William Pender was born in Edgecombe County, NC that was later annexed into Wilson County. He spent his youth in and around Tarboro. In many was, he was like the other Confederate officers in that he wasmannerable and well-deucated. Even better, he was West Point-educated and well-trained for military service.
He was also very sensitive to the miseries caused by war and once wrote about the hardships faced by Southerners under Union occupation and as to his men, " Our men march and fight without provisions, living on green corn when nothing better can be had. But all this kills up our men."
He was also appalled at the depredations pulled off by the Army of Northern Virginia when it invaded the North. He wrote of the enemy, "I am tired on invasions for altho' they have made us suffer all that people can suffer, I cannot get my resentment to the point to make me feel indifferent to what goes on here. I never saw people so badly scared." Contrast this to Union general Sherman's thoughts marching through Georgia.
In 1863, Dorsey Pender was appointed major general, the youngest officer of that rank in the Confederate Army at age 29. He was in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg and was mortally wounded.. After the battle, lee wrote: "I ought not to have fought the Battle of Gettysburg. It was a mistake, but the stakes were so great I was compelled to play; for had we succeeded, Harrisburg, Baltimore and Washington were in our hands, and we could have succeeded had General Pender lived."
Ther Gallant Pender. --Old Secesh
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