Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/357

 GORDON

GORDON

-\

'O^^^

■^c

graduated. He was admitted to the bar and practised in Atlanta, Ga., with liis brotlaer-in- law, Logan E. Bleckley, afterward chief -justice of Georgia. He was married in 1854 to f^mnj-, daughter of the Hon, Hugh Anderson Haralson of La Grange, Ga. He engaged with his father in mining coal in ";■>> Georgia and Tennes-

see, joined the Con- federate army as captain of volimteers in 1861, and was pro- moted major, lieuten- ant-colonel, colonel, brigadier-general, ma- jor-general and act- ing lieutenant-gen- eral, commanding a wing of Lee's army at the close of the war. At Sharpsburg in 1863 he was five times wounded, four rifle balls passing through his body. The fifth passed through his face and rendered hiin unconscious. He was carried from the field and was nursed back to life by his wife who accom- panied the army to be near her husband during the four years of war — nursing in the hospitals of Richmond when the army was around that city. He commanded an infantiy division at Gettysburg and led the attack, July 1, 1863, where in the midst of a charge he humanely succored Gen. Francis C. Barlow of New York and sent a message from the apparently dying soldier to his wife at Meade's headquarters. For Spott.syh'ania, where he repulsed Hancock's corps, May 13, 1864, he was promoted major- general and was commander of the 3d army corps of the Army of Northern Virginia as successor to Lieutenant-General Jackson. He held the last lines at Petersburg guarding the retreat from that cit)'. and at Ajipomattox was assigned to the command of 4000 troops (half of Lee's army), with the intention of cutting his way through Grant's line. He made the last charge and was taking the Federal breastworks and capturing artillery when the movement was annulled by the surrender of his chief. After the farewell to the army of Northern Virginia had been spoken by General Lee, (Jordon addressed the 3d corps and e.xhorted his men to " beartheir trial bravely, to go home, keep the peace, obey the laws, rebuild the country and work for the weal and harmony of the republic.'' After this he settled in Atlanta Ga He was a member of the Union na- tional convention at Philadelpliia in 1860; chair- man of the Georgia delegation to the Democratic national convention of 1868; was, according

to the claims of his party, elected governor of Georgia in 1867, but was counted out by recon- struction machinery; was a delegate-at large to the Democratic national convention at Baltimore in 1873; U.S. senator, 1873-79; was re-elected in 1879, and in 1880 resigned to promote the building of the Georgia Pacific railroad. He was governor of Georgia, 1886-90; U.S. senator, 1891-97, and declined in 1897 a re election to the senate, there- after devoting his time to lecturing and literaiy work. In the U.S. senate his speeches on finance, civil service reform and in defence of the south were conservative in tone and exerted a powerful influence in allaying the strained conditions of affairs In the Louisiana troubles of 1876 the Democrats of congress selected him to diaft an address to the people of the south, in which he coimselled patience, endurance and an appeal to a returning sense of justice to cure their present wrongs. In 1877 Governor Hampton empowered him to look after the interest of South Carolina and he secured the witlulrawal of Federal troops from the state. In 1893 at the time of the Chicago strike, he made a speech in the U.S. senate in which he jiledged the south to main- tain law and order. He became well known in the lecture field and under his historic theme, "The Last Daj's of the Confederacy," he gave the story of the war a new color and corrected many false impressions that had served to keep at variance the people of the two sections for a whole generation

GORDON, Joseph Claybaugh, educator, was born in Piqua, Ohio, March 9, 1842; son of the Rev. John JI. and Elizabeth Ann (Fisher) Gor- don; grandson of George Gordon, a soldier in the war of 1812; and a gj-eat grandson of George Gordon, a soldier in the war of the American Revolution. He removed to Illinois in 1850 and was graduated from the Monmouth college. 111., in 1866. He was a pioneer in America of the oral education of the deaf, and organized the oral department in the Indiana institution for the deaf in 1869. He was professor of mathematics and chemistry at Gallaudet college for the deaf in Washington, D.C. . 1873-97, and was made superintendent of the Illinois institution for the education of the deaf in 1897. He received the degree of PhD from Monmouth college. He was elected a member of the Philcsophical and other learned societies; president of the oral section of the Association of American educators of the deaf: and first president of the XVI sec- tion ^department for the deaf) of the National educational association. He is the author of Kilni-iiUon of Dcnf Chilih-rn; Xntcs mtd Ohxcrra- linnit on the Edncntion of the Draf and numerous articles in periodicals on the progi'esv made in the education of the deaf.