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General Notes:
Gen. John Brown
Gordon was just 28 years old when the war began, yet by the end of the war, he
was second in command only to Gen. Lee himself. Gen. Gordon was noted for his
personal bravery and keen sense of leadership on the battlefield. One of the
interesting aspects of this account is that Gen. Gordon's wife, Phannie,
accompanied him throughout the war, and is personally credited with saving his
life when the General was wounded 5 times at Fredericksburg.
General John Brown Gordon was an all-round great man--a valiant and
distinguished soldier, an eminent statesman, a great orator, an author of merit,
and a public-spirited and useful citizen. He was born in Upson County, Georgia,
February 6, 1832. His father was the Rev. Zachary Herndon Gordon. The family was
of Scotch extraction, and its members fought in the Revolutionary War. He
received his education at the university of his native State, and by profession
was a lawyer.
At the breaking out of the war, in 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier, and
was elected captain of his company. His career was perhaps as brilliant as that
of any officer in the Confederate army. In rapid succession he filled every
grade--that of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier-General,
Major-General, and, near the end, was assigned to duty as Lieutenant-General (by
authority of the Secretary of War), and while he never received the commission
in regular form, he commanded, at the surrender at Appomattox, one half of the
Army of Northern Virginia, under Robert E. Lee. At the close of the war he had
earned the reputation of being perhaps the most conspicuous and personally
valiant officer surviving, and the one generally regarded as most promising and
competent for increased rank and larger command. His imposing and magnificent
soldierly bearing, coupled with his splendid ringing voice and far-reaching
oratory, made him the "White-plumed Knight of our Southland" and the "Chevalier
Bayard of the Confederate Army." He had the God-given talent of getting in front
of his troops and, in a few magnetic appeals, inspiring them almost to madness,
and being able to lead them into the jaws of death. This was notably done at
Fredericksburg, and again on the 12th of May, at the battle of Spottsylvania
Court House. He greatly distinguished himself on many bloody fields. I mention
now, as most prominent, the battles of Seven Pines, Sharpsburg or Antietam, the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cedar Creek, Petersburg, and Appomattox.
At Sharpsburg he was wounded five times, but would not leave his troops till the
last shot laid him helpless and insensible on the field. A scholarly professor
of history in one of our Southern universities recently stated that in his study
of the great war on both sides he had found but one prominent general who, when
he was in command, or when he led a charge, had never been defeated or repulsed,
and that general was John B. Gordon. At Appomattox, just before the surrender,
when Lee's army had "been fought to a frazzle" and was surrounded by the enemy,
General Gordon, under the most discouraging conditions, led the last charge of
the Army of Northern Virginia, and captured the entrenchments and several pieces
of artillery in his front just before the surrender.
STEPHEN D. LEE,
Commander-in-Chief United Confederate Veterans.
"The thing that made Gordon great--that which bound him close to men and made
him dear to them-- was his mighty heart, strong as the ramparts of the hills
through which he led his columns, gentle and pure as the kind zephyrs of his own
Southland . . . Honest search after the source of Gordon's superb power cannot
fail to show that the fountain of his strength was not merely in his right arm,
nor in his keen and flashing blade, nor yet in his alertness of mind and vigor
of intellect, but in the meeting of these qualities with a pure spirit--these
sterling virtues fused behind the crystal of his soul, forming the true mirror
of knighthood . . . . He was master of many because master of himself."
John Brown Gordon
November 12, 2001 The Augusta Chronicle Copyright 2001
Vicky Eckenrode Staff Writer
For Lt. Gen. John Brown Gordon, April 9, 1865, began with leading his weakened
and hungry forces into battle at Appomattox Courthouse, Va. Hours later, the
Civil War was over, and Gordon had the dubious honor of surrendering the
Confederate army on behalf of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
When he went home, Gordon, the namesake of Fort Gordon, rose through the ranks
in civilian life as he had during the war, eventually serving as a Georgia
governor and a U.S. senator.The son of a Baptist minister, Gordon was born in
Upson County, Ga., in 1832. He attended the University of Georgia and withdrew
his senior year to pursue a law career in Atlanta.
When his practice began to falter, Gordon switched to journalism and wroe tfor a
newspaper in Milledgeville for a year before moving to northwest Georgia to open
a coal mining company.It was there, at the juncture of Georgia, Alabama and
Tennessee, that Gordon was living when the Civil War erupted in 1861.
The volunteer company he recruited was composed of men from the mountains, and
they became know as the "Raccoon Roughs."During a particularly bloody battle at
Sharpsburg, Md., Gordon was shot four times in his arms and legs but continued
fighting until finally passing out when a fifth bullet hit him in the face. He
recovered to fight in the rest of the war. After the war ended, Gordon moved to
an Atlanta suburb to manage insurance and publishing businesses. He lost his
first run for governor in 1868, but the state Legislature selected him to
represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, where he served 1873-80.
In 1886, he was elected governor, and he stayed in the position until 1890, then
rejoined the U.S. Senate for another six years.He retired from politics in 1896.
For several years he lectured, and he published a book about his Civil War
experiences just months before dying in 1904.
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