He led the Army of Mississippi from December 1862 to July 1863 and was the commanding officer during the Confederate surrender at the Siege of Vicksburg.

[4] Pemberton and the 4th Artillery served in garrison duty at Fort Columbus, Governors Island, New York, from 1838 to 1839, and then at the Camp of Instruction located near Trenton, New Jersey, in 1839.

He then was part of the storming of Chapultepec Castle on September 13, and the Battle for Mexico City that day and the next,[4] where Pemberton was wounded.

Worth from August 4, 1846, to May 1, 1849, and was a fellow staff lieutenant in the same division as his future opponent in the Civil War, Ulysses S.

[6] After the war with Mexico, Pemberton and the 4th Artillery served in garrison duty at Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida, in 1849.

[8] Upon the absorption of the Provisional Army of Virginia into the PACS, Pemberton was appointed a major of artillery, a line field commission, on June 15, 1861, and was quickly promoted to brigadier general two days later.

As a result of Pemberton's abrasive personality, his public statement that if he had to make a choice, he would abandon the area rather than risk the loss of his outnumbered army,[9] and the distrust of his free-state birth, the governors of both states in his department petitioned President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis for his removal.

Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price, with around 24,000 in the permanent garrisons at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Louisiana.

[10] John D. Winters described the men under Pemberton as "a beaten and demoralized army, fresh from the defeat at Corinth, Mississippi.

"[11] Pemberton faced his former Mexican War colleague, the aggressive U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and over 70,000 U.S. soldiers in the Vicksburg Campaign.

(Pemberton, well aware of his reputation as a Northerner by birth, was probably influenced by his fear of public condemnation as a traitor if he abandoned Vicksburg.)

On the evening of July 2, 1863, Pemberton asked in writing his four division commanders if they believed their men could "make the marches and undergo the fatigues necessary to accomplish a successful evacuation" after 45 days of siege.

[14] This, combined with the successful Siege of Port Hudson on July 9, reestablished the United States complete control over the Mississippi River, a major strategic loss for the Confederacy that cut off Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith's command and the Trans-Mississippi Theater from the Confederacy for the rest of the war.

Davis replied that his confidence in him remained unshaken, saying:[15] I thought and still think that you did right to risk an army for the purpose of keeping command of even a section of the Mississippi River.

[15]Pemberton resigned as a general officer on May 9, 1864, and Davis offered him a commission as a lieutenant colonel of artillery three days later,[3] which he accepted, a testimonial of his loyalty to the Confederacy and the Confederate cause.

He was appointed inspector general of the artillery as of January 7,[3] and held this position until he was captured in Salisbury, North Carolina, on April 12.

The families of several famous people, including General George Meade and Admiral John A. Dahlgren (whose brother also served as a Confederate General), protested against the unrepentant Confederate Pemberton's burial at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, where his mother and father had been buried.

[18] A statue depicting Pemberton, sculpted by Edmond Thomas Quinn, was erected in the Vicksburg National Military Park.