Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a three part story. The final part will appear on Feb. 16.
Training was short and to the point for the men of the 5th Mississippi. As Eli Gordon stepped off the train at Meridian where his unit was to guard the hub city railroads and Confederate arsenals, Sgt. J.R. Burrage handed him a rifle and asked if he knew how to use it. A simple “yes sergeant” and Eli was immediately qualified for duty then assigned to his post.
As Jim Gordon and Gabe Parker were struggling to get their cotton picked in the fall of 1862, Eli’s unit received orders to transfer from Meridian to Columbus. Here again to guard railroads and arsenals where they were attached to Gen. M.L. Smith’s Division of Mississippi State Guards.
At home, blockades of Southern ports and unreliable rail service prevented Jim from marketing their crops that year. The European bound cotton got no further than the warehouse in Chunky on the Southern Railroad. It remained there until February 1864 when Yankee Gen. William T. Sherman torched the warehouses and depots along with hundreds of civilian homes on his murderous and vindictive trek through the Mississippi heartland.
The Gordon brothers’ labor and investment would yield them nothing that year. In need of cash, Jim sold most of his horses to the Confederate Army, keeping only a few of his best mares and stallions for future herd development. He also sold most of the cattle and hogs that belonged to him and Eli insisting on gold for payment, as he did not trust the Confederate currency and Yankees dollars were rare in the Confederate South. He planned well, having fewer animals to winter; what he did not plan for was a Yankee by the name Benjamin Greirson of the Illinois Calvary.
On April 17 of 1863 Col. Greirson launched a raid from LaGrange, Tenn., that carried over a thousand Yankee soldiers through Pontotoc, Starkville, Philadelphia, Union, Hazlehurst and on into Port Hudson near Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he connected with other Federal forces and laid siege to Vicksburg. Confederate forces were spread very thin in Central Mississippi giving Greirson an almost tactical free will. In Newton, Greirson burned the depot, the Confederate Army Hospital and destroyed two Confederate troop trains. History later showed Grierson’s streak of good" luck at Newton was a major factor in breaking the back of Gen. Pemberton’s Confederate Army in the vital port city. The movie, "The Horse Soldiers," starring John Wayne and William Holden, was loosely based on Grierson's Raid. Very loosely!
Yankee horses were bred as draft animals whereas in the South mules were used in the fields as horses were bred for the saddle and racing. The reputation of Jim Gordon’s horses was no secret anywhere in Mississippi and Grierson’s scouts were very proficient at obtaining information. It did not take them long to learn where the Yankee colonel could find badly needed fresh horses, grain and provisions for his men as his rough and sluggish Yankee plow horses were worn out from the hard ride from Tennessee. Upon arriving in Union, Greirson sent most of his troops ahead while he remained to loot and forage the local civilians. Grierson’s army raided corn cribs and barns, his men looted pantries and smoke houses. From some he took food and grain, from others he took personal belongings. From Jim Gordon he took what every Yankee cavalry officer who ever crossed the Mason Dixon Line wanted, a Jim Gordon horse.
Following Grierson’s raid both Jim and Gabe realized how much they depended on each other as their survival instincts trumped their mutual distrust. The two men formed a precarious alliance that eventually developed into a lifelong trust and respect. Both men knew there would be more Yankees raids to follow but had no idea how merciless the next band of Yankees would prove to be. For Gabe, his thoughts were on his family, unmarried Jim’s priorities were more self-motivated. In the spring of 1863 with little livestock left and facing the uncertainty the war had created, Jim informed Gabe that he was going to Meridian on business and would return in a few days. Jim secretly loaded the gold he had received from the sale of his horses onto a wagon then made the thirty-mile trip to deposit the gold in a Meridian bank. The banker obviously eager to do business with his old friend and fellow horse trader offered Jim a considerable amount of Confederate money for his bounty, an offer Jim quickly rejected without hesitation. Jim was willing to accept Yankee dollars and nothing else but as when he sold his horses there were no Yankee dollars to be had in Meridian. Jim returned to his farm where he buried the gold, never to be seen again by anybody, including himself. Jim Gordon went to his grave with only a few head of cows one mule and thirty-four-hundred acres of land, as the location of the gold and the fate of his wealth is still a mystery today. Family saying is “If Jim Gordon owned any gold, he was the only Gordon who had any.”
Upon arriving in Vicksburg Eli’s company was assigned to Gen. Vaughn’s 61st Tennessee Div. They were immediately ordered to the Big Black River Bridge where their mission was to prevent Gen. Grant from crossing the river, the lone obstacle between the Federal Forces and the South’s last stronghold. That obstacle began to crumble on April 17 , 1863 as Grant’s forces routed the Confederates at the Battle of the Big Black Bridge. Before nightfall on that date, Grant’s entire Army was west of the Big Black with nothing between them and Vicksburg but open cotton fields. Confusion in the Confederate ranks over position and placement of troops created chaos and disaster for Gen. Pemberton’s forces at the bridge leaving the Rebels no choice but to retreat to the fortified bluffs surrounding the city. The battle at the bridge cost Pemberton some eighteen hundred casualties with only three hundred for the Federals. Miraculously Gen. Pemberton was able to regroup and dig in at Vicksburg after his defeat at the Big Black before Grant could organize his full assault on April 19. Eli Gordon had survived his first battle.
With most of Gen. Vaughn’s division assigned to defend the north face of the bluffs, the 5th Mississippi group was ordered along with a company of Texans to guard the courthouse in the center of the city where the Confederate signal corps was housed. Located on the highest spot of ground in the city, the Courthouse was a strategic target for the Federals. Being as far west as it was, the Courthouse was relatively safe from Grant’s shells but vulnerable to Admiral Porter’s Yankee ironclads from the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. A few minutes before midnight on May 29 a shell from Porter’s Navy struck the roof penetrating every floor before exploding at ground level. At least fourteen Confederates lay dead or dying from the blast, among them were Sgt. J.R. Burrage and Pvt. E.J Runnels of The 5th Mississippi. Eli and his fellow Newton County Warriors had felt their first sting of death as two of their own fell prey to the unforgiving Yankee shells. One Confederate soldier wrote, “that came at midnight, crushing through the roof passing below to the marble pavement of the ground floor, exploded and flung two poor fellows against the wall with such mutilation that their own mothers would not have known their dead darlings.” The next morning two more Confederates were killed by one of Admiral Porter’s shells as they were burying their fellow soldiers who died the night before.
Ralph Gordon is a Past President Mississippi Writers Guild and a recipient of the William Faulkner Literary Award.You may contact Ralph Gordon at rgordon512@hotmail.com.
