Gordon, General Charles George (1833–1885)
Journal: The Encyclopedia of War
Year: 2011

Abstract Legendary commander of the “Ever Victorious Army” (1861–1864), and heroic yet futile defender of Khartoum (1884–1885), the soldier, mystic, explorer, and martyr Major‐General Charles George Gordon was an authoritarian imperialist who loathed authority and empire; a skilled tactician lacking political sense; a mercurial personality suspended between despair and rapture; and an unlikely icon of Victorian empire. The son of a Royal Artillery officer, Gordon trained at the Royal Military Ac