John b gordon antietam
General john a gordon.
From First Manassas to Appomattox, Confederate officer John B. Gordon survived wounds and illnesses. Sometimes you just can’t keep a good man down.
John Brown Gordon lay face down in the dust and smoke swirling along a sunken farm road in Maryland.
It was midafternoon on September 17, 1862.
John brown gordon wife
Only moments before, the tall, slender colonel had used his booming voice to rally his 6th Alabama Infantry in their defense of the Sunken Road at the Battle of Sharpsburg, despite being slowed by two gunshot wounds to his right leg and one each in his left arm and left shoulder.
As his men held the road that would later be re-christened Bloody Lane, a Yankee bullet had slammed into Gordon’s face, knocking him senseless and pitching him face-down into his hat.
To this point the 32-year-old rising star of the Confederacy had been an inspiring leader with a seemingly charmed life.
He had entered the war as captain of a group of mountain men from northwest Georgia, southwest Tennessee and northe