New in paperback, the first biography of the Confederate general
branded as incompetent for surrendering the South's strategic river
post to Grant It was the sad fate of General John C. Pemberton
(1814-1881), a northerner serving in the Confederate army, to die
in disgrace and humiliation. Because he surrendered Vicksburg to
General Grant, many Confederates considered him a traitor. Because
he lost this strategic southern port on the Mississippi, Pemberton
was branded as an incompetent. In this biography, the first to
examine Pemberton's life and career in full scope, Michael B.
Ballard credits Pemberton for military prowess that previous Civil
War scholars have denied him. Here his strength is shown to be in
administration, not in the theater of combat. Ballard persuasively
argues that if Pemberton's abilities had been properly used, he
could have made a positive contribution to the Confederate cause.
Ballard focuses upon Pemberton's theory of command in South
Carolina, where his foremost conviction was the preservation of his
army. Pressure from both state officials and the Confederate War
Department in Richmond, however, dictated that he must hold
Charleston at all costs. Submitting to his superiors, Pemberton
carried this new philosophy to Mississippi for his next assignment,
where his main objective was to defend Vicksburg, a city whose
river defenses blocked Union commerce along the Mississippi River.
Throughout the winter of 1862-63 Pemberton's forces held off
Ulysses S. Grant's army, but in spring of 1863 Grant's complex
diversions confused Pemberton and allowed the Union to gain a
beachhead on the east bank of the river and to launch an inland
campaign that trapped Confederates in Vicksburg. Remembering the
lesson of Charleston, Pemberton tried to save this river city but
lost both Vicksburg and his men. Ballard's slant on Pemberton's
life, fair and revisionist, must be considered in future
assessments, for it details fateful moments in Pemberton's career
and offers new insights gained from family papers and manuscripts
not previously examined. I find the author's arguments to be
convincing, says Civil War historian Herman Hattaway, and like him,
I am led to a keener appreciation of Pemberton than I ever had
before. Michael B. Ballard, an archivist at Mississippi State
University, is the author of Civil War Mississippi: A Guide, A Long
Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy and,
with David Muench, of Landscapes of Battle: The Civil War.
General
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