John b gordon governor of florida

John Brown Gordon would become one of the most successful commanders in General Robert E. Lee ’s army, and would do so without any prior military training.  The son of a prominent minister in Upson County, Georgia, Gordon went to school at the University of Georgia, but dropped out before graduating to study law.  He invested in coal mines in Georgia and Tennessee before the war but at the outbreak of the war was elected captain of a mountaineer company known as the “Raccoon Roughs.”  Gordon's company was eventually incorporated into the 6th Alabama Regiment, and Gordon named as its colonel.   

Colonel Gordon led his regiment during the Peninsula Campaign and the subsequent Seven Days Battles.  During the Battle of Antietam, he received the order to hold a vital portion of a sunken road, now known as the “Bloody Lane.”  When questioned by General Lee whether he could hold his ground, Gordon replied that his men could d