Bloody Lane

During the Battle of Sharpsburg, *Colonel John B. Gordon's 6th Alabama of R. E. Rhodes' Brigade was positioned on the left at the bend in the Sunken Road, later called Bloody Lane, in the center of the Battlefield. The Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Daniel H. Hill withstood several frontal assaults on the position before Brig. Gen. Thomas Meagher's Irish Brigade was able to flank it, making it untenable. The Confederate dead were two to three deep in the lane when it was finally overrun. Gordon, himself was wounded five times. The last wound was to his face causing him to fall, heavily bleeding, face-down into his hat. He attributed his survival to the fact that bullet holes in the hat allowed the blood to run out saving him from drowning in his blood. Below is a recent photograph of Bloody Lane, taken in 1995.

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This is the monument to Gen. John B. Gordon on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta.
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The Attack On Fort Stedman

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*On 12 April 1865, Gordon was at the head of the column of the Army of Northern Virginia as they marched to the official surrender site where they were to stack arms and surrender their colors. When **Joshua L. Chamberlain ordered the Federal troops there to "carry arms" in salute to the Confederates, Gordon reared his mount and dropped his sword to his boot tip to return the honor.

**........On they come, with the old swinging route step and swaying battle flags. In the van, the proud Confederate ensign. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood; men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond; was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured? On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word, nor whisper or vain-glorying, nor motion of man, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead.
-Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, (Confederate surrender at Appomattox)