Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1885 — CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. [ARTICLE]

CHARLES GEORGE GORDON.

A Sketch of the Remarkable British Soldier’s Career. Maj. Gen. Charles George Gordon comes of old Highland stock, but was bom at Woolwich, England in 1833. He was educated at Taunton and at the Woolwich Military Academy, where hd obtained his commission in the Royal Engineers. His earliest employment was at Pembroke, but he was ordered to Corfu during the Crimean war and soon was actively engaged. Here he made such a mark as to bring him distinguished employment wnen the war ended. Afterward he acted as AsMistant Boundary Commissioner in Bessarabia and Armenia. At this time the Chinese war broke out and he joined the army which was advancing on Irkin, and arrived in time to witness the surrender of that place and the destruction of the Summer Palace. In 1862 the Taiping rebellion had made great progress, and the insurgents had nearly arrived at Shanghai. Gordon and the British troops were engaged in driving them away. The leader of the rebellion, like the Mahdi, thought himself inspired, and*called himself the second celestial brother. Although Impeded by every imaginable opposition and obstacle, Gordon managed the campaign against the horde of fanatical rebels with consummate military skill. Several mutinies occurred in his troops, but by his firm manner of dealing with the ringleaders the outbreaks were nipped in the bud. His whole conduct of the campaign was such as to gain lor him the warmest admiration in military circles. The six years following this be spent at home, and were marked by good deeds done by stealth. He spent his salary as Toyal engineer on the poor and in teaching boys whom he had picked out of the gutter. His house was school, hospital, and almshouse in turn. After a brief service as Commissioner at Galatz, Gordon succeeded Sir Samuel Baker as Governor of the tribes in upper Egypt, and his first act astonished every one but his friends. The Khedive offered him a salary of <50,000, but he would only accept tio.ooe, his former pay at Galatz. He landed at Suakin February, 1873; reached Berber tn March, ascended the river in Match, and then started for Gondokoro. Here he began his work, and his policy soon relieved the Suffering people from ths horrible oppression, and curbed where it did not suppress entirely the abominable slave-hunters. He investigated the work personally, and abolished many abuses when he found them. He went among the miserable, degraded people, ministering to their wants with his own hand. In 1877 he obtained the command of the entire Soudan and was also deputed to look into the affairs of Abyssinia. This he did with good effect and then returned to Khartoum to rebegin his work as a reformer, linable to stop bribery, for x example, he put the money into the treasury. He established a water supply which, during the long siege, has proved priceless. After Gordon quitted the Soudan he returned to Europe, accompanied Lord Ripon to India, but resigned his post at Bombay; subsequently went to South Africa to assist in terminating the war in Basutoland, a task he failed in accomplishing. He again started for the Soudan in January, 1884, upon tbe sudden command of Gladstone and the Cabinet. His operations since that time have been closely followed by readers the world over. There are 671 convicts to the Kentucky Penitentiary, and for three months they have not done a day’s work, except those in the cook-house. ,'7-Ex-Gov. Hott, of Pennsylvania, tells that when he was in college (Lafayette) he and his classmates got board for 87 cents a Beverly Tucker, of Virginia, expects to have his volume of reminiscences ready for publication in November. Sitting Bull announces that he would like to bemads a citizen and allowed to vote.