Savannah, Ga., February 4th, 1907.
REMINISCENCES of-
Maj. Gen. WILLIAM DORSEY PENDER,
by Louis G. Young, late A. A. G.
Arm of North Vir.
A graduate of West Point, and a Colonel of the celebrated 6th, North Carolina Regiment, Pender at once acquired reputation, and when Brigadier Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew was on the 30th, of June 1862 at the battle of Seven Pines, Va.,  wounded and taken prisoner, Col. Pender was commissioned  "Provisional" Brigadier Genl., and assigned to his Brigade. I was the Gen. Pettigrew's  Aide-de-camp, with the rank of 1st Lieutenant, and as the Confederate Army Generals appointed their own Aides, on Gen. Pender's coming to the Brigade I told him I was ready to retire from the staff, but offered my services until he should appoint his personal Aide. He replied that he was only a provisional Brigadier Gen. and might have to return to his Regiment, there fore had no authority to make any change in the staff,  but were it otherwise he would as a token of esteem and admiration for Pettigrew retain his staff just as he found it. Thus did I come into a heritage of a valuable experience out of which was born a friendship, the memory of which is very dear to me.
Soon after the Battle of Seven Pines the Army was re-organized and Brigaded by States, thus Pettigrew's Brigade, which was composed of Regiments from North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia, and Arkansas Battalion and Maryland Battery, lost its identity and "became a North Carolina Brigade. Pender quickly moulded this new command into a compact and unified body of good soldiers, ready for active service, thus proving himself a Master in the art of organisation and a thorough disciplinarian. While impressing others with his capability as a soldier Pender was at first somewhat distrustful of himself as a Brigade Commander. Although one of his "biographers in an address I have seen, eulogizes the General for his conduct at Seven Pines, Pender had made the mistake of rushing his regiment blind-fold as it were into the jaws of the enemy and had six of its companies suffer great loss, all to no purpose.