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G.A. Gordon
"Jake"
(1833 - 1878)
Home State: Virginia
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1854;Class Rank: 30
Command Billet: Commanding Detachment
Branch of Service: Cavalry
Before Antietam
Following graduation from West Point, he was appointed Brevet 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd US Artillery on 1 July 1854. He was promoted 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd US Artillery 20 Feb 1855, and transferred to the 2nd Dragoons on 3 March. He was made 1st Lieutenant 4 June 1858 and Captain on 30 May 1861, going to the 2nd US Cavalry 3 August.
On the Campaign
In command of Companies E, F, H, and K of the 2nd US Cavalry. Part of the Provost Guard, Headquarters, Army of the Potomac.
The rest of the War
He was twice brevetted during the war: for action at New Bridge, Virginia (3/24/1862, to Major) and Trevillian Station (6/11/64, Lieutenant Colonel).
After the War
Continuing in Regular Army service, he served on the frontier in Kansas, was promoted to Major of the 4th Cavalry on 1 Nov 1867, then out to Texas. As of May 1869 he was "in arrest, and awaiting orders" at Austin, and in October was at Ft. Griffin, Texas "undergoing sentence of suspension to July 1, 1870". He was unassigned awaiting orders afterward, and honorably mustered out of the regiment on 1 January l871. He was re-appointed Major, then in the 5th Cavalry 27 Jan 1873 and was in the far West and Southwest, and on Army boards in Washington DC until his death in late 1878.
References & notes
Birth
1833 in VA
Death
10/26/1878; Washington, DC; burial in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 465 [AotW citation 1179]
2 US Army, Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)-Massachusetts Photograph Collection, Published 2009, <https://arena.usahec.org/web/arena>, Source page: pg. 3584 [AotW citation 1180]
3 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79 [AotW citation 1181]