This historical marker is located on NC 33 (Main Street) in Tarboro. It was erected in 1949.
William Dorsey Pender (February 6, 1834 – July 18, 1863) was one of the youngest, and most promising, generals fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Dorsey Pender, as he was known to his friends, was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1854 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery regiment. He served later in the 2nd Artillery, and then the 1st Dragoons (heavy cavalry), where he demonstrated personal bravery in Washington Territory, fighting in the Indian Wars.
On March 21, 1861, Pender resigned from the U.S. Army and was appointed a captain of artillery in the Confederate States Army. By May he was a colonel in command of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry (also designated the 13th North Carolina) and then the 6th. Tried in combat successfully in the Battle of Seven Pines in June, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general and command of a brigade of North Carolinians in A.P. Hill's Light Division. Confederate President Jefferson Davis personally promoted Pender on the Seven Pines battlefield....
On July 2, Pender was posted near the Lutheran Seminary. During the en echelon attack that started with James Longstreet's assault on the right, from the Round Tops through the Peach Orchard, Pender's division was to continue in the attack sequence near Cemetery Hill, to the left of Richard H. Anderson's attack on Cemetery Ridge. Pender was wounded in the thigh by a shell fragment fired from Cemetery Hill, and turned command over to James H. Lane. His division's momentum was broken by the change in command and no effective assault was completed. Pender was evacuated to Staunton, Virginia, where his leg was amputated and an artery ruptured, killing him.
Pender's wife, Fanny Sheppard, a devout women, had opposed Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North and Pender's part in it. She believed it was morally wrong for the South to take the offensive, and the South would suffer ill for it. Given the defeat at Gettysburg and Pender's death, it seems she may have been prescient.
Pender is buried in Calvary Churchyard in Tarboro, North Carolina. He is memorialized in the name of Pender County, North Carolina, founded in 1875. He is the posthumous author of The General to his Lady: The Civil War letters of William Dorsey Pender to Fanny Pender, published in 1965.
During World War II, the U.S. Navy commissioned a Liberty Ship the SS William D. Pender in honor of the fallen general.
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William Dorsey Pender's grave is located in the graveyard at Calvary Parish Episcopal Church, at N 35º 53.967 W 77º 31.829. When visiting this waymark, take the time to go to the nearby church and stroll through the graveyard. There are many interesting graves, spanning hundreds of years.