Lewis & Clark College

Gordon, John Brown

John Brown Gordon 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 to 1897. He also served as the 53rd Governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890. Gordon was born on his father's plantation in Upson County, Georgia, the fourth of twelve children. Many Gordon family members fought in the Revolutionary War. He was an outstanding student at the University of Georgia. He studied law in Atlanta and passed the bar examination. Gordon and his father, Zachariah, invested in a series of coal mines in Tennessee and Georgia. He also practiced law. Gordon married Rebecca "Fanny" Haralson, daughter of Hugh Anderson Haralson, in 1854, and they had a long and happy marriage.

Politicians

1877

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Nineteenth Century Political Party Photograph Collection