Pelham was, at the time, commanding only two guns that were in service, but with those batteries for a time was able to enfilade the entire advancing Federal lines of battle. At the Battle of Kelly's Ford on March 17, 1863, Pelham participated in a cavalry charge, his artillery not being engaged. Not long afterward, he was struck in the head by a fragment of an exploding Federal artillery shell. He was carried six miles (10 km) from the battlefield to Culpeper Courthouse, and died the following morning without having regained consciousness. Legacy The Confederate Senate approved Lee's recommendation that Pelham receive a posthumous promotion to lieutenant colonel. Pelham's body was returned home and buried at City Cemetery in Jacksonville, Alabama where a statue erected downtown in 1909 commemorates the fallen Confederate officer. A stone obelisk monument honoring Pelham, which contained an inscription on the base referring to him as “gallant” and beloved and which had stood in the grassy median of a busy avenue in Anniston, Alabama since 1905, was removed late at night on September 27, 2020. However, there were still plans to relocate it to a Confederate history park. In 1894, poet James R. Randall wrote the poem John Pelham. In 1901, a portrait of Pelham was hung with other Confederate officers in Alexandria, Virginia, and General Joseph Wheeler gave the speech on the ascension of his portrait, referring to him as the "Gallant Pelham". In 1907, one of his spurs was among the artifacts melted down to create the Pokahuntas Bell for the Jamestown Exposition. The John Pelham Historical Association preserves his archive of papers and memorabilia. In 1955, the Alabama Hall of Fame honored Pelham, inducting him into the honorific organization. The cities of Pelham, Alabama and Pelham, North Carolina, and Pelham, Georgia are named in his honor. In 2004, against protests by some citizens, the state of Georgia designated the section of State Highway 300 that passes through Pelham as the John Pelham Memorial Parkway. The United States Field Artillery named artillery camps for him, such as the former Camp Pelham which housed artillery battalions of first the 1st Cavalry Division and then later the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea. In the 1970s, The County of Culpeper, Virginia, built Lake Pelham to honor the rebel soldier. During and after the Civil War Pelham's 1858 photograph, taken in the Mathew Brady studio, was well known