author
John Brown Gordon
1832–1904
A leading figure in the Confederacy and later in Georgia politics, he moved from the battlefield to the Senate and governor’s office in one of the South’s most turbulent eras. His life helps trace the region’s shift from Civil War devastation to the hard politics of Reconstruction and its aftermath.
1 Audiobook
Campfire and battlefield : an illustrated history of the campaigns and conflicts of the great Civil War
by Rossiter Johnson, Selden Connor, John Brown Gordon, Henry W. B. (Henry Ward Beecher) Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis) Howard, John Tyler Morgan, John Clark Ridpath
About the author
Born in Upson County, Georgia, in 1832, John Brown Gordon studied at the University of Georgia before turning to law and business. During the Civil War he entered Confederate service and rose rapidly, becoming one of Robert E. Lee’s best-known generals.
After the war, Gordon became a major public figure in Georgia. He served multiple terms in the U.S. Senate and was governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890, building a reputation as one of the state’s most prominent political leaders of the late nineteenth century.
Modern accounts also place him squarely within the realities and conflicts of his time: he was a slaveholder, strongly opposed Reconstruction, and remains a controversial figure as a result. He died in Miami, Florida, in 1904.