomiums for the steady and cool bravery with which he held his brigade under a protracted fire from artillery, the most deadly of the war. It was a great triumph of discipline, skill, and valor. He was again wounded here.
General Longstreet spent the winter of 1862-'63 with two divisions of his corps at and near Suffolk, Virginia, procuring supplies in eastern North Carolina. Before he returned to General Lee at Fredericksburg, Hooker, who was in charge of the Army of the Potomac, more than one hundred and twenty thousand strong, crossed the Rapidan and took position on Lee's left flank near Chancellorsville. The Confederate army numbered about fifty-five thousand of all arms. Instead of promptly pressing his advantage, Hooker delayed, and Lee and Jackson acted. This battle was perfect in both strategy and tactics, and advanced Generals Lee and Jackson to the forefront of military commanders. The Confederate soldiers could not add to their laurels already won. In this battle of Chancellorsville General Pender and his brigade made a name which will last as long as the fame of the battle itself. All of us are familiar with the first day's battle. Howard's Corps was routed by D. H. Hill's old division, commanded by General Rodes. The tangled growth of the wilderness and the darkness necessarily threw into great confusion the Confederate troops which had made the attack. While they were being reformed and reduced to order, and some of the brigades relieved by fresh men, the enemy, with great numbers, who had not been engaged, arrived, and, placing their artillery at short range, opened fire with fatal effect. Everything which had been gained seemed to be lost; and, when it was thought that the Confederate line could not be held, General Jackson, after he had received his death wound, recognizing in the darkness General Pender, who had relieved one of Rodes' brigades, said to him: "You must hold your ground, General Pender, you must hold your ground, sir!" and he held his ground. This was General Jackson's last command.
On the next morning early the handful of Confederates saw three times their numbers in a wilderness country, thoroughly entrenched, waiting to receive their attack. The assault had to be made. Sedgwick, with his corps, was in rear and flank at Fredericksburg, opposed by Early, who was too weak to cope with him, and Hooker's main force was between Lee and Richmond. It was a terrible day—that Sunday, the 3d of May, 1863. General Heth, in his official report of the battle, says that Pender and Thomas, the left of A. P. Hill's Division, opened the battle. They were repulsed in the first assault with great loss, but in the second charge they carried the day. Pender won more glory in this charge than any other of the heroic souls who took part in it.
General Lee, in his official report of this battle, said: "General Pender led his brigade to the attack under a destructive fire, bearing the colors of a regiment in his own hands up to and over the entrenchments with the most distinguished gallantry."
After the wounding of General A. P. Hill on that day, General Pender was put in command of that officer's division and was wounded late that afternoon. His own official report of this action proves the modesty and magnanimity of his great and lofty nature. He said: "I can truly say that my brigade fought May 3d with unsurpassed courage and determination. I never knew them to act universally so well. I noticed no skulking, and they never showed any hesitation in following their colors. My list in killed and wounded will show how manfully they fought on that glorious day. After having witnessed the fighting of nearly all the troops that fought on the left of the road, I am satisfied with my own, but by no means claim any superiority. All that I saw behaved as heroes."
No wonder everybody loved and admired General Pender!
The greatness of General Lee as a commander of armies is nowhere more certainly seen than in the reorganization and enlargement of his army after the battles of Chancellorsville. Within a month after those battles he had organized the most effective and best disciplined army he ever had. Longstreet had returned, other reenforcements had arrived, and when the movement of his army towards the North was begun, on June 3, 1863, he probably had seventy-five thousand of all arms. In the reorganization of the army A. P. Hill had been decided on as a corps commander, and a major-general to command his division was wanted. On the 20th of May, two weeks after Chancellorsville, General Lee wrote to Mr. Davis: "If A. P. Hill is promoted a major-general will be wanted for his division. Pender is an excellent officer, attentive, industrious, and brave; has been conspicuous in every battle, and, I believe, wounded in almost all of them." For a division commander of A. P. Hill's celebrated "Light Division," no two, or three, or more, are recommended for the President to choose from, but one, and that one W. D. Pender. He was appointed Major-General on the 27th May, 1863, and assigned to that division composed of the brigades of Scales, Lane, Thomas, and McGowan, one week later. He was the youngest major-general in the Confederate army, being only twenty-nine years old.