From James Madison to William Pannill and Others, 28 June 1823
To William Pannill and Others
Montpr. June 28. 1823
Gentlemen
I recd. last evening your letter of the 17.1 inviting my participation with the volunteers of Petersburg on celebrating the national anniversary approaching.
Several causes unite in putting it out of my power to comply with the invitation: But I beg the volunteers to be assured that I feel all the value given to it by the motives & the quarter from which it proceeds. The conduct of the gallant band under that name in the late war has a marked place in the Records of patriotism; and I should gladly join in a libation to their example on a day, with which every thing inspired by love of Country is congenial. At this distance I can only express the grateful respect I retain for them, and offer the good wishes to which they are so well entitled.
J. M.
Draft (DLC). At head of draft: “Capts. Pannill, McCrae & Pollard.” William Pannill (1794–1870) entered the U.S. Army as an ensign in the Tenth Regiment of Infantry in 1813 and was honorably discharged as a second lieutenant in 1815. He later became a commission merchant and auctioneer, president of the Southside Railroad, and provost marshal of Petersburg during the Civil War (, 1:768; A. Wilson Greene, Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City in the Crucible of War [Charlottesville, Va., 2006], 44, 71, 88–89; Annual Report of the Board of Public Works to the General Assembly of Virginia, with the Accompanying Documents [(Richmond), 1853–54], 499). John Pollard was mayor of Petersburg in 1844 (Washington Daily Madisonian, 16 May 1844).
1. Letter not found.