Dispersion of the Louisiana Legislature and the General Condition of the Southern States; Volume 1
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John Brown Gordon was a soldier and statesman. He became the most important military figure in the history of Georgia.
Background
John Brown Gordon was born on February 6, 1832, in Upson County, Georgia. Although shortly before his birth, his parents, the Rev. Zachariah Herndon Gordon and Melinda (Cox) Gordon, were living in Wilkes County, North Carolina.
His great-great-grandfather, Adam Gordon, emigrated from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, about 1760 and settled near Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Adam’s son, Charles Gordon, moved to North Carolina and became prominent in the civic affairs of that state; and Charles’s son, Chapman Gordon, was a soldier in the American Revolution.
Education
John matriculated in the University of Georgia and was a member of the class of 1853, but did not graduate. Studying the law privately, he was admitted to the bar and practised for a while in Atlanta.
Career
The outbreak of the Civil War found Gordon engaged in developing coal mines in the mountains of extreme northwest Georgia where the state touches Tennessee and Alabama.
He was only twenty-nine years of age and his life up to this time had been without noteworthy events. Though destined to become the most important military figure in the history of Georgia, Gordon was wholly without training or experience in martial affairs when he was elected captain of a company of mountaineers.
This company, the “Raccoon Roughs, ” was accepted by the governor of Alabama and was soon at the front in Virginia. Under fire, Gordon’s personality and genius for war speedily asserted themselves. He was promoted rapidly and in less than two years became a brigadier-general.
In May 1864, he was promoted major-general and near the end of the war he became a lieutenant-general, being one of the three Georgians to reach that rank. He commanded the II Army Corps and one wing of Lee’s army at Appomattox.
He participated in the battles of Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg. In an official report D. H. Hill spoke of Gordon as the “Chevalier Bayard of the Confederate Army. ”
Returning to Georgia on the conclusion of the war, Gordon resumed the practise of law in Atlanta. He was still a young man, thirty-three years of age, and, with the prestige of his military record and his outstanding ability as a popular leader, naturally entered politics.
In 1868, he accepted the nomination for governor from the revived Democratic party, but was defeated by R. B. Bullock, the Republican candidate.
During these troublous times, Gordon was in the thick of the fight to secure the restoration of home rule in Georgia, and when the Reconstruction period was over he was rewarded by a United States senatorship. In the contest for this coveted post he defeated Alexander H. Stephens and Benjamin H. Hill.
As a senator (1873 - 80), he was regarded as an able representative of the state. Charges, later given currency, that he had been a mainstay of Collis P. Huntington in the latter’s efforts to protect his Pacific railroad interests against legislative action, went unanswered and were generally regarded in Georgia as unimportant.
Shortly after his re-election in 1879, however, Gordon resigned (1880), under circumstances which led to much criticism, and entered the employ of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Gov. Alfred H. Colquitt appointed as his successor for the unexpired term Joseph E. Brown.
These two men and Gordon comprised what has been described as the “new triumvirate” of Georgia Democracy and in general represented the rising commercial and industrial, rather than the agrarian, spirit.
Gordon denied charges of bargain and corruption and six years later was elected governor, serving four years (1886 - 90). On the expiration of his term the legislature again elected him to the United States Senate, where he served from 1891 to 1897.
More than any other Georgian, Gordon fired the imagination of his native state. For nearly forty years he was the idol of the people. In physique, bearing, and manner he was courtly and impressive.
From the organization of the United Confederate Veterans in 1890 to his death he was the commander-in-chief.
In 1903, he published his Reminiscences of the Civil War. This volume gives a detailed account of the major battles in which he participated, but it is more notable because of its entire lack of sectional rancor and its uniform generosity and fairness toward friend and foe alike.
Gordon died on January 9, 1904, at Miami, Florida.
Achievements
During the Civil War, Gordon commanded the II Army Corps and one wing of Lee’s army at Appomattox. He participated in the battles of Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg. In 1903 he published his Reminiscences of the Civil War.
The U. S. Army Fort Gordon installation in Augusta, Georgia, is named for Gordon.
The statue of Gordon on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta is the only public equestrian statue in the city.
U. S. Highway 19 in Gordon's native Upson County, Georgia, is named in his honor.
There is a statue of Gordon on the lawn of the Thomaston, Georgia, courthouse.
Gordon State College (Georgia) in Barnesville, Georgia, is named for Gordon.
John B. Gordon Hall in LaFayette is named for Gordon.
John B. Gordon Elementary School in Atlanta was named for Gordon.
John B. Gordon High School in Decatur, Georgia was also named after him and was open from 1958 until 1987 when Gordon was changed to a middle school and renamed McNair Middle School.
Quotations:
"A people without the memories of heroic suffering and sacrifices are a people without a history. "
"As for the South, it is enough to say that perhaps eighty per cent. of her armies were neither slave-holders, nor had the remotest interest in the institution. No other proof, however, is needed than the undeniable fact that at any period of the war from its beginning to near its close the South could have saved slavery by simply laying down its arms and returning to the Union. "
"No people in the history of the world have ever been so misunderstood, so misjudged, and so cruelly maligned. "
"General Lee, this is no place for you. These men behind you are Georgians and Virginians. They have never failed you and will not fail you here. Will you boys?"
"Mars is not an aesthetic God. "
Connections
In September 1854, Gordon married Fanny Haralson, of Lagrange, Georgia. She went to the war with her husband and was his companion throughout the struggle.
