Tanner and Vanness Lynchburg VA bm.  John Brown Gordon would become one of the most successful commanders in General Robert E. Lee ’s army, and would do so without any prior military training. The son of a prominent minister in Upson County, Georgia, Gordon went to school at the University of Georgia, but dropped out before graduating to study law. He invested in coal mines in Georgia and Tennessee before the war but at the outbreak of the war was elected captain of a mountaineer company known as the “Raccoon Roughs.” Gordon's company was eventually incorporated into the 6th Alabama Regiment, and Gordon named as its colonel. Colonel Gordon led his regiment during the Peninsula Campaign and the subsequent Seven Days Battles. During the Battle of Antietam, he received the order to hold a vital portion of a sunken road, now known as the “Bloody Lane.” When questioned by General Lee whether he could hold his ground, Gordon replied that his men could do so "until the sun goes down or victory is won." Though Gordon managed to hold the line against repeated attacks, victory came at a high personal cost for Gordon who was wounded four times but remained in command until a fifth wound--a minie ball to the face--rendered him unconscious. Falling face first into the road, only a bullet hole in his cap prevented him from drowning in his own blood. After recuperating from his wound, Gordon was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of a brigade of Georgia regiments. His brigade would play an important roll during the Battle of Gettysburg, during which he and his men attacked Barlow’s Knoll on the first day of the battle. Gordon commanded his troops with great success during the Overland Campaign. At the Battle of the Wilderness, Gordon’s brigade counterattacked and pushed back a Federal breakthrough at Saunders Field. The next day, although darkness and confusion brought an end to the fighting, Gordon launched a highly successful flank attack in which hundreds of Union soldiers and two Union