The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-11-25
MEMORIAL SKETCH
OF Last Hours, Death and Funeral
of General John B. Gordon.


8, 1904, General Gordon was st-ick-
en- with his last illness. Less THAI
three weeks before he had come to
his winter home on Biscoyne Bay
in Florida, where the sunlight and
balmy air, always a delight to him,
had seemed to revive him and stir
his enthusiasm to a degree unusual
even in one of his energetic and
Joyous temperament. Those great
qualities which set him high among
men, illumined with peculiar lustre
those last weeks, making them an
epitome OF his whole life -uncon-
querable energy, undyiug enthusi-
asm, above all, unselfish love.
These were his traits which had
borne him through the battles of
war and the battles of peace, and
through years of peerless civic serv-
ice; the traits which uplifted the
work of his stalwart years and bore
hisspirit indomitable through years
of physical frailty, and which, at
the very last. shone through the
mist OF his dying hours with the
glowing beauty of setting sun.
Only the day before his illness he
was tramping over the fields and
through the orchards with is
grandson planning with the delight
OF boy. my son, this shall be
paradise for your grandmother and
all of us some day Before noon
on Wednesday he was unconscious
and it seemed he would sink out OF
sight without sign, but in forty
eight hours he rallied. On Satur-
day morning he looked out on the
sunlit bay and at the great palms
waving against blue sky and said
in low, broken tones, ut seems a.
poor use of Gods beautiful gifts to
us to be i'll on day like this. .
From then until the end he was
conscious enough to be constantly
solicltous of the comfort of those
about him and to give, during every
fleeting hour some tender thought
to that one who had been the com
rade of his soul for nearly fifty
years-his helpmeet in the loftiest
sense, his comforter, his counsellor,
his friend and as his beautiful
spirit was poised for its glorious
fight he gave to her the last look
and smile and token OF recognition.
AT five minutes past 10 o'clock on
Saturday night, January 9, he
passed into another life as peace
fully as a little child falls asleep.
Within an hour the message had |
sped over the wires to the whole |
country, and the crowds around the
bulletin boards in many Southern
cities turned silently and with tear
dimmed eyes scattered to their
homes. Before midnight newsboys
were crying the sad news up and |
down the residence streets, and on
Sunday morning the heart of the
whole South seemed to go out in
one great throb Of pain and SYM
pathy. From every quarter of the
country, as far as the wires could |
carry them, came messages of sym
pathy from those who loved the
man and from those who mourned |
the nations loss.
On Sunday evening at the request
Of the people OF Miami, Florida, the
body was borne with military es-
rort to the Presbyterian Church in
that little city on the bay, to lie
there IN state until the funeral |
train should leave for Atlanta. Al
detachment of Florida troops ac-
companied the remains to Atlanta
and at the State line this guard of
honor was augmented by members
Of the staff of Georgia's Governor.
AT every station beautiful flowers
we're brought to the funeral car,
and when time allowed old Confed-
crate veterans, with tears stream
ing down their rugged cheeks, filed
by to look for the last time on the
face Of their beloved leader.
In the cold gray dawn of the jan
nary morning a great throng over
flowed the station and filed the
streets as the train rolled into At
iapta bearing the body Of General
Gordon. The official escort await
ing the train was composed of the
new mmander-in-chief of the
Veterans Association,
sx-Confederate officers, members
and commanders of four camps Of
veterans, the Confed-
crate veterans on the Atlanta police
force, mounted police and State mi
itia, besides these thousands stood