Confederate General William Dorsey Pender – Book Review

Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory. Brian Steel Wills. Louisiana State University Press, 2013. 304 pages, 8 maps, 9 photographs, hardcover $39.95, ebook $29.95. In September 1863 Robert E. Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that the war was costing him his best men:  “Jackson, Pender, Hood.” Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, John Bell Hood—but who was this man, Pender, who figured so prominently in Lee’s estimation that he listed him between two of his famous subordinates? William Dorsey Pender, a North Carolinian, was the youngest major general in the Confederate Army. Brian Steel Wills, in a new biography based on contemporary accounts, historical records, and Pender’s own correspondences, tells an in-depth and fascinating narrative of the life of Lee’s Fighting Carolinian, delving deeply into the thoughts, beliefs, and motivations of this man. The book is aptly subtitled “The Hope of Glory”; this phrase captures the essence of Pender, who felt his duty on earth was to do his best and receive what Providence would provide him—and...