Review by Choice Review
John C. Pemberton is remembered as the Yankee traitor who surrendered Vicksburg to Grant. A Philadelphian by birth, he graduated from West Point in 1837 and spent most of his early military career in staff positions. Never a man of passionate beliefs or intellectual inquiry, Pemberton followed his heart and joined the Confederacy. Pemberton's army contacts got him an appointment as commander of the military district responsible for defending Charleston and Savannah. There he espoused a mobile defense that would surrender coastal fortifications to save his army. State officials, prejudiced by Pemberton's Northern roots, worried that his strategy spelled doom. At their urging, Pemberton was removed. He was ordered to Mississippi and told to hold Vicksburg at all costs. When Grant crossed the Mississippi River in 1863, Pemberton ignored General Joseph E. Johnston's suggestion that Pemberton join him and abandon Vicksburg. His surrender of Vicksburg on the Fourth of July sparked renewed suspicions about his loyalty. After the war, Pemberton's business ventures failed, but loving and forgiving siblings helped support him and his family comfortably. Ballard's splendid biography, based on originial sources, offers a careful, objective assessment of "a man who did his best under very difficult circumstances and who, like so many of his contemporaries, was very much a victim of the American Civil War." All levels.-E. K. Eckert, St. Bonaventure University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
