Benjamin Franklin Gordon

Benjamin Franklin Gordon (May 18, 1826 – September 22, 1866), commonly known as B. Frank Gordon, was a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War (Civil War). Gordon had been a private and bugler for a Missouri regiment serving in the U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War. Gordon served in the Confederate Army under Brigadier General Joseph O. "Jo" Shelby in Missouri and Arkansas in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department throughout the war. On May 16, 1865, with the war coming to an end, General E. Kirby Smith, as the Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, assigned Gordon to duty as a brigadier general. The Confederate government took no action on the appointment and Confederate President Jefferson Davis did not officially appoint and nominate Gordon to the rank of brigadier general because the Confederate Senate last met on March 18, 1865, and Davis was captured by Union troops on May 10, 1865. Although he was only aged 40 at his death, Gordon survived the war by little more than a year.

Early life Gordon was born in Henry County, Tennessee, on May 18, 1826. His parents, Thomas W. Gordon and Eliza (Brooks) Gordon moved the family to Lafayette County, Missouri in 1831. was a private and bugler in Doniphan's Missouri regiment in the Mexican–American War.

American Civil War service Gordon was an early enlistee in the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard. When Shelby thereafter began to lead his "Iron Brigade," including the 5th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, Gordon succeeded to command of the regiment. They also did not return fast enough to cut off Steele's return march to Little Rock or to participate in the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, the one big engagement during the retreat before the Union troops escaped across the swollen Saline River.

Gordon's regiment next engaged the 10th Illinois Cavalry Regiment at Searcy, Arkansas, in July 1864 and routed them. Gordon led his men to a similar victory at Helena, Arkansas, two weeks later.

Under Shelby, Gordon led his men on Major General Sterling Price's 1864 raid into Missouri from August 1864 to December 1864.

Aftermath After E. Kirby Smith's surrender of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, Gordon went with Jo Shelby and some of his officers and men to Mexico.

Nonetheless, Gordon did not survive long after the Civil War. Gordon died on September 22, 1866, in Waverly, Missouri. He is buried in Waverly Cemetery, sometimes called Old Waverly Cemetery.