General John Pemberton

The Confederate General whom Ringo and Bayard take turns playing in "Ambuscade" and again in The Unvanquished, John Pemberton, was a historical figure. A career Army officer born in the North, Pemberton decided at the start of the Civil War to serve in the Confederate army - in part because he had married a southerner and in part because he had lived in the South for many years. He was in command of Vicksburg during Grant's 1862-1863 campaign against that river town, and surrendered it to the Union forces on the Fourth of July, 1863. General Pemberton is also mentioned in Requiem for a Nun, as a man who had defended the "principle and right" that "voluntary communities" should shall be "secured from Federal meddling" (86-87).