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Letter from Captain George W. Gordon, Prison 3, Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, to his children dated March 17, 1862. An excerpt from the letter is available in the finding aid to the Civil War collection., Captain Gordon served in Company E of the 48th (Voorhies’) Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. The 48th Regiment of the Tennessee Infantry was organized at Camp Maury, near Nashville, Tennessee, in December 1861. Sent to Fort Donelson, Tennessee, around 360 men from the regiment were captured after its surrender in February 1862. The captured field officers were sent to Fort Warren, Massachusetts; the line officers firstly to Camp Chase, Ohio, and then in May to Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie; the enlisted men to Camp Douglas, Illinois. In September 1862, the Federal government agreed to an exchange and the officers and men of the 48th Regiment were released at Vicksburg, Mississippi., George Washington Gordon (1808-1862) was born in North Carolina and became a lawyer and planter in Maury County, Tennessee, owning an estate called “Boxwood” of 600 acres. He also owned the Gordon Springs resort in Walker County, Georgia. Gordon married Elizabeth Bradshaw (1811-1858) from Tennessee. After Gordon volunteered to join the Confederate army, he was elected captain of Company C (later E), a unit raised in Maury County. He survived incarceration at Johnson’s Island and was part of the exchange in September 1862. The boat carrying him and others docked at Memphis, where Gordon's sister, a nurse, tried to get him off the boat due to his health, but her request was denied. The day after the boat reached Vicksburg, however, Gordon was dead.

Identifier

sc.0048.004_16.01

Date

1862 March 17

Keywords

Confederate States of America. Army. Tennessee Infantry Regiment, 49th., Gordon, George W., Captain.

Capt. G.W. Gordon letter, 1862 March 17

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