The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-19


 charge.
 'The cry was taken up by our boys, who shouted, Back, Leel Back Lee? He uncovered and rode through the lines We made the charge and regained the breastworlSs. That was a long, bloody battle, lasting from dawn until o'clock at night Here it was that Gordon won his spurs as major general"
 General Gordon's great love for his soldiers was only equalled by the devot- ion of Washington for his men at Valley Forge.
 An incident is told of Captain "Trip" Harrison and the inspection of his com- mand by General Gordon's inspector dur ing the winter of 1863 The inspector ex- amined the men, who were standing three inches deep in snow, and called to the sergeant:
 You have sixty-four men in line and have sixty-five reported Where is the other man?"
 Tn his tent barefooted" replied Cap tain Harrison. He had no shoes, anc ordered him to stay there."
 The inspector ordered him to be brought out. Captain Harrison refused to order him out and the inspector declared he
 
 General Gordon reprimended the inspec- tor for his remarks and commended Captain Harrison, and sent the unfor- tunate soldier a pair of shoes.
 While inspecting his command, In Vir- ginia, during the fall of '63. General Cor don came to the guard house and found three of his soldiers incarcerated and who as punishment were made to sit astride a log which was supported by legs fash toned after our modern clothes horses.
 What are those men doing in that po- sition?' he asked of the officer of the day. fnf l4
 The officer saluted. and replied:
 "They are being punished for shooting the squirrels in the camp
 Well, you have those men dismounted from those wooden horses and devise some other means of punishment, if they must be punished I am not commanding wooden cavalry"
 The magnitism of General Gordon was never so clearly shown, and his com manding silence was never more keenly felt than at the big convention hall, in New Orleans, last May.
 sick man, to begin with, he forced himself to attend the convention open ing In order that he might be with "the boys as early as possible.
 The immense auditorium was in a hub bub when he arrived and during the time he was being introduced, but as the grand old man arose and began to speak there came over the hall a silence so great and intensifying that his every utterance was heard distinctly. There never was time when the utmost at tention was not given his every word" declared O. P. Levert, a veteran of the twenty-eighth Alabama, who narrated the above incident today at the capitol.
 His confidence in his command, in all the southern troops. and his great love for women and children Is best to be found in the speach he made to number of frightened women in little Dutch town in Pennsylvania He said:
 We haven't come here to make war against defenseless women and children, and knowing these men as I do. l prom ise you the life of any man who ruth lessly enters your home or commits any act of vandalism"
 Captain Trip" Harrison. in narrating this experience. added: ''Yes, and the general knew when he said it that the time would never come when he would have to make 1t good, for he knew his men"
 An inmate of the Georgia soldiers home tells an incident of General Gordon at puai PsbW III Wiitn ut dttldTtu Iudt Gordon looked a giant
 He says:
 We had been fighting hard and bullets were flying thick and fast around Gordon, who up to this time semed to bear charmed life. Dashing backward and forward. the superb rider that he was, we could hear his come on boys, above the din of the battle roar. Suddenly his horse was shot from under him and as he fell Gordon jumped clear of his stir rups and into the air waiving his hat and sword and shouting defiantly, Come on, boys I declare to you that at that time he looked twenty feet tall"
 While in the United States senate he electrified that dignifed body by a speech made there during the anarchistic riot in Chicago.
 He declared:
 If necessary I will head a brigade and march on Chicago to suppress those law less riots and restore the peace of the government"
 This speech was copied far and wide.
 General A. J. West of Atlanta was in Chicago shortly after the event took place in Washington. and while there in conversation with Marshall Field, the millionaire merchant, Field said:
 That speech of Gordons in the senate was worth $lO,O00 to me for the good 1t did me here in Chicago;."
 At the last reunion in New Orleans General Gordon was taken i'll and was unable to view the spectacular parade made by the boys in gray" on the final day of the reunion. but was forced to lie in his room at the St. Charles hotel.
 He did not improve the morning fol- lowing the final day and denied himself to all callers
 But the sponsors
 Those he loved and delightfed to call his girls.
 The morning of his departure as many as could crowded to his apartments. and they were admitted and allowed to ap- proach his bed. kiss him on the forehead and withdraw without eakine.