8” x 5” pre-printed form, filled out in pencil. The Southern Telegraph Companies. J.R. Dowell, Gen’l Sup’t, Petersburg, Va. W.S. Morris, Pres’t, Lynchburg, Va. Received at Raleigh, Aug. 8, 1862. By telegraph from Richmond. To W.S. Pettigrew. “Please send Peter & my horses & baggage to the Spottswood House.”  Signed “J. J. Pettigrew”.

General Pettigrew had recently been exchanged after being wounded and captured at the battle of Seven Pines, VA. This telegram is to his family in North Carolina.

James Johnston Pettigrew (July 4, 1828 – July 17, 1863) was an author, lawyer, linguist, diplomat, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was one of three division commanders in the disastrous assault known as Pickett's Charge on the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg. He was badly wounded during the assault. During the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, Pettigrew remained in command until Heth recovered. Stopped by the flooded Potomac River at Falling Waters, West Virginia, Pettigrew's brigade was deployed in a dense skirmish line on the Maryland side, in order to protect the road to the river crossing. Union cavalry probed the southern defenses throughout the night as Lee's army crossed the pontoon bridges into West Virginia. On the morning of July 14, Pettigrew's brigade was one of the last Confederate units still north of the Potomac River when the Union attacked his position. On foot and in the front line, Pettigrew was directing his soldiers when he was shot by a Union cavalryman from the Michigan Brigade at close range, the bullet striking him in the abdomen. He was immediately carried to the rear and across the Potomac, having refused to be left in federal hands. He died three days later at Edgewood Manor plantation near Bunker Hill, West Virginia. His brigade, which lost an estimated 56% casualties, had been ruined as an effective combat organization.  [ld]

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