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  • John Brown Gordon
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  • John Brown Gordon (February 6, 1832January 9, 1904) was one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted Confederate generals during the American Civil War. After the war, he was a strong opponent of Reconstruction and is thought by some to have been the titular leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during the late 1860s. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from 1873 to 1880, and again from 1891–1897. He also served as the 53rd Governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890.
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serviceyears
  • 1861
Birth Date
  • 1832-02-06
Commands
death place
  • Miami, Florida
Spouse
  • Rebecca Haralson
Name
  • John Brown Gordon
Align
  • left
  • right
Caption
  • Gen. J.B. Gordon
  • Caroline Gordon Brown, of Berlin, New Hampshire, was Gordon's daughter
  • Postbellum engraving by Campbell Brothers, New York
Width
  • 135
  • 30.0
Birth Place
  • Upson County, Georgia
Title
  • Governor of Georgia
Rank
  • 35
Class
  • 3
Allegiance
  • United States of America
  • Confederate States of America
Battles
direction
  • horizontal
Before
alongside
Years
  • 1873
  • 1886
  • 1891
After
Image
  • Caroline Gordon Brown.jpg
  • John Brown Gordon postbellum.jpg
State
  • Georgia
laterwork
  • U.S. Senator from Georgia, Governor of Georgia
Source
  • Ralph Lowell Eckert, John Brown Gordon: Soldier, Southerner, American, p. 149.
Quote
  • It is exceedingly difficult to determine Gordon's exact role in the Klan, but given the nature of his testimony, his almost constant travel throughout Georgia and the South, and his desire to maintain peace, social order, and white supremacy, one can conclude with reasonable certainty that he was at least titular head of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan. Even so, he probably had little knowledge of and little control over the local klaverns, as this terrorist association was never fully organized. Although it is remotely possible that Gordon was unaware of the threats and violence southern whites so often employed against southern blacks, it seems more plausible that Gordon simply "looked the other way" and countenanced such excesses as the price that had to be paid if social peace—a peace determined and defined exclusively by southern whites—was to be regained and preserved. Gordon may not have condoned the violence employed by Klan members, but he did not question or oppose it when he felt it was justified. In this sense, Gordon typified the upper levels of Southern society: he would do what had to be done to assure a white-controlled social order, but he hoped it could be accomplished without violence.
abstract
  • John Brown Gordon (February 6, 1832January 9, 1904) was one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted Confederate generals during the American Civil War. After the war, he was a strong opponent of Reconstruction and is thought by some to have been the titular leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during the late 1860s. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from 1873 to 1880, and again from 1891–1897. He also served as the 53rd Governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890.
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