Battle of Brandy Station • Tour the Battlefield • Historical & Wayside Markers • The Armies
The monument to Confederate Major John Pelham is in the town of Brandy Station, Virginia on Brandy Road. It is across from the Graffiti House, the historic Civil War hospital that now serves as a visitor center for the Brandy Station battlefield.
Major Pelham, commander of J.E.B. Stuart’s horse artillery, was just 22 years old and the veteran of 60 engagements when he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Kelly’s Ford three months before the Battle of Brandy Station. Pelham joined in the cavalry fight at Kelly’s Ford, about four miles south of Brandy Station, Virginia, even though his artillery was not on the field. He was struck in the head by fragments of an artillery shell and died the next day in Culpeper.
The monument is a small obelisk mounted on a block of stone taken from the Kelly’s Ford battlefield. The flag of the State of Alabama flies from a pole behind the monument.
Text from the front of the monument:
In memory of Major John Pelham
Born Sept 7, 1839
in Calhoun Co. ALA
Mortally wounded
March 17 1863
near Kellys Ford VA
Text from the bronze tablet in front of the monument:
Property Pelham
Chapter
U.D.C.
Birmingham ALA
Text from the stone in front of the bronze tablet:
Deed of gift to
Culpeper Chapter
U.D.C. #73
30 Jan. 1998
Text from the south side of the monument:
Like Marshal Ney
one of the
bravest of
the brave
Text from the west side of the monument:
Erected by
Geo E
and his wife
Enora Douglas
1926
Text from the north side of the monument:
Base stone
from Kelly’s
Ford battlefield
near spot where
Pelham fell
