CS Gordon, Frances Rebecca Haralson

Frances Rebecca “Fanny” Haralson Gordon
From A to Z
- Women

:CSA1stNat:
Gordon.jpg


Born: September 18, 1837

Birthplace: LaGrange, Georgia

Father: U.S. Congressman Hugh Anderson Haralson 1805 – 1854
(Buried: Hillview Cemetery, LaGrange, Georgia)​

Mother: Caroline Matilda Lewis 1808 – 1858

Husband: Major General John Brown Gordon 1832 – 1904
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia)​

Married: September 18, 1854 at Myrtle Hill in Troup County, Georgia

Children:

Hugh Haralson Gordon 1855 – 1937​
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia)​
Major Frank Gordon 1858 – 1907​
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.)​
John Brown Gordon Jr. 1865 – 1884​
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia)​
Frances Gordon Smith 1868 – 1951​
(Buried: Dublin Town Cemetery, Dublin, New Hampshire)​
Carolina Gordon 1877 – 1877​
(Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia)​

Life Events:

The Wedding took place in her father’s bedroom due to his poor health​
One week after the wedding her father died at Myrtle Hill​
The Couple moved to Atlanta, Georgia after the wedding​
During the Civil War Fanny followed her husband thru the battles​
She nursed her husband after he was wounded at Antietam​
After the battle of Chancellorsville, she moved to Richmond, VA​
1864: Fanny followed her husband during the Valley Campaign​
1864: Fanny’s Carriage Broke down and she was almost captured​
1864: At Winchester she attempted to rally Confederate Soldiers​
1886 – 1890: First Lady of the State of Georgia​
1904: Her Husband John Brown Gordon died in Miami, Florida​

Died: April 28, 1931

Place of Death: Augusta, Georgia

Age at time of Death: 93 years old

Burial Place: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia


"How far we will go, no one seems to know. I doubt Gen'l Lee himself knows.…Fan, your letters are the most beautiful evidences of a wife's devotion I have ever seen. Write them to me dear dear Fanny. They are so sweet to me, when I am so far away from you & on such a cheerless 'jaunt' as this….May God protect us and bring us together again. Pray that I may have His spirit always in my heart. Good bye darling, sweet wife."

(Wrote to Fanny right before the Battle of Chancellorsville)


"Oh Fanny, what shall I say to you? How shall I tell you what I feel tonight?…If I could only lay my arms around my dear wife & press her close to this heart--how it would relieve me. If down my sunburnt cheeks a tear, which I can't control, steals when I write this, am I therefore unmanly & effeminate?

"Well then, let it be so. But it is only when my heart is overwhelmed by such reflections as I have had tonight, that I am guilty of such unmanliness--and but for a moment then--I am almost sorry I confessed this to you. I shall control myself in the future…Well rely on it, I shall shed no more tears soon."

"My Brigade has been greatly complimented. Genl Early & Ewell & others have paid me very high compliments; but Darling these things are worth very little to me. I rarely give them a second thought. My soul is too much burdened with the terror of this war to think much of such stuff. My separation from you…the soul of my happiness on this Earth…the awful uncertainty as to the future…the seemingly endless blood shed that is to take place…the thousands of noble lives lost in the last horrid battle, all conspire to render every personal compliment and idle talk of glory as exceedingly worthless to me.

"These times are too serious and my heart too deeply interested in the fate of our unhappy country and too burdened with the fact of my probable long separation from My Darling, to think much of personal considerations. But I have been peculiarly fortunate & have made without an effort to do it, some reputation as a commander.

"My dear girl, what shall I say to you, to give you an idea of my heart aching, when I think of our separation--I say when I think. Why Darling, except in the midst of battle, you are scarcely out of my thoughts. Indeed I am not at all sure that I do not think of you in battle. I am quite sure that the idea occurs to me, of the desolation which would reign in your heart if I should be killed. I think this occurred to me in the last battle at Gettysburg…

"Good bye. The Lord of Hosts bless you my dear dear wife & little boys. I am trying to rely upon the same protection I have felt in other battles. My Saviour I trust is my friend. If I am spared it is on His account.

"Good bye again my sweet angel wife."

John B. Gordon.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top