River on May 16 and 17. The Confederates
were totally defeated and driven back into
Vicksburg’s fortifications. Johnston repeatedly
ordered Pemberton to abandon the city, lest he
become trapped within its works, but Presi-
dent Davis countermanded him to remain and
fight to the last. Before Pemberton had a
chance to sort through these conflicting or-
ders, Grant surrounded the city and com-
menced a formal siege. In the course of 46
days, Pemberton’s pent-up forces bloodily re-
pulsed two determined Union attempts to
storm the works. Grant then sat back and
calmly let the defenders run out of supplies. By
July 4, the garrison had all but been starved;
with no chance of being reinforced by John-
ston, Pemberton surrendered mighty Vicks-
burg, 30,000 men, and 600 cannons to Grant. In
accordance with the surrender terms, Pember-
ton was paroled and released. This debacle,
coming on the heels of Lee’s defeat at Gettys-
burg the previous day, was a critical point in
the course of military events. With the Missis-
sippi River now firmly in Union hands, a corner
had been turned, and the Confederacy began
its slow descent into ruin. As Abraham Lin-
coln’s eloquently declared, “The Father of Wa-
ters now flows unvexed to the sea.”
Pemberton had performed well, consider-
ing the odds, but his failure to defend the last
Confederate bastion in the West made him an
object of public loathing. His standing as an
outcast was reinforced by General Johnston’s
public accusations that he disobeyed orders
and was directly responsible for the disaster.
Worse still, his demonstrated talent for ad-
ministration could have been valuable else-
where, but the political climate throughout
the South made such an appointment impos-
sible. After waiting eight months without an
assignment, Pemberton tendered his resigna-
tion and asked to be appointed a lieutenant
colonel of artillery somewhere. His request
was granted, and he demonstrated his loyalty
to the South by spending the next year and a
half as inspector of ordnance in Richmond. In
the spring of 1865, he was reunited with John-
ston in North Carolina, where he surrendered.
After the war, Pemberton settled down on
a farm in Fauquier County, Virginia, where he
farmed for several years. In 1876, he relocated
with his family back to Philadelphia. He died
in nearby Penllyn on July 13, 1881, a talented
leader but, by circumstance, one of the most
vilified figures of Confederate military history.See also
Davis, Jefferson; Forrest, Nathan Bedford; Johnston,
Joseph E.; Lee, Robert E.Bibliography
Ballard, Michael B. Pemberton: The General Who Lost
Vicksburg.Jackson: University of Mississippi Press,
1991; Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Generals in
War and Memory.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1998; Grabau, Warren E. Ninety-
Nine Days: A Geographer’s Views of the Vicksburg
Campaign. Knoxville: University of Tennessee
Press, 2000; Howell, H. Grady. Hill of Death: The
Battle of Champion Hill.Madison, MS: Chicasaw
Bayou Press, 1993; Stanberry, Jim. “A Failure of
Command: The Confederate Loss of Vickburg.” Civil
War Regiments2, no. 1 (1992): 36–68; Winschel, Ter-
rance J. Vicksburg: Fall of the Confederate Gibral-
ter.Abilene, TX: McWhiney Foundation Press, 1999;
Woodworth, Steven E. Civil War Generals in De-
feat.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999;
Woodworth, Steven E. Jefferson Davis and His
Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in
the West.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
1990; Woodworth, Steven E. No Band of Brothers:
Problems of Rebel High Command.Columbia: Uni-
versity of Missouri Press, 1999.PEMBERTON, JOHNCLIFFORD