William Dorsey Pender was born February 6, 1834 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. He graduated from West Point and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in 1854. He served in artillery units and then a cavalry unit, and fought in the Indian Wars in the Washington Territory.
On March 21, 1861, Pender resigned from the U.S. Army and was appointed a captain in the Confederate Army. By May that same year, he was promoted to colonel and was given command of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry. After successfully commanding his troops in the Battle of Seven Pines in June 1862, Pender was personally promoted to brigadier general on the battlefield by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Pender was wounded in several battles, but recovered each time. He was wounded in the arm in the Battle of Glendale and received a minor head injury from an exploding shell during Second Manassas. His left arm was wounded during the Battle of Fredericksburg, but, when he discovered the bone was not broken, Pender continued fighting with blood running from his arm. He received a minor injury on May 2, 1863 during the Battle of Chancellorsville. The next day, Pender was wounded in the arm again by a bullet passing through a man standing in front of him.
Following the death of Stonewall Jackson, Pender was promoted to major general and given command of a division of the newly-formed Third Corps. Robert E. Lee praised Pender in a letter to President Davis: “Pender is an excellent officer, attentive, industrious and brave; has been conspicuous in every battle, and, I believe, wounded in almost all of them.”
Pender’s rising military career came to an end at Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, Pender was wounded in the thigh by a shell fragment and was evacuated to Staunton, Virginia. On July 18, an artery in his wounded leg ruptured. Doctors amputated the leg in an effort to save Pender’s life, but he died a few hours later.
In his official report on the Battle of Gettysburg, General Lee wrote that “The loss of Major-General Pender is severely felt by the army and the country.”
Pender is buried in Calvary Episcopal Churchyard in Tarboro, North Carolina, and his grave can be visited while hunting for GCTFGZ.
You are looking for a 35 mm cannister.