John Pelham in Movies?

There are a plethora of Civil War movies. Everyone seems to have their own favorite…or their own favorite to hate. I watched a lot of movies during 2020 and 2021; it was something to do after work, and something beyond regretting the places I couldn’t go to work on research for my Pelham book. Occasionally, in articles or musings about John Pelham someone will comment that his life would be perfect for a movie. Maybe, if that’s your preferred style, but it’s gonna end pretty sadly. I did find two movies from the past that either include Pelham or seem based on his war experience. (If you know of others, please let me know in the comments!)

In case you’re not familiar with the fellow, John Pelham hailed from Alabama and resigned from West Point to join the Confederacy in April 1861. He eventually became the organizer and commander of the Stuart Horse Artillery and he used his cannons with devastating effects on numerous battlefields or skirmish grounds in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania during 1862. Pelham was mortally wounded during the battle of Kelly’s Ford in March 1863, falling at the height of military fame and becoming a near-perfect hero in the eyes of the Confederacy and later the Lost Cause.

To be fair, Pelham had good looks that could have made him a Hollywood star if he’d lived in the next century. His name was known, and it was easy to slip his character into the Civil War films sweeping through Hollywood in the 1930s. (I suspect his name might make appearances in other movies of that time, but they aren’t always easy to acquire for free or low cost so I’m writing this post from what I have seen.) Then in the 1990s, in the made-for-television era of popular Civil War movies, Pelham’s story made an appearance and some of his words are directly quote…but under a different name.

Ready—Aim…Action!

Operator 13

(Watch here on YouTube)

This 1934 film starred Marion Davies, Gary Cooper, and Jean Parker and was directed by Richard Boleslawski. It’s definitely a film of the 1930s with big hoopskirt dresses, racial stereotypes, and more adventure than accuracy. The plot has a female Union spy putting on black face as a disguise behind Confederate lines, but then she falls in love with a Confederate officer. There are musical numbers and a supporting cast of portrayed historical characters like J.E.B. Stuart, Allan Pinkerton, and John Pelham. It’s…different.

In the movie, actor Henry Wadsworth portrayed Pelham. The John Pelham character has a minor role, but he is seen with the Elinor Shackleford character before he heads off to see about a sudden attack at Drewry’s Bluff near Richmond…and is mortally wounded in an artillery barrage.

Interestingly, real historical Pelham knew the Shackleford Family of Culpeper, Virginia, and real historical Bessie Shackleford has been a favorite figure in supposed Pelham romance stories. Real Pelham was brought to the Shackleford home after his was mortally wounded by an artillery shell fragment.

Class of ‘61

(Watch here on YouTube)

This TV movie aired in 1993 and was produced by Steven Spielburg, and Shelby Foote was a consultant for it. It focused on three cadets and their decisions at West Point in the spring of 1861, then follows them to the battle of First Manassas with various cameos of historic figures and events along the way while attempts to include stories about slavery feel forced into the script. The historical inaccuracies are numerous, but the movie does capture elements of the decisions that cadets had to make.

The main characters are Shelby Peyton, Henry O’Neal, and George Custer—an interesting mix of fictional and real historic people. Peyton was played by Dan Futterman. Shelby Peyton, though supposed to be from Virginia, has a storyline that is eerie similar to John Pelham. His resignation from West Point includes a brief dialogue about not accepting any other commissions prior to his resignation. Peyton stops in New York to have his photograph taken at Matthew Brady’s studio; Pelham probably did not have his photograph taken while journeying south in 1861, but there was debate about the date of his photography taken in the north at the time the film was made. Unlike Peyton, Pelham was not known to travel through Baltimore and pause to see a fiancee.

The similarities continue in the Manassas scenes when Peyton is given command of an artillery unit attached to “Colonel Jackson’s 1st Virginia Brigade” and takes a position on the right of Jackson’s infantry line, essentially the same position that Pelham held during that battle. And Peyton is seen firing on U.S. flags (Pelham did) and giving orders to fire on the Union artillery brought from West Point (Pelham probably did). In the ending of the movie, Peyton is “quoted” as though reading from a letter or diary. While the lines sound generic at first and are similar to just about any soldier at Manassas recoiling from the shock of first battle, suddenly EXACT lines from Pelham’s newspaper-printed Manassas letter to his father are heard.

So was Pelham inspiration for Peyton’s character? I can’t prove it with the director’s or scriptwriter’s notes, but I’d wager “yes.” The name is different and some parts of his screen story are very different from Pelham, but there’s a good portion that is too similar to be entirely coincidental.

Civil War movies are a fascinating part of history pop culture, and Pelham or his story have made appearances on the screens during the 20th century. There was plenty of drama in real Pelham’s life, and it’s unsurprising that pieces of his story and his name made their way into film.

Read more in one of the newest books in the Emerging Civil War Series—Glorious Courage: John Pelham in the Civil War by Sarah Kay Bierle (May 2025).