For Love of His Wife (Article 89)
Many individuals had to choose which side to join in the Civil War. Most chose based on where they lived and loyalty to their region or state, some chose based on their belief in, or objection to, slavery, and others on whether they supported E Pluribus Unum or state sovereignty.
But one chose because of his devotion to his wife.
John Clifford Pemberton was born into a Quaker family in Pennsylvania, but his father had been torn by the dichotomy of his pacifist faith and devotion to his country; and he eventually chose to fight against the British in the War of 1812. Young John Pemberton revered his father and was determined to also serve his country; so, his father approached an old friend, President Andrew Jackson, to secure an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Young John may have entered the academy with a zeal for accomplishments, but he soon adapted to a more casual conduct. He was outgoing, humorous, and popular with his classmates; however, he was inattentive in class, unappreciative of his instructors, and finished in the middle of his class. His less than stellar grades and nominal faculty recommendations prevented him from appointment to the most coveted assignments upon graduation in 1837. While he expressed some disappointment, he otherwise accepted his situation, and began his U.S. Army career.
Pemberton became an effective, if not outstanding young officer, and in the 1847 Mexican War, found his true calling as a staff officer, rather than a field commander. He did not deliberately avoid combat and, on several occasions, volunteered for courier missions which exposed him to enemy fire. But, for any military campaign to be successful, someone needs to assure the soldiers have adequate rations, ammunition, and other supplies and Pemberton was good at that; and, the senior officers appreciated his thorough staff work and regularly commended his service.
Before his service in the war with Mexico, he had been assigned to duty in Virginia and was subsequently reassigned to that Southern state. Pemberton loved the heritage of Virginia, which was the birthplace of his heroes, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other political lions of the Nation. While there, in 1848, he married Martha (Pattie) Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, who owned several slaves that worked either as house servants or in his livery business. Pattie was attractive, very social, educated (for her time) and willingly accepted the vagaries of her husband’s military career. One contemporary noted, “They were as one. I never knew another husband and wife so devoted.” John and Patti had seven children, with five living into adulthood. However, the contrast between their two families could not have been greater; the Quaker non-slave holding family in the North and the Protestant slaveholding family in the South. Except, in this case, John loved Pattie’s family and Pattie and the children were welcomed by his family. John was neither an advocate for or against slavery and he just seemed to accept it as a southern way of life. Upon their marriage, Mr. Thompson gave a female slave to Pattie to serve as their cook and housekeeper, and she worked alongside several White servants. Although the couple often took one of the other servants during their frequent visits to his parent’s home, they never had the slave accompany them on the trips. Both sides must have recognized the potential for conflict and, carefully, avoided it. And those close bonds between husband and wife, and between the two families, would remain through the most divisive period in American history, during which many other families were torn apart; the American Civil War!
Although there are numerous photographs of John, there are very few of Patti. This photo of John was taken soon after he joined the Confederate Army in May 1861 and the undated picture of Pattie is likely from about that same time; when she was 34 years old.
Not many letters between John and Pattie have survived, but the few which have, show true love and devotion. In one, Pattie ended a routine letter with, “My love for you is boundless, my dear husband.” And in a letter sent to Pattie while away on an assignment, John wrote, “The task is difficult but made tolerable by my thoughts of you and the hope that we will soon be together.”
Before the Civil War, Pemberton served in several assignments in the midwestern frontier states, leading small garrisons or serving in logistical staff positions. Pattie was able to accompany him on those assignments, but she did frequently return to Virginia for family visits and would often also spend time with John’s family in Pennsylvania. On occasion, John would take leave and accompany her to both her home and to visit his family. Their longest separation probably occurred when John was assigned to lead a detachment in Utah to help settle issues which were arising between the growing Mormon settlement and the Federal government over the use of open lands. Pemberton was successful in Utah and in his other assignments and, overall, was considered an effective, if not exceptional, officer by his superiors in the United States Army.
However, as the prospect for Civil War loomed in early 1861, John faced a dilemma, as did his adopted state of Virginia. When the Confederate States of America was formed, neither John Pemberton nor Virginia made hasty decisions. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April, the Virginia legislature decided to put the question of secession to a public vote and, in the meantime, John Pemberton wrestled with his own choices. His family urged him to either stay in the Union Army or leave the army and try to sit out the war. On the other hand, Pattie would have been devasted if he fought against Virginians, so she and her family hoped he would decide to not serve in either army or would stand with Virginia if the state seceded from the Union. We do not know what private conversations he and Pattie may have had about his future, but during the months of April and May, 1861, John Pemberton must have agonized over his options. In May 1861, Virginia voted to secede and it was time for his decision. As he wrote later in his life, his decision was neither quick nor easy, but his love for his wife made the difference. He resigned from the U.S. Army and offered his services to the Governor of Virginia and the state’s militia.
During the first months of the war, depending upon circumstances, Pemberton was variously appointed as a Brigadier General, Lt. Colonel and Colonel; a common situation caused by assignments both within the state militia and Confederate Army. He was initially posted in Richmond, Virginia, close to his wife and children, and helped train new recruits. During this time, Pemberton became acquainted with Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, and the two men became close; or as close as anyone could become to the irascible Confederate leader. And, they did have one trait in common; absolute stubbornness. Jefferson Davis was quoted as saying, “I have an infirmity of which I am heartily ashamed. When I am aroused in a matter, I lose control of my feelings and become personal.” And, John Pemberton once said, “I cannot always bear reproach though I deserve it.” Some historians attribute the friendship between the two men to Pattie’s family connections, while some look to the fact that both men were West Pointers. However, others believe that it was not a close friendship at all and believe that Davis saw an opportunity to use John Pemberton as a tool. That would not have been unusual, since Northern born army officers, who resigned their commissions to serve the Confederacy, were touted as examples of validation of the secessionist cause.
But, whatever Davis’s logic, he protected Pemberton from other officers and politicians who suspected the sincerity of the Yankee’s devotion to the Confederacy; and these were not a few! In fact, there were many who doubted Pemberton’s loyalty, including Joseph E. Johnston, one of the South’s most senior Generals, who would later become Pemberton’s commanding officer. Since Jefferson Davis and General Johnston despised each other, John Pemberton, on several occasions, found himself caught between these two powerful men.
In a move he later regretted, President Davis insisted that Pemberton be assigned to the Charleston, South Carolina region under the command of General Robert E. Lee, who was highly regarded by South Carolinians. Through no particular fault of Pemberton’s, after General Lee was reassigned to Richmond, the South Carolina political and military leaders became openly antagonistic to him. Certainly, he had made a few mis-steps during this assignment; however, the primary reason for the enmity of South Carolinians toward Pemberton was that he was a Pennsylvanian and, simply stated, they hated Yankees!
Davis realized that he had to re-assign General Pemberton, but assured that it would not be a demotion, as some Confederate leaders hoped. In fact, (now) Major General Pemberton would be assigned to the lead the Southern forces in the large (and important) Department of Mississippi, which also included Louisianna.
In October 1862, Pemberton moved to Jackson, Mississippi and established his headquarters. He had some hope of retaking the city of New Orleans, which had fallen to the Union in April, 1862; however, his main concern was in northern Mississippi where Union General Ulysses S. Grant was gaining ground. One of Grant’s targets was the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, a strategic city on a high bluff overlooking shipping on the Mississippi River below. At some point, Pemberton decided to concentrate his forces in Vicksburg.
Over the next several months there were numerous clashes between Union and Confederate armies in Northern Mississippi with both sides claiming a few victories, but the overall trend was a steady Union assembly around Vicksburg. It was at this point, that the feud between Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston most impacted John Pemberton! Davis directed Pemberton to hold Vicksburg at all costs; however, General Johnston, not wanting 30,000 Confederate soldiers to become prisoners-of war, ordered Pemberton to evacuate the city.
Infuriating Johnston, Pemberton chose to stay!
In mid-May General Grant ordered assaults on the city but failed to reach the fortified city. Then, Grant decided on a siege and, with Union forces completely surrounding Vicksburg, he cut off all supplies; and it worked. In early July, 1863, with both soldiers and civilians starving, Major General John C. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to General Grant.
In October, Pemberton was allowed to return to Richmond where he was welcomed home by Pattie and his children; however, he was not as well received by the military leaders of the Confederate Army. In fact, General Pemberton was not offered any positions, even as a staff officer; since most other Southern Generals were now convinced that he was at best an ineffective leader and, at worst, a traitor to their cause. Jefferson Davis was aware of the attitude of the military toward Pemberton and wrote to him that, “I thought and still think you did right to risk an army for the purpose of keeping command of even a section of the Mississippi River. Had you seceded none would have blamed; had you not made the attempt, few if any would have defended your course.” On the other hand, Davis, who had many other issues to deal with, did not yet intervene on his behalf. So, Pemberton languished in Richmond for months, and later wrote that he was buoyed only by his wife’s devotion. Having never received any offers of assignment by other Confederate Generals, in May 1864, he resigned his commission as a General and offered to serve as a private; however, he accepted a position, proposed by Jefferson Davis, as a Lt. Colonel. He was then assigned to an artillery unit, which defended Richmond. He served in that capacity until Richmond was abandoned by the Confederacy in early April 1865.
Throughout the Civil War, he remained close to his wife’s family, as well as his own, and after the war, he settled in with Pattie and the children on a small Virginia farm provided by her family. He always maintained that, given the same circumstances, he would have made the same decisions; however, he was looked upon as a traitor by many in the North and as unreliable, or even disloyal, by many in the South. So, in essence, he became a man without a country.
However, he had Pattie, and that seemed to be enough for John Pemberton.
When he died in 1881, the caretakers of the Laurel Hill cemetery in Philadelphia, where most of his family had been buried, at first refused a plot for him because of his Confederate service. Following appeals by his family, internment was permitted, but in a distant corner of the cemetery, and provided there was no tombstone. His final resting place was marked only by a ground level plate. His wife died in 1907 and is buried next to him, and at that time, a tombstone with both of their names was installed.
So, was he a traitor to the Union? Was he committed to the Southern cause? Or, was he a conflicted Confederate? All we know for sure is that John Clifford Pemberton loved his wife, and paid a price for that devotion.