John Pemberton John Pemberton John Stith Pemberton ( – ) was an American pharmacist whom is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. In May 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become world-famous as Coca-Cola, but sold his rights to the drink shortly before his death. Pemberton was born on , in Knoxville, Georgia, and spent most of his childhood in Rome, Georgia. His parents were James C. Pemberton and Martha L. Gant. He entered the Reform Medical College of Georgia in Macon, Georgia, and in 1850, at the age of nineteen, he earned his medical
John C. Pemberton Black River, where he fought and suffered even more heavy losses on May 17. Pemberton resolved to defend Vicksburg and led his defeated men back into its defenses on May 18. In the process, he gave up the high ground on Hayne's Buff which Sherman had failed to take in December. Johnston had advised him that if this ground should ever fall, Vicksburg would be untenable, and that he should escape with his army of 31,000, sacrificing the city. Pemberton refused to take this advice. He held firm for over six weeks, while soldiers and civilians were starved into submission.