Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/497

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GORDON.

of the tribes of Armenia and Koor- distan. Engaged in the expedition against Pekin, he continued on service in China after our difficulties with the Imperial Government had been arranged ; and at the close of the year 1861 he made a long jour- ney from that capital to the Chotow and Kalgan passes on the Great Wall, striking down from the latter place through Shensi, and passing Tiayuen, the capital of that pro- vince, a city before unvisited by foreigners, unless by Catholic priests in disguise. Next entering the service of the Emperor of China, he was appointed, in March, 1863, commander of the "Ever Vic- torious Army," and was mainly instrumental in suppressing the formidable Tai-Ping rebellion in that and the succeeding year. The result of his operations was this. He found the richest and most fer- tile districts of China in the hands of the most savage brigands. The silk districts were the scenes of their cruelty and riot, and the great historical cities of Hangchow and Soochow were rapidly following the fate of Nanking, and were becoming desolate ruins in their possession. Gordon cut the rebellion in half, recovered the great cities, isolated and utterly discouraged the frag- ments of the brigand power, and left the marauders nothing but a few tracts of devastated country and their stronghold at Nanking. All this he effected, first, by the power of his arms, and afterwards still more rapidly by the terror of his name. A detailed account of his exploits is given in an interesting work entitled " * The Ever Victorious Army;' a history of the Chinese Campaign imder Lieut. -dolonel C. G. Gordon, C.B., R.E., and of the Suppression of the Tai-Ping Rebel- lion : by Andrew Wilson," published in 1868. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1859 ; of major in 1862; of lieut.-colonel Feb. 16, 1864; and was nominated a Com- panion of the Bath Dec. 9, 1864.

Colonel Gordon was Bri' Consul of the delta of th< Turkey, from 1871 till li he undertook an expedi Africa under the auspic Khedive of Egypt, who ; him Governor of tiie Pre the Equatorial Lakes. Sub he was created a Pasha, an 1877, the Blhedive appoi Governor of the whole Soudan. In the course of he traversed the whole o consulate, settling difficul fying hostile tribes, chanj officials, gaining the lo^ natives by his unswervin and winning an almost tious admiration by the r his movements through regions submitted to his put down a formidable : Darfur; he brought to i tedious war with Abysi captured hundreds of si vans, and destroyed the the slave^ealers at the vc of their supplies. He w cessful, however, in his establish permanent and tory relations between E Abyssinia. In Jan., 188 tired from the Governors! Soudan, and in May of tlu was appointed private se< the Marquis of Ripon, < General of India, but he that post on his arrival a1 (June 2). He then paid visit to China. In May. accepted the command of 1 Engineers at the Mauritii his term of office expired attainment of the rank c General. The Govemme: Cape of Good Hope appoi to an important post in Ma but he resigned it in the October, in consequence ( agreement with the Cape regarding Basutoland.

GORDON, John B., Upson county, Georgia, 1832. He was educated University of Georgia,