Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant & . Gen. John Pemberton?

Question

Sooo, What Can You Tell Me About Them?

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-Nessy =]

Answer 1

Pemberton was the Confederate commander at Vicksburg when Grant was the US General besieging the town.  The town was "closely invested" for several months, and food became very scarce.  The town was important because it sits on one of the few high bluffs along the Mississippi anywhere in its southern course, and the Confederates had emplaced artillery there to keep control of the river.  There were many civilians in Vicksburg and lots of families hollowed out caves on the bluff above the riverbank where they lived to avoid the shelling.  Some people were reduced to eating rats.  The newspaper tried to keep publishing but ran out of paper - its last edition was on the back of old wallpaper.

Pemberton was forced to surrender because everybody was about to starve.  He surrendered to Grant on July 4, one day after the Battle of Gettysburg ended in Pennsylvania.  These twin disasters spread gloom over the south.

Pemberton was actually a northern man, who had married a southern girl.  He was one of several like this who went south when the war started.  It was a cause of distrust of him among the common soldiers, but the other Confederate generals and Jefferson Davis had high regard for his abilities.  He was a West Point trained professional officer from the "old army", like Grant.

Pemberton surrendered about 30,000 men.  At this stage of the war prisoners were still paroled and exchanged.  You would take the parole of a captured man by making lists of all the names, and giving them a paper.  They would pledge to go home and not take part in the war until properly exchanged.  There were commissioners from both sides who would meet and exchange papers, one for one.  This was done by rank, so Pemberton had to wait until the Confederates captured an officer of equal rank to exchange for Pemberton.  But his usefulness was destroyed, as the soldiers now so distrusted him that they would not serve under him.  The soldiers understood that Pemberton had had a chance to break out, to get away from Vicksburg before Grant could make his siege so tight there was no escape.  He had actually started out at one time, but, suffering from a problem which afflicted many men when they had to make the difficult decisions in that war, he waffled, and turned around and took his men back into Vicksburg, to endure the siege.  

When he saw that he was no longer going to be able to serve as a three star Lieutenant General, Pemberton resigned.  But he was so devoted to the cause that he found a place with an artillery unit and served out the war as a lieutenant-colonel of artillery.

Grant had been trying to take Vicksburg for months.  He had risen to prominence by capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862, assisted by the navy and large measures of Confederate incompetence.  He and Sherman tried to get at Vicksburg from the North, but were repulsed at Chickasaw Bayou.  Then they tried to go by way of the numerous creeks, rivers, swamps and bayous, but were not able to get through that way either.  Finally Grant had the navy ferry his army to the west side of the river and he marched down the far bank.  The navy, under Farragut, had to "run the batteries", sailing downriver past Vicksburg one dark night.  They got by with much less damage than anyone expected, carried Grants Army to the east bank, where they were able to draw near Vicksburg and quickly place it under siege.  This was a bold and daring move, because Grant cut himself off from supplies and reinforcements when he moved to the south side of Vicksburg.

After the fall of Vicksburg, the only remaining Confederate strong point on the river was 200 miles south at Port Hudson Louisiana, and this swiftly fell too, opening the entire river to the northern army and dividing the confederacy.  This was a very serious blow to the Confederates as they drew much in the way of beef and horses from Texas.

After this success Grant was brought east by Lincoln, and promoted to three star rank.  He was the first in the US Army since George Washington.  In the Union Army, he was THE Lieutenant General.  (The Confederates had many of these and 8 four star generals).

Grant and Sherman, whom he left in command in the west, coordinated their efforts in the 1864 campaign - the first time this had been done.  They pressed on relentlessly and won the war by never letting up.

http://www.us-civilwar.com/vicksburg.htm

http://www.civilwarhome.com/battleofvick...

http://www.civilwarhome.com/pembertonbio...