The Fighting Gordons of Greenland

[River Rat]

Considering the harsh frontier culture of the times Jim Gordon and his younger brother Eli didn't have it too bad in 1832 when they moved from Greene County, Alabama to Newton County, Mississippi. It was here their father Govin Gordon. Jr. acquired some two thousand acres of land near Union. The Gordon family carved out a home and farmland from the virgin forest and the contrary red clay of Mississippi. Game and fish were plentiful in the forest and streams of northeastern Newton County where young Eli saw to it that the family had meat on the table during the early and lean years before the farm was productive.

Young Eli was the rebel of the two brothers, often getting into mischief and sometimes fights with the neighbor boys, he also learned to like the taste of corn-whiskey at a young age. Despite his shortcomings Eli's good nature and his generous heart won him many friends. His loyalty to family and faith in God were uncompromising even when he and Jim disagreed on matters of business or family issues.

Jim considered himself the brains of the family, he often became irritated when others didn't acknowledge that or he failed to get his way. Most folks knew him to be stubborn and arrogant to the point of being eccentric. Often the contrasting personalities of Jim and Eli was the root of conflict for them, but loyalty between the two brothers was cemented with the bond Scottish heritage, a code breached by few descendants of Eli Gordon. Jim and Eli's partnership was the ideal combination of interests and abilities. Being good with numbers and negotiating business deals, Jim evolved into business manager for the farm. Eli preferred the outdoors and rugged life style, as he ran the day to day farming and timber operations.

The brothers’ hard work paid off in the 1840s and 1850s as cotton was in great demand both in the U.S. and Europe. Corn crops were bountiful making it possible for Jim and Eli to raise large herds of hogs, cattle and horses. The brothers were thankful for their good fortune and generous with their wealth, their farm became home to many whom were less fortunate.

Gabe Parker was one of those less fortunate than the Gordon brothers. His efforts at farming in the early days of Mississippi failed leaving him homeless with a wife and five children. The Gordons needed labor as their operations outgrew the ability of the two brothers to keep up with the work. Rejecting the accepted practice of slavery, they traded with Gabe to live and work on the place as a sharecropper. Gabe Parker and his family are buried on the farm where he spent most of his life, which still owned by the Gordon family today.

The Gordon Boys, as they were referred to around Union, never lost sight of the fact that their success was possible because of the efforts of their grandfather, Govin Gordon, Sr. and the other patriots who risked everything to win America’s independents from England. They enjoyed nothing better than celebrating that event.

Nowhere in Mississippi could a grander affair be found than the Fourth of July Celebration at the Gordon Boys’ place near Union. Jim and Eli Gordon loved to celebrate the day their grandfather cherished so greatly. The former officer in Washington’s army had planted a strong sense of patriotism in his grandsons that has been the foundation of Gordon legacy since the American Revolution.

Horse racing, mountains of food, plenty of good whiskey and at least one good fist fight just for sport provided the entertainment for the event at a place later to become known as Greenland. The rowdy celebration was tempered somewhat by the preaching of Rev. Mathew Langham and Gospel singing by the ladies and a few sober men. Folks would bring the families in wagons and camp along the banks of the beautiful Little Rock Creek where children swam and fished in the clear and pristine stream. The Fourth of July Celebration of 1860 would never be the same as the political climate of the times had taken a course that would forever change the meaning of that day for Eli Gordon.

Less that a hundred years after his grandfather had fought the British, forty-two year old Eli Gordon turned the farming over to his older brother Jim and Gabe. Gentleman farmer Jim Gordon knew little about growing cotton or corn but would depend on Gabe Parker’s knowledge and skills as Eli would be involved in the bloodiest war in America’s history. Eli Gordon’s fighting nature overwhelmed all other instincts within him at the thought of the Yankees destroying the home he had build with his bare hands where his first wife lay beneath the red clay soil that sustained him.

With Corinth, Mississippi now firmly in the hands of the Yankees, Vicksburg would no doubt be Grant’s next target, which was too close to home for Eli to sit idly by do nothing to help prevent. Should the strategic river port city fall into the hands of the Yankees the demise of the Confederacy would surely follow bringing ruin to the economy of Mississippi and entire of the South. Against the advice and wishes of his older brother, Eli enlisted with the Confederate Forces on July 27, 1862 in Company A of the 5th Mississippi State Troops under the command of Captain Montgomery Carlton. Eli stunned his brother and best friend Gabe Parker with a tearful farewell as he boarded the troop train on a stormy morning in Newton Mississippi.

Jim was not pleased to learn that his widower brother had made provisions for Gabe to inherit his part of the farm in the event he should not return from the war but Eli intended for his land and belongings to go to the family who needed it more than Jim, a decision that drove a wedge of distrust between Jim and Gabe. Eli’s will however was of little consolation for an illiterate man with no money and six mouths to feed as the war came closer to what had once seemed like a safe haven in a bastion of peace.

Training was short and to the point for the men of the 5th Mississippi. As Eli stepped off the train at Meridian where his unit was to guard the hub city railroads and Confederate arsenals, Sergeant J. R. Burrage handed him a rifle and asked if he knew how to use it. A simple “yes sergeant” and Eli was immediately qualified for duty then assigned to his post.

As Jim and Gabe were struggling to get their cotton picked in the fall of 1862, Eli’s unit received orders to transfer from Meridian to Columbus Mississippi. Here again to guard railroads and arsenals where they were attached to Gen. M. L. Smith’s Division of Mississippi State Guards.

At home, blockades of Southern ports and unreliable rail service prevented Jim from marketing their crops that year. The European bound cotton got no further than the warehouse in Chunky, Mississippi on the Southern Rail Road. It remained there until February 1864 when Yankee General William T. Sherman torched the warehouses and depots along with hundreds of civilian homes on his murderous and vindictive trek through the Mississippi heartland.

The Gordon Brother’s labor and investment would yield them nothing that year. In need of cash, Jim sold most of his horses to the Confederate Army, keeping only a few of his best mares and stallions for future herd development. He also sold most of the cattle and hogs that belonged to him and Eli insisting on gold for payment, as he did not trust the Confederate currency and Yankees dollars were rare in the Confederate South. He planned well, having fewer animals to winter; what he did not plan for was a Yankee by the name Benjamin Greirson of the Illinois Calvary.

On April 17 of 1863 Col. Greirson launched a raid from LaGrange, Tennessee that carried over a thousand Yankee soldiers through Pontotoc, Union, Hazelhurst and on into Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he connected with other Federal forces and laid siege to Vicksburg. Confederate forces were spread very thin in Central Mississippi giving Greirson an almost tactical free will. In Newton, Greirson burned the depot, the Confederate Army Hospital and destroyed two Confederate troop trains. History later showed Greirson’s streak of good luck at Newton was a major factor in breaking the back of Gen. Pemberton’s Confederate Army in the vital port city.

Yankee horses were bred as draft animals whereas in the South mules were used in the fields as horses were bred for the saddle and racing. The reputation of Jim Gordon’s horses was no secret anywhere in Mississippi and Greirson’s scouts were very proficient at obtaining information. It did not take them long to learn where the Yankee colonel could find badly needed fresh horses, grain and provisions for his men as his rough and sluggish Yankee plow horses were worn out from the hard ride from Tennessee. Upon arriving in Union, Greirson sent most of his troops ahead while he remained to loot and forage the local civilians. Greirson’s army raided corn cribs and barns, his men looted pantries and smoke houses. From some he took food and grain, from others he took personal belongings. From Jim Gordon he took what every Yankee cavalry officer who ever crossed the Mason Dixon Line dreamed of, Jim Gordon famous horses.

Legend has it that Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest upon hearing the word that Greirson had stolen Jim Gordon’s horses swore revenge on the Yankee who robbed the man who had provided his own soldiers with their superior mounts. Early in the planning stages of his Mississippi raid, Greirson planned a diversionary tactic that would prove to be a fatal mistake for a third of his men. Greirson sent five hundred of his original fifteen hundred troops back to Memphis. They got as far as Aberdeen, Mississippi where, unfortunately for them, they met Gen. Forrest, the only general on either side of the Civil War never to lose a battle.

Following Greirson’s raid both Jim and Gabe realized how much they depended on each other as their survival instincts trumped their mutual distrust. The two men formed a precarious alliance that eventually developed into a life long trust and respect. Both men knew there would be more Yankees raids to follow but had no idea how merciless the next band of Yankees would prove to be. For Gabe, his thoughts were on his family, unmarried Jim’s priorities were more self-motivated. In the spring of 1863 with little livestock left and facing the uncertainty the war had created, Jim informed Gabe that he was going to Meridian on business and would return in a few days. Jim secretly loaded the gold he had received from the sale of his horses onto a wagon then made the thirty mile trip to deposit the gold in a Meridian bank. The banker obviously eager to do business with his old friend and fellow horse trader offered Jim a considerable amount of Confederate money for his bounty, an offer Jim quickly rejected. Jim was willing to accept Yankee dollars and nothing else but as when he sold his horses there were no Yankee dollars to be had in Meridian, Mississippi. Jim returned to his farm where he buried the gold, never to be seen again by anybody, including himself. Jim Gordon went to his grave with only a few head of cows one mule and thirty-four acres of land, as the location of the gold and the fate of his wealth is still a mystery today.

With the 5th Mississippi, their duty at Columbus was almost over in April of 1863 as they soon received their orders to Vicksburg. These men whose only interest in the war was the preservation of their home and families were on the threshold of death and unspeakable hardships that only war can bring. But the common thread that bound them proved to be the element that would cause most of them to survive the most decisive battle of the Civil War.

As the Vicksburg bound train loaded with Rebel troops traveled through the virgin forest of Mississippi, Eli could see the white blossoms of dogwood shining in the sunlight like thousands of tiny angels suspended in perpetual glory. Mother nature’s symbol of peace contrasted greatly with what lay only a few miles ahead for the infantrymen of Co. A.

Upon arriving in Vicksburg Eli’s company was assigned to Gen. Vaughn’s 61th Tennessee Div. They were immediately ordered to the Big Black River Bridge where their mission was to prevent Gen. Grant from crossing the river, the lone obstacle between the Federal Forces and the South’s last stronghold. That obstacle crumbled on April 17 as Grant’s forces routed the Confederates in a fierce battle. Before nightfall on that date Grant’s entire Army was west of the Big Black with nothing between them and Vicksburg but open cotton fields. Confusion in the Confederate ranks over position and placement of troops created chaos and disaster for Gen. Pemberton’s forces at the bridge leaving the Rebels no choice but to retreat to the fortified bluffs surrounding the city. The battle at the bridge cost Pemberton some eighteen hundred casualties with only three hundred for the Federals. Miraculously Gen. Pemberton was able to regroup and dig in at Vicksburg after his defeat at the Big Black before Grant could organize his full assault on April 19.

With most of Gen. Vaughn’s division assigned to defend the north face of the bluffs, the 5th Mississippi group was ordered along with a company of Texans to guard the courthouse in the center of the city where the Confederate signal corps was housed. Located on the highest spot of ground in the city, the Courthouse was a strategic target for the Federals. Being as far west as it was, the Courthouse was relatively safe from Grant’s shells but vulnerable to Admiral Porter’s Yankee ironclads from the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. A few minutes before midnight on May 29 a shell from Porter’s Navy struck the roof penetrating every floor before exploding at ground level. At least fourteen Confederates lay dead or dying from the blast, among them were Sgt. J.R. Burrage and Pvt. E.J Runnels of The 5th Mississippi. Eli and his fellow Newton County Warriors had felt their first sting of death as two of their own fell prey to the unforgiving Yankee shells. One Confederate soldier wrote, “that came at midnight, crushing through the roof passing below to the marble pavement of the ground floor, exploded and flung two poor fellows against the wall with such mutilation that their own mothers would not have known their dead darlings”. The next morning two more Confederates were killed by one of Admiral Porter’s shells as they were burying their fellow soldiers who died the night before.

Some time later the men of The 5th Mississippi were ordered to rejoin The 61st Tennessee again under the command of Gen. Vaughn. They were assigned to the bluffs where they took their revenge on Gen. W.T. Sherman’s army about a quarter of a mile east of Fort Hill just north of the city. Their revenge was short and bittersweet however as the Battle of Vicksburg lasted a torturous seventy-six days creating a man made hell for the Confederates as they suffered merciless and unrelenting shelling from Grant’s army and Porter’s navy.

By the time the last shot was finally fired at Vicksburg the fierce shelling and gun fighting claimed more than nine thousand Confederate casualties but Grant never penetrated the Rebel lines. The Rebels also scored high in the deadly match inflicting more than ten thousand casualties on the Yankees. Both armies suffered from the effects of infection and disease but the Rebels had another enemy. Starvation was taking it’s toll on the troops both physically as well as on their moral. Rations were cut again and again in the Rebel ranks until there was virtually no food left. The empty stomachs of the Rebel Soldiers were far more deadly than Grant’s rifles or Porter’s cannons . The civilian population fared no better than the troops in Vicksburg as Yankee shells did not discriminate, finding their way into civilian homes along with disease and malnutrition.

Facing certain death and with little hope of reinforcements, Gen. Pemberton was strained to come to terms with the inevitable. After two days of intense negotiations with Grant over the terms of his surrender Pemberton waved the white flag on July 4, 1863. Vicksburg and the Mississippi River were now in the hands of the enemy cutting off all supply lines from western sources. But it would be two more years of fighting before Gen. Lee would hand his sword to Grant.

Eli Gordon was among the twenty thousand Confederates taken prisoner by Gen. Grant. Suffering from malnutrition, Eli with barely the strength to hold a pen signed a pledge never to take up arms against the United States again. That piece of paper was all that stood between Eli and an agonizing death by starvation in a Yankee prison camp. Upon receiving his parole under the terms of the surrender, ill and weak Eli was mustered out of service at Columbus on September 23,1863. After fourteen months of living hell Eli was finally reunited with his brother Jim and friend Gabe only to falsely believe the war was over for him but he had another battle to fight. The Yankee Sherman was far from finished with Mississippi, as his Meridian campaign would prove to be the harshest and most violent effort ever perpetrated on American civilians.

Sherman’s thirty-thousand man army virtually destroyed what little infrastructure Mississippi had left with his “total war campaign” as his army raped and pillaged the civilian population encountering only a token resistance from a few State Militiamen and old men with squirrel guns. It was here Sherman earned the name “The Sultan of the Torch”. According to old Gordon legends the rumor of Jim Gordon’s gold found it’s way to Sherman who was known for his lust for the property of Southerners. As Sherman was making his way back to Vicksburg in February of 1863 after wreaking havoc and misery on the civilian population of Central Mississippi he detoured slightly from his Jackson Road route to the Gordon place where he encountered an angry and unforgiving Jim Gordon.

The Yankee Sherman who had been responsible for many unjustifiable deaths and unforgivable misery had met a Southern gentleman who was neither intimidated nor afraid of him. Jim made no attempts to hide his blinding hatred for the Yankees. He would prefer death to conceding anything to the blue coat raiders, a sentiment shared by thousands of homeless Mississippians in the wake of Sherman’s torch. Sherman’s threats and bullying failed to sway Jim Gordon into revealing the location of his gold. Adamantly denying it’s very existence, Jim defiantly offered the Yankee terrarrist a fist full of worthless Confederate money. The sadistic general actually seemed amused at Jim’s offer as he ordered his men to round up what little corn and livestock Jim and Eli had left. Following his February 23rd, raid on the Gordon Brothers, Sherman slept in comfort with a full belly in the Boler’s Inn in Union while thousands of civilian women and children went without supper and shelter on that freezing Mississippi night.

Natural born fighter Eli Gordon refused to accept defeat from the Yankees, in spite of their military victory and his coerced signature on a piece of paper at Vicksburg. With what little strength he had left Eli took to the field that spring of 1864. His good name, good weather and a good pair of mules were all the stubborn Rebel needed to rebuild amidst the ruins of the war and the shame of what Yankee politicians like to call “reconstruction”

 

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