Lee's Young Artillerist: William R.J. Pegram

Peter S. Carmichael

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William R. J. Pegram forged a record as one of the most prominent artillerists in the Army of Northern Virginia. He participated in every major battle in Virginia and rose from sergeant to full colonel by the end of the war. Pegram entered Confederate service to defend a way of life that he believed to be ordained by God, a belief that was shared by many of his contemporaries. Lee's Young Artillerist looks at Pegram as a case study exemplifying the worldview of slaveholders whose formative years were the 1850s. Religious leaders offered a scriptural interpretation of society that emphasized human inequality as part of a social hierarchy and made support of slavery a Christian duty for all white Southerners. Pegram firmly believed in a religion of action, that God demanded he and his men do everything in their power to defeat the enemy. He equated losing faith in the Confederacy with abandoning God, family, and community and could not conceive of defeat at the hands of ungodly Northerners. Rather than being considered fanatic, Pegram's values were shared by other young Confederate officers, the South's ruling elite. Lee's Young Artillerist challenges the thesis of some Civil War historians that a weakening Confederate belief in slavery and a loss of morale contributed to the South's defeat. Carmichael proposes instead that Pegram and thousands of other young Confederates interpreted their world through a religious prism that made the defense of slavery appear a just cause for which to die.

Book Details

Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publish Date: Aug 17th, 1998
Pages: 209
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 9.25in - 6.19in - 0.66in - 0.86lb
EAN: 9780813918280
Categories: • Historical• Military

About the Author

Peter S. Carmichael is Assistant Professor of History at Western Carolina University.

Praise for this book

This is not just another military biography.... This remarkable book will prove impossible to ignore. Based on a large collection of superb family letters and a wide array of other priamry sources, Peter S. Carmichael's portrait of William R. J. Pegram offers a mixture of excellent narrative, revealing anecdotes, and precise accounts of battles and campaigns, all accomplished with the sophistication of the best of the new military history--a growing genre that places fighting soldiers squarely in the midst of their social, intellectual, and political environments.

-- "Journal of American History"

The author's prose has the spirit to pull the reader into the life of a young officer who believed passionately in the justice of his cause. For those of us who live in a time when 'duty' and 'honor' are words without meaning to many, Pegram's example from another day is refreshingly reassuring.

-- "H-Net Book Review"

Carmichael has written a first rate biography of one of the South's finest. He challenges those Civil War historians who conclude that a weakened belief in slavery and loss of will and morale contributed to the defeat of the Confederacy.

-- "Civil War News"