Confederate Army Major General John Brown Gordon is located in Atlantis beautiful and historic Oakland Cemetery. A bronze tablet erected at his grave reads as follows:
"JOHN BROWN GORDON
1832-1904
A native of Upton County, Georgia, and a Major General, Confederate states Army, was one of General Lee's most trusted and outstanding officers. He brilliantly led his devoted men in every engagement in which the Army of Northern Virginia participated, and was severely wounded at the battle of Sharpsburg. He led The War's last charge and following the Appomattox surrender, returned to Georgia.
Idolized by the populace, he served his state 3 times as US Senator and as governor 1886-1890. He was commander-in-chief of the United Confederate veterans from its inception until his death - a fitting tribute to a gallant gentleman.
Placed by
Alfred Holt Colquitt Chapter, UDC"
An equestrian statue in his honor stands the Georgia State Capitol building in downtown Atlanta.
From Wikipedia: (
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"John Brown Gordon (February 6, 1832 – January 9, 1904) was one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted Confederate generals[1] by the end of the American Civil War. After the war, he was a strong opponent of Reconstruction during the late 1860s. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from 1873 to 1880, and again from 1891 to 1897. He also served as the 53rd Governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890.
. . .
It is exceedingly difficult to determine Gordon's exact role in the Klan, but given the nature of his testimony, his almost constant travel throughout Georgia and the South, and his desire to maintain peace, social order, and white supremacy, one can conclude with reasonable certainty that he was at least titular head of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan. Even so, he probably had little knowledge of and little control over the local klaverns, as this terrorist association was never fully organized. Although it is remotely possible that Gordon was unaware of the threats and violence southern whites so often employed against southern blacks, it seems more plausible that Gordon simply "looked the other way" and countenanced such excesses as the price that had to be paid if social peace—a peace determined and defined exclusively by southern whites—was to be regained and preserved. Gordon may not have condoned the violence employed by Klan members, but he did not question or oppose it when he felt it was justified. In this sense, Gordon typified the upper levels of Southern society: he would do what had to be done to assure a white-controlled social order, but he hoped it could be accomplished without violence.
Ralph Lowell Eckert, John Brown Gordon: Soldier, Southerner, American, p. 149."