Personalities of Antietam (1) John B Gordon

kholland

Captain
Retired Moderator
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Location
Howard County, Maryland
The man:

general-john-b-gordon.jpg

John B Gordon was born on a plantation in Upson County, Georgia and later moved with his family to Walker County where his father operated a coal mine. He attended the University of Georgia where he became a senior in just 2 years while holding the highest grade point average of his class. He then dropped out of class before graduation, moved to Atlanta, got married and read law (but did not attract many clients) within a few short years.

He was managing his father's mine when war broke out and although he had no formal training as a soldier he ended up the war as a 33 year old major general in comand of half of Lee's army. And this happened to a man who started his military career as a totally untrained Captain in the "Racoon Roughs" where he commanded mountain men from Georgia and Alabama. This tall, lanky soldier inspired his men with boldness, audacity and a booming voice one man described as "an almost paralleled effect".


The battle:

At Sharpsburg Gordon's 6th Alabama was part of Rodes Brigade along with G. B. Anderson's Brigade stationed in the now famous "Sunken Road". As the yankees advanced southwest toward the road Gordon waited until they got to within 30 paces before yelling "Fire!".

Three times and three repulses of the attackers forced the yankees to lay down and continue to fire. Gordon had had some close calls with enemy bullets before in earlier battles and possibly felt invincible on this day.

His luck ran out.

A ball struck Gordon in the leg, passing through his right calf. A second ball hit him in the same leg. An hour later another ball tore through his left arm, tearing tendons and muscles. A fourth struck his shoulder. Weak from loss of blood, Gordon struggled to lead his men. Seeing the right of his line in jeopardy from enfilading fire, he started to walk there but was struck by a fifth ball that slammed through his left cheek and shattered his jaw. Gordon fell face down into his hat.

He noted later that he might have drowned in his own blood had not a “thoughtful Yankee” earlier given the hat a bullet hole that allowed the blood to drain out.He was carried to a barn where his many wounds were dressed.

His wife Fanny nursed him for 7 months, dressing his wounds and giving him brandy and beef tea as his jaw was wired shut. He would take part in the battles of Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Monacacy before moving on to the Shenandoah Valley where he went against Phil Sheridan. He rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia in December of 1864 where he took part in the final campaign.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/john-b-gordon-1832-1904
http://www.historynet.com/the-9-lives-of-general-john-brown-gordon.htm
John B Gordon "Reminisces of the Civil War"
 
A quote about Grant always comes to mind when I see photos of Gordon.

He habitually wears an expression as if he had determined to drive his head through a brick wall, and was about to do it

(Lt. Colonel Theodore Lyman)
Agreed, wolf. I can imagine him giving that steely stare to a subordinate who did not "measure up".
 
Withering to say the least! I would not want to be on the receiving end of it!
 
I learned something about John B Gordon tonight. I never knew he had no formal
military training. He's just another example of the self trained solider making good.
By the end of the war, he was probably Lee's best division commander in my opinion.
John B. Gordon was not a man who would shy away from a fight and his service
record and numerous wounds bear this fact out.
 
A ball struck Gordon in the leg, passing through his right calf. A second ball hit him in the same leg. An hour later another ball tore through his left arm, tearing tendons and muscles. A fourth struck his shoulder. Weak from loss of blood, Gordon struggled to lead his men. Seeing the right of his line in jeopardy from enfilading fire, he started to walk there but was struck by a fifth ball that slammed through his left cheek and shattered his jaw. Gordon fell face down into his hat.
Wow. I can't believe he survived this. Or that he managed to joke with his wife shortly after. The man must have been made of iron.

"Gordon told a friend later that as he lay on the battlefield, he imagined that half of his head had been shot away and that he was dead, but then he figured a dead man couldn’t move his limbs. Gordon biographer Ralph Lowell Eckert said that the colonel crawled about 100 yards to the rear, where the Confederates were forming a new line, and passed out again."

"Gordon’s spirited young wife Fanny, who followed her husband throughout his military campaigns, came to the barn as soon as she learned her husband had been wounded. When she reached him, she suppressed a scream as Gordon struggled to joke with her, saying he had been to an Irish wedding."

historynet.com
 
Boy, this makes me very uncomfortable....

His war record of four years was the basis of a 30-year post-war political career that was disgraceful by almost any measure. The charge that he was titular head of the Georgia Klan is pretty credible, as are the charges of personal corruption.
 
Back
Top