Hetty Cary

           Beautiful Hetty Cary was courted by so many Confederate generals that it led her cousin to gibe, "Hetty likes them that way: gilt-edged with stars!" When Gen. John Pegram won her hand, rivals called him the "prize winner".
           The war-weary city of Richmond was momentarily brightened on Jan. 19, 1865, by the wedding of society belle Hetty Cary, widely acclaimed to be "the handsomest woman in the Southland", and gallant young Brigadier General John Pegram, one of Virginia's most eligible bachelors. The cream of Coinfederate society, including President and Mrs. Davis, jammed into historic St. Paul's Episcopal Church for the ceremony.
           As Hetty glided down the aisle, "there was a murmur of delight at her beauty," one guest recalled. "Her complexion of pearly white, the vivid roses in her cheeks and lips, the sheen of her radiant hair, and the happy gleam of her beautiful brown eyes seemed to defy all sorrow.
           But sorrow would not be denied. On Feb. 6, Pegram was killed by a sharpshooter's bullet at Hatcher's Run: the Minie ball lodged near his heart, next to a locket he wore that contained Hetty's picture. Exactly three weeks after his wedding day, John Pegram was returned to St. Paul's. As Hetty knelt beside the casket, the minister who had pronounced them man and wife intoned the funeral service.

"The Civil War", Pursuit to Appomattox", Time - Life books, page 19