186 WEARING OF THE GRAY. With what obstinate and unyielding courage he fought! with a daring how splendid, how rich in suggestion of the antique days ! He entered upon a battle with the coolness and resolu tion of a great leader trained in a thousand combats, and fought his guns with the fury and elan of Murat at the head of his horsemen. No trait of the ground, no movement of the enemy, ever escaped his eagle eye. With an inborn genius for war which West Point had merely developed, and directed in its proper channels, he had that rapid comprehension intuition almost which counts for so much in a leader. Where the con test was hottest and the pressure heaviest, there was Pelham with his guns ; and the broken lines of infantry, or cavalry giving ground before irresistible numbers, heard their deep voices roaring and saw the ranks of the enemy scattered. Often he waited for no order, took the whole responsibility, and opened his batteries where he saw that they were most needed by the emergencies of the moment. But what he did was always the very best that could be done. He struck at the right moment, and his arm was heavy. To the cavalry, the roar of Pelham s Napolegns was a welcome sound. When the deep-mouthed thunder of those guns was heard, the faintest took heart, and the contest assumed a new phase to all for that sound had proved on many a field the harbinger of victory.* Beside those guns was the chosen post of the young artillerist. The gaudium certaminis seemed to fill his being at such moments ; and, however numerous the batteries which he threw into action, he never remained behind " in command of the whole field/ He told me that he considered this his duty, and I know that he never shrank as he might have done from performing it.
- The rumour has obtained a wide circulation that Major Pelham lost ono or
more of his guns when the cavalry fell back from the mountains. The report is entirely without foundation. He never lost a gun there or anywhere else. Though he fought his pieces with such obstinacy that the enemy more than once charged within ten yards cf the muzzles of the guns, he always drove them back, and brought his artillery off safely. He asked my friendly offices in making public this statement. I neglected it, but now put the facts on record, in justice to his memory.
