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Lot 949
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CONFEDERATE GENERAL GEORGE W. GORDON’S ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN
CONFEDERATE GENERAL GEORGE W. GORDON’S ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN
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CONFEDERATE GENERAL GEORGE W. GORDON'S ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN
GEORGE W. GORDON (1836 – 1911) Confederate brigadier general, led a brigade at Franklin where he was wounded and captured. He helped found the Ku Klux Klan immediately postwar in Tennessee. A phenomenal A.L.S. ‘Geo. W. Gordon', 20pp. 4to., Memphis, Oct. 23, 1901, to an F. B. James. Gordon provides a lengthy and intricately detailed response to his correspondent's request for information regarding the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia on June 27, 1864, which James had originally intended to direct to Gordon's brigade commander at that engagement, Alfred Vaughan. Gordon explains that Vaughan had died several years previously, but offers to answer in his stead as colonel commanding the 11th Tennessee Infantry Regiment at the ‘dead angle' in the Confederate lines during the battle. Gordon begins by explaining his prewar qualifications as a civil engineer, his thinking in selecting the location of the Confederate lines and the nature of the fortifications and obstacles constructed to defend them, in very small part: ‘...Thus it was, that I was requested to locate this line, which I did and had it laid off at this point, when Gen. Vaughan came to me about twilight and said that I ought to drop back on the left of the line for his position, and that Gen. [Benjamin F.] Cheatham had given him positive instructions to drop his left back abruptly so as to protect his left flank. [Brig. Gen. George E.] Maney was not then on our left and at this time it doesn't seem to have been intended to have any troops to our (Vaughan's) left. But the extension of the Federal line afterward rendered this necessary. I insisted with Vaughan that I had been on the ground before dark and that I had located the line so as to sweep the entire field in front of it, that I had sent a man on foot to the front and had him approach my intended line and that I had in this way ascertained that we could not command the field in our front all the way to our line if I put it any further to the rear – and that we should extend the line around the elevation on which we were standing and as I had already indicated it, saying to him that if I established the line further to the rear the enemy could effect a lodgment in our front if he should ever assault the position. He insisted with such force and repeating Gen. Cheatham's order with such emphasis as almost amounted to order to me to change the line as he wanted it – he, saying at the same time, that we must shorten our line or we would not have men enough to man it. I reluctantly yielded and did as I was instructed,- put the line at and on each side of the salient further to the rear, and what I had predicted actually occurred on June 27 when the assault was made, namely, that not being able to sweep our entire front, a lodgment was effected and we had to abandon the position on the supposition that it would be undermined and blown up…' Gordon goes on to describe the construction of earthworks and the placement of an ‘abattis' (a barricade of felled trees) in front of them, which proved an effective obstacle against the Union attack: ‘...At this abattis, your first line halted, as such, and only one Federal ever reached the works in my front. This was a color-bearer who pushed the brush aside and with his flag made his way through it and fell mortally wounded on the outside of our earth works. After the Federals were repulsed, which was in a very short time, we went over the works and brought him and his flag on our side of the line and he was taken down the hill to where we had a temporary field hospital. A surgeon was called to his assistance but he died within an hour. His name, I think, was Whitehorn and belonged to the 22nd Indiana Regiment. As stated, this was the only Federal soldier that reached my front during the battle, though I think several got into the works on Maney's part of the line and were captured…' Gordon next describes the battle's immediate aftermath and assesses the tactics of the Union forces: ‘...The carnage in our immediate front, was great, indeed awful, for the short time the engagement lasted, as I discovered two days after the battle when a truce was agreed upon for the purpose of burying the Federal dead – during which time, the officers and men of the two armies mingled and conversed freely. I never saw dead men as thick upon the field before or since, unless, perhaps, at the massacre of Confederates at Franklin Tennessee on Nov. 30, 1864. During the truce referred to, some of my men who were out with me among the Federal dead, called my attention to the fact that they had picked up a number of Federal; rifles while walking around and had discovered that a number of them were loaded and with bayonets ‘fixed' but were uncapped. I thereupon asked a Federal officer how this had occurred and he explained that the first line of the assaulting column had been ordered to remove the caps from their guns and to take us with the bayonet – the idea being if they stopped to fire when they were fired upon, they would lose the force and momentum of the charge. But splendid as the spirit and elan of the charge were, the lines were compelled to halt when the successively reached the abattis, and there, being at short range from our line, the death rate in their ranks was fearful, especially when it is understood how comparatively few men we had in the works… It is proper to state, however, in considering the frightful loss sustained by the Federals, that both flanks of the assaulting column were enfiladed both by musketry and artillery while at the same time they sustained a front fire. I did not count the dead I saw upon the field, but was told during the truce referred to, that along a front of, perhaps, not more than three hundred paces, 800 had been counted. The Federal charge on this notable stronghold in our Kenesas Mountain line, was gallant, indeed brilliant, and was sustained as long, perhaps, as any troops could or would have sustained it under the invincible conditions encountered by the attacking force….' Much more good, exhaustive explanation besides. Gordon signs at the conclusion in black ink, adding his address in Memphis, with a pencil biographical inscription added in another hand. Gordon executes all twenty pages on letterhead of the Tennessee Division of the United Confederate Veterans, of which Gordon would later serve as Commander-in Chief, illustrated with the ‘blood stained banner', the third and final national flag of the Confederacy. Shows original mailing folds, with a file hole at the top left of each page, otherwise in fine condition overall and very easily legible. A complete transcription is available upon request.

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March 27, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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