About this blog:

This blog is intended to be a centralized location where I can post links and related information about the extraordinary life of my great-great grandfather Hanford Lennox Gordon (1836-1920), his extended family and his descendants. I want other authors here, too. email me: epintar56@gmail.com

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Hanford Gordon & The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Corporal Hanford Gordon 

Company D

Picture below taken shortly after the Civil War, photo credit Minnesota Historical Society





Although this record states he was unwounded, the book Biographical History of the Northwest, by Alonzo Phelps, which seems to be the source for many biographical sketches of my great-great grandfather, states he was shot in the thumb, and also contains a colorful recounting of his capture and escape during his time as a soldier in the First Minnesota.

"At Bull Run he was taken prisoner and put under the guard of two rebel soldiers, one of whom he managed to dispose of by means of his musket, which his captors had taken away from him but had been laid down near a log upon which he was sitting. He then took flight, ran the gauntlet of bullets and made his escape. He received a shot in his haversack and the bullets whistled by him, but he managed to get away.

His health failed, however. His wife came east, perhaps to nurse him. He was diagnosed with lung disease and rheumatism. He was discharged for disability at Camp Stone, MD, on Dec 1, 1861."

Full article:

First Minnesota Net Soldier 407


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