Pershing is located on the banks of the Tenny River behind the dining hall.  The campsite was shifted southward in the late 60's to make room to add Presumpscot campsite for a few years.

John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing,  (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was an officer in the United States Army. He is the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the Armies, with the exception of George Washington, who by Congressional edict was never and will never be outranked. Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and was regarded as a mentor by the generation of American generals who led the United States Army in Europe during World War II, including George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, and George S. Patton.

John J. Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri. His father, John F. Pershing, was a businessman who owned a general store. When the Civil War began, Pershing senior worked as a sutler for the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment, but did not serve in the military.

Pershing attended a school in Laclede that was reserved for the more intelligent children who were children of high profile citizens. As Pershing's father was well known in Laclede, Pershing and his brother attended this early form of university preparatory school.

Upon graduation from secondary school in 1878, Pershing became a local teacher and became involved with educating local African American children. In this way, although living in an atmosphere of 19th century United States racism, Pershing developed an understanding of racial issues that would later come to play in his military career when he commanded a racially diverse unit of soldiers.

Between 1880 and 1882, Pershing attended the North Missouri Normal School (now Truman State University) in Kirksville, Missouri. In 1882, he applied to the United States Military Academy after hearing that West Point offered excellent college level education. Pershing later admitted that a desire to serve in military was secondary to attending West Point and that he mainly applied to the school because the education offered was better than that of rural Missouri.

~Wikipedia