JOHN B. GORDON REMINISCENCES

This moving passage is transcribed by David L. Welch from:

"Reminiscences of the Civil War", by John B. Gordon, Copyright 1903, Charles Scribner and Sons, Reprinted by TIME-LIFE books as part of the "Collector's Library of the Civil War", 1981, Chapter IX, "War by the Brave against the Brave", pages 108-109.

(Note scar under left eye from facial wound suffered at Battle of Antietam--at the time of receiving this wound, Gen. Gordon ended up face down with his face in his hat. As his hat filled with blood, he literally began to drown in his own blood. Fortunately a soldier nearby helped him to his feet and helped him to safety and medical attention. He survived this battle, and many others and lived through the war to write his reminiscences.

"In Kansas City recently an ex-Confederate recorded his name upon the hotel register. Mr. James Locke, of Company E, One Hundredth Pennsylvania Volunteers, was in the same hotel, and observed the name on the register. Locke had lost a leg at the second Manassas, and a Confederate had carried him out of the railroad cut in which he lay suffering, and had minstered to his wants as best he could. Locke had asked this soldier in gray before leaving him to write his name in his (Locke's) war diary. The Confederate did so, and was then compelled to hurry forward with his command. He had, however, in the spirit of a true soldier, provided the suffering Pennsylvanian with a canteen of water before he left him. There was nothing unmanly in the moistened eyes of these brave men when they so unexpectedly and after so many years met in Kansas City for the first time since they parted at the railroad cut on a Virginia battle-field."

(Web author's note: General John B. Gordon was the Confederate officer that Robert E. Lee had coordinate the pre-dawn attack on Fort Stedman, Virginia, outside of Petersburg March 25, 1865 which was initially successful but ultimately failed after the Union's re-taking of the fort the same day. Coincidentally, this battle was probably the Roundhead's finest hour as they captured four Confederate flags, and were of the first Union regiments to re-enter the fort and re-take it. The Roundhead's two Medal of Honor winners, Joseph Chambers and Charles Oliver received their medals based on their brave actions here and there were numerous promotions at this time, including Major Norman J. Maxwell's promotion to Colonel and then to Brevet Brigadier General.)