John Ross: How to paint like a Coke a Cola employee

John Stith Pemberton was an American biochemist and Confederate States Army veteran who 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 Coca-Cola but sold his rights to the drink shortly before his death.

Pemberton served with distinction as a lieutenant colonel in the Third Georgia Cavalry Battalion during the Civil War and was almost killed in the fighting at Columbus in April 1865. In 1869 he became a principal partner in the firm of Pemberton, Wilson, Taylor and Company, which was based in Atlanta, where he moved in 1870. 

Confederate Army

Pemberton joined the army of the Confederacy in May 1862, and was made first lieutenant. As a founding member of the Third Georgia Cavalry Battalion, Pemberton defended the city of Columbus became lieutenant colonel as a result.

3rd Cavalry Regiment was organized by Colonel M. J. Crawford and mustered into Confederate service at Athens, Georgia, during the early summer of 1862. Some of the men were from Rabun, Whitfield, and Cherokee counties. It fought in Kentucky with General Wheeler, but at New Haven most of the unit was captured.

Emory University School of Medicine

Two years later he became a trustee of the Atlanta Medical College (later Emory University School of Medicine) and established a business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his own brands of pharmaceuticals were manufactured on a large scale. He also served for six years (1881-87) on the first state examining board that licensed pharmacists in Georgia.