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General John B. Gordon, C. S. A. |
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John B. Gordon was educated at the University of
Georgia and practiced law in Atlanta until the outbreak
of the Civil War. He was wounded eight times, several of
them thought to be mortal at the time, and fought in many
major battles including those at Malvern Hill,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Appomattox. During the battle of Gettysburg, where Gordon served as a brigade commander in Gen. Early's C. S. A. division, opposing General Francis Barlow, U. S. A. was seriously wounded and was left behind by his retreating troops the first day of the battle. Gordon, leading his brigade into the vacated area just north of Gettysburg, spotted Barlow amongst some Union wounded, and recognized his high rank. He dismounted and gave the wounded general water and brandy. Gen. Barlow, fearful that his wounds were mortal, asked Gordon to summon his wife, who was working as a nurse with the Army of the Potomac. At dusk, Gordon sent a message across the enemy lines, and Mrs. Barlow arrived under a flag of truce later that night and nursed her husband back to health in the ensuing weeks. Each man assumed that the other had died as a result of battle wounds, but 20 years later, when Gordon was representing the state of Georgia in the U. S. Senate, the two men met at a social function in Washington. Each asked the other if he was related to the Gettysburg casualty of the same name, and, to their surprise, discovered that each had survived. They became close friends until Barlow died in 1896. Gordon survived all his battle wounds, although he was given up for dead several times during the war, and went on to serve two terms as a Senator from Georgia as well as serving as governor of Georgia. He was the general who surrendered the C. S. A. army to U. S. A. General Joshua Chamberlain at Appomattox after Lee and Grant had signed the surrender document.
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