folk and the James River. That November he
transferred south to the Department of South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, to serve under
Gen. Robert E. Lee. A skilled engineer, Pem-
berton labored long and hard with limited re-
sources to improve the security of Charleston
Harbor. He was responsible for the construc-
tion of Fort Wagner, which later proved in-
valuable to the defenses of the city. However,
Pemberton also undermined his usefulness by
declaring, from an engineering standpoint,
that Fort Sumter was hopelessly obsolete and
might as well be abandoned. That bastion, en-
shrined in Confederate annals as the starting
point of the war, carried great emotional at-
tachment, and the general was assailed in the
press for his lack of respect. Worse, Pember-
ton also declared that if it were up to him he
would abandon his department entirely rather
than let his small army be captured by the
enemy. The very notion of yielding an inch of
Southern soil without fighting further alien-
ated public sentiment against him. Pemberton
was also rebuked by General Lee for his im-
politic remarks, at which point President Jef-
ferson Davisremoved him from so sensitive
a posting.
Pemberton may have been unpopular, and
many Southerners continued viewing his
Northern origins with suspicion, but Davis ac-
knowledged his military value to the Confed-
eracy. In October 1862, he arranged Pem-
berton’s transfer to the Department of
Mississippi and East Louisiana with the rank
of lieutenant general. His overriding mission
was to keep the Confederate bastion of Vicks-
burg, astride the Mississippi River, from
falling into enemy hands. This was strategi-
cally essential for two reasons. First, from its
position high on a cliff overlooking the river,
Vicksburg’s cannons prevented Northern ves-
sels from reaching either New Orleans or
Memphis. It thus functioned as an immovable
obstacle to Union generals trying to shift
forces along the western theater. Second,
with the recent capture of both those cities by
Union forces, Vicksburg was the last remain-
ing rail link to Richmond. As a railhead it was
the sole communications junction with Texas,
Arkansas, and western Louisiana. Vicksburg’s
fall would literally cut the Confederacy in two
and hasten its demise.
Pemberton arrived at the city in November
and took immediate steps to strengthen its al-
ready formidable defenses. That month he
dispatched Gen. William W. Loringto a bend
in the Tallahatchie River to construct Fort
Pemberton. The following March, “Old Bliz-
zards” was instrumental in repelling a Union
movement down that waterway. In December
1862, Pemberton dispatched cavalry under
Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van
Dorn, who ravaged Union communications
and supply lines at Holly Springs. The losses
incurred there forced Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to
postpone an overland march upon Vicksburg
for several weeks. That same month, Union
forces under Gen. William Tecumseh Sher-
man advanced against the north-side defenses
of the city but were badly repulsed at Chicka-
saw Bayou. Over the next few months, Pem-
berton skillfully deployed his forces and
thwarted every move by Grant to advance
upon Vicksburg in force. It appeared that the
Confederates, after months of bloody re-
verses in the West, would finally prevail.
In April 1863, Grant commenced his Big
Black River campaign, arguably one of the
most brilliantly fought offensives in all military
history. He secretly marched his army down
the western bank of the Mississippi River
below Vicksburg while directing a gunboat
flotilla under Cmdr. David Dixon Porter to run
past the city’s defenses at night. This was suc-
cessfully accomplished, as was a major cavalry
raid deep inside Mississippi by Col. Benjamin
H. Grierson. With Pemberton’s attention di-
rected elsewhere, Grant then boarded Porter’s
gunboats and landed on the eastern bank of
the river several miles below Vicksburg. Mov-
ing inland with 41,000 men, he quickly drove
Gen. Joseph E. Johnstonout of Jackson, the
state capital, severing the Vicksburg rail link.
Pemberton, who had been ordered to assist
Johnston, also sortied from the city and en-
gaged Grant at Champion Hills and Big BlackPEMBERTON, JOHNCLIFFORD