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William Nelson Pendleton was an American Episcopal clergyman and Confederate military.
Background
William Nelson Pendleton was born on December 26, 1809 in Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Edmund Pendleton of "Edmundton, " Caroline County, Virginia, and Lucy (Nelson) Pendleton. His father was a grandson of John, brother of Edmund Pendleton, member of the Continental Congress and president of the Virginia court of appeals, and his mother was a niece of Gen. Thomas Nelson, signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia in 1781.
Education
After instruction by tutors and at a private school in Richmond, William Nelson Pendleton was appointed to the United States Military Academy. Graduating July 4, 1830, fifth in his class, he was appointed second lieutenant in the 4th Regiment of Artillery.
Career
William Nelson Pendleton served three years in the army, including one as assistant professor of mathematics at West Point, and resigned in 1833 to become professor of mathematics in Bristol College, Pennsylvania. He occupied a similar chair at Delaware College, Newark, Delaware, from 1837 to 1839. Meantime, having determined to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he had been made deacon by Bishop Meade of Virginia in 1837 and ordained priest by Bishop Onderdonk of Pennsylvania in 1838. Recalled to his native state in 1839 to become principal of the newly established Episcopal High School of Virginia at Alexandria, he held that position for five years and brought the school to a high degree of efficiency and success. He removed to Baltimore in 1844 and conducted a private school for three years, during which time he was also in charge of two small congregations.
In 1847 William Nelson Pendleton closed his school to devote himself to pastoral work. He served as rector of All Saints Church, Frederick, Maryland, until 1853, when he accepted a call to Grace Church, Lexington, Virginia, which charge he held, with the exception of four years of active service in the Army of Northern Virginia until his death in 1883. At Lexington Pendleton ministered not only to the community but to the students of the Virginia Military Institute and Washington College (later Washington and Lee University). He was notably successful in strengthening and building his parish and was a prominent figure in the larger work of the Diocese of Virginia.
In 1856 William Nelson Pendleton was elected deputy to the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He made many missionary preaching tours in the counties west of Lexington and delivered a series of lectures published in 1860 under the title Science a Witness for the Bible. The outbreak of the Civil War brought insistent demand from the citizens of Lexington and Rockbridge County that he place his military training at the service of his state. Consenting, he was elected, May 1, 1861, captain of the Rockbridge Artillery, and was rapidly promoted, being appointed colonel and chief of artillery on the staff of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, July 13, 1861, and brigadier-general in April 1862.
William Nelson Pendleton served later under Robert E. Lee as chief of artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia until its surrender at Appomattox in 1865. He took part in all the major engagements of the army from First Manassas (Bull Run) to the siege of Petersburg. He was an exceedingly able and efficient master of artillery but at the same time never lost sight of his calling as a minister of the Gospel. He preached to the soldiers as opportunities offered on Sundays and at weekday prayer-meetings and was prominent in the remarkable religious movement among the Confederate soldiers which sent so many of the ablest of them into the ministry of their respective churches after the war was over.
Upon his return to Lexington in April 1865, William Nelson Pendleton was asked to resume the rectorship of his parish, though in their utter poverty his people could pay no salary. His rank in the Confederate army excluded him from the relief accorded by the first amnesty proclamation and he was subjected to many indignities, not being permitted for nearly a year to hold a public service in his church. Nevertheless, he continued as rector, earning his own living as best he could through the difficult days of collapse of civil government, and relinquished his pastoral work in Lexington only with his sudden death on January 15, 1883.
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Personality
William Nelson Pendleton was of commanding appearance, in his later years bearing a striking resemblance to General Lee, for whom he was frequently mistaken.
Connections
On July 15, 1831, William Nelson Pendleton married Anzolette Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Francis Page, of "Rugswamp, " Hanover County, an aunt of Thomas Nelson Page. They had one son, Alexander, who became a colonel in the Confederate army and was killed in battle in 1864, and several daughters, one of whom, Susan, became the wife of General Edwin G. Lee of the Confederate army.