mistreating white Georgians as well as unscrupulous members of the Union League and Freedmen's Bureau that were reported to have been inciting newly freed slaves to use violence. The author Ralph Eckert further makes clear that Gordon wanted to support blacks as long as blacks agreed to remain in a subordinate position. Eckert continues that Gordon clearly did not believe in racial equality and in a speech in 1868 in Charleston, South Carolina, speaking directly to the blacks in the audience said "If you are disposed to live in peace with the white people, they extend to you the hand of friendship" but "if you attempt to inaugurate a war of races you will be exterminated. The Saxon race was never created by Almightly God to be ruled by the African." Legacy The U.S. Army Fort Gordon installation and the adjacent Gordon Highway in Augusta, Georgia, is named for Gordon. The John Brown Gordon statue on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta is the only public equestrian statue in the city. U.S. Highway 19 in Gordon's native Upson County, Georgia, is named in his honor. There is a statue dedicated to Gordon on the lawn of the Thomaston, Georgia, courthouse. Gordon State College (Georgia) in Barnesville, Georgia, is named for Gordon. John B. Gordon Hall in LaFayette is named for Gordon. John B. Gordon Elementary School in Atlanta was named for Gordon. John B. Gordon High School in Decatur, Georgia was also named after him and was open from 1958 until 1987 when Gordon was changed to a middle school and renamed McNair Middle School. See also List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) List of commanders-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans Marye (horse) References Informational notes Citations Further reading Deserino, Frank E. "John Brown Gordon." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. . Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. Francis Parkman Prize edition. New York: History Book Club, 2005. . First published 1988 by HarperCollins. Gordon, John B. Reminiscences of the Civil War. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904. Kross, Gary. "The Barlow-Gordon Incident." Blue & Gray Magazine, December 2001, 23–24, 48–51. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. . White,