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CLASS OF 1837
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Despite a Quaker upbringing in Philadelphia, Pemberton became a career soldier after West Point. His service included the Seminole
War, the Mexican War, the Kansas border disturbances, and the Mormon War in Utah.
After returning from Mexico, Pemberton married Martha Thompson from Norfolk, Virginia. Devoted to his wife and also a strong
believer in states’ rights, he resigned his U.S. Army commission to join the Confederacy in 1861. Two of his brothers fought
for the Union.
Questions about his loyalty to the South plagued Pemberton throughout the war, especially when he surrendered Vicksburg and 27,000
troops in 1863. He returned to the Confederacy in an 1864 prisoner-of-war exchange. Ashamed of his defeat, he resigned as general
and enlisted as a private. Jefferson Davis restored him to lieutenant colonel and assigned him to Richmond. When the war ended,
Pemberton retired to a Virginia farm.
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