Gordon-Lee Mansion

Last updated
Gordon-Lee House
Gordon-Lee Mansion Main.jpg
USA Georgia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location217 Cove Rd., Chickamauga, Georgia
Coordinates 34°52′19″N85°17′41″W / 34.87181°N 85.29479°W / 34.87181; -85.29479 Coordinates: 34°52′19″N85°17′41″W / 34.87181°N 85.29479°W / 34.87181; -85.29479
Area13 acres (5.3 ha)
Builtc.1840, 1900
Built byGordon, James; Alsup, H.
Architectural styleGreek Revival
NRHP reference No. 76000654 [1]
Added to NRHPMarch 22, 1976

The Gordon-Lee Mansion is located in Chickamauga, Georgia and was originally referred to as the Gordon residence. Construction began in 1840 and was not completed until 1847 due to labor and financial issues. [2] It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Gordon-Lee House and is also known as the Gordon-Lee-Green House. It is individually listed on the National Register, and is also included in the Chickamauga Historic District. The listing includes six contributing buildings including the main house, a slave house, and a smokehouse, and it includes two contributing sites, on 13 acres (5.3 ha). [1]

Contents

The house was built by slave labor. Bricks were made on the site. [3]

Just before the Battle of Chickamauga the home was used by the Union army as the headquarters of General Rosecrans. During the battle it was used as a federal hospital for soldiers. The mansion is the only remaining structure from the Battle of Chickamauga. [2] As it stands now the home is owned by the city of Chickamauga and is a national historic site. The Gordon-Lee Mansion has now been turned into a Wedding venue and is open for tours during spring and summer.

History

The mansion property was bought by James Gordon after the removal of the Cherokee in 1836. Mr. James Gordon previously built the Gordon Mill, which served as the first general store in Walker County, Georgia. With the success of the mill, Mr. James Gordon wanted to build a permanent estate. Construction began in 1840, but due to labor and financial problems it was not completed until 1847.

During the American Civil War the home was used as Union headquarters for General William S. Rosecrans, just before the Battle of Chickamauga (September 18–20, 1863). [4] During and after the battle the mansion was turned into a hospital. Wagons were backed up under the windows of the house so the severed limbs of soldiers could be tossed out and disposed of more easily. The floors were so covered in blood that mats had to be put down to hide the stains. Many soldiers wrote their last words upon the walls and the women of the Gordon family would copy the messages down and try to send them to family members of the fallen soldiers. [5]

James Lee bought the house from the Gordon heirs and was married into the family after wedding Elizabeth Gordon. After the death of him and his wife, their son Gordon Lee bought the house. Mr. Gordon Lee completely remodeled the house in the early 1900s and made the double front porch into one with tall pillars, this is the current state of the house. [5]

The mansion stayed in the Gordon family for a hundred and seven years until it was sold to Dr. Green in 1974. It was then that the house and its grounds went under some reconstruction, it now looks very similar to the way it did over a century ago.

Related Research Articles

Chickamauga, Georgia City in Georgia, United States

Chickamauga is a city in Walker County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,101 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

George Henry Thomas American army general (1816–1870)

George Henry Thomas was an American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater.

Battle of Chickamauga American Civil War battle

The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 19–20, 1863, between U.S. and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a Union offensive, the Chickamauga Campaign, in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia, the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater, and involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg.

William Rosecrans Diplomat, politician, and U.S. Army officer

William Starke Rosecrans was an American inventor, coal-oil company executive, diplomat, politician, and U.S. Army officer. He gained fame for his role as a Union general during the American Civil War. He was the victor at prominent Western Theater battles, but his military career was effectively ended following his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.

Westover Plantation Historic house in Virginia, United States

Westover Plantation is a historic colonial tidewater plantation located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. Established in c. 1730–1750, it is the homestead of the Byrd family of Virginia. State Route 5, a scenic byway, runs east–west to the north of the plantation, connecting the independent cities of Richmond and Williamsburg.

Chickamauga campaign

The Chickamauga campaign of the American Civil War was a series of battles fought in northwestern Georgia from August 21 to September 20, 1863, between the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee. The campaign started successfully for Union commander William S. Rosecrans, with the Union army occupying the vital city of Chattanooga and forcing the Confederates to retreat into northern Georgia. But a Confederate attack at the Battle of Chickamauga forced Rosecrans to retreat back into Chattanooga and allowed the Confederates to lay siege to the Union forces.

George Washington Parke Custis Adopted son of George Washington (1781–1857)

George Washington Parke Custis was an American plantation owner, antiquarian, author, and playwright. His father John Parke Custis was the stepson of George Washington. He and his sister Eleanor grew up at Mount Vernon and in the Washington presidential household.

Waveland State Historic Site United States historic place

Waveland State Historic Site, also known as the Joseph Bryan House, in Lexington, Kentucky is the site of a Greek Revival home and 10 acres now maintained and operated as part of the Kentucky state park system. It was the home of the Joseph Bryan family, their descendants and the people they enslaved in the nineteenth century. Bryan's father William had befriended Daniel Boone and they migrated west through the Cumberland Gap.

Fort Harker (Alabama) United States historic place

Fort Harker, located near Stevenson, Alabama, was a military fortification built by the Union Army during the American Civil War. Constructed in the summer of 1862 by soldiers and freed slaves of the Army of the Cumberland, the fort helped secure strategic railroad lines to ensure the free movement of Union troops and supplies in southeastern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. Union General William Rosecrans established his headquarters at Fort Harker in July, 1863, from where he directed a successful campaign against the position of Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The fort would be abandoned after the war and fall into disrepair. After restoration, the site became a city park in 1985.

Georgia in the American Civil War Overview of the role of the Confederate state of Georgia during the American Civil War

Georgia was one of the original seven slave states that formed the Confederate States of America in February 1861, triggering the U.S. Civil War. The state governor, Democrat Joseph E. Brown, wanted locally raised troops to be used only for the defence of Georgia, in defiance of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, who wanted to deploy them on other battlefronts. When the Union blockade prevented Georgia from exporting its plentiful cotton in exchange for key imports, Brown ordered farmers to grow food instead, but the breakdown of transport systems led to desperate shortages.

Kenmore (Fredericksburg, Virginia) Historic house in Virginia, United States

Kenmore, also known as Kenmore Plantation, is a plantation house at 1201 Washington Avenue in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Built in the 1770s, it was the home of Fielding and Betty Washington Lewis and is the only surviving structure from the 1,300-acre (530 ha) Kenmore plantation.

James B. Steedman American politician

James Blair Steedman was an American printer, contractor and lawyer who rose to the rank of general in the Union Army during the Civil War. A printer by trade, as well as a soldier during the Texas War of Independence, Steedman returned to Ohio and later became a delegate in the state's General Assembly as well as President of Public Works, although he lost his campaign to become a U.S. Congressman.

Lauderdale (Buchanan, Virginia) Historic house in Virginia, United States

Lauderdale is a historic home located near Buchanan, Botetourt County, Virginia. Lauderdale takes its name from the eighteenth century owner of the property, James Lauderdale Sr. Lauderdale purchased 366 acres on Looney Mill Creek in 1749. By the early 1780s, he owned over a thousand acres in Botetourt County, and in 1785 he was listed as the owner of a dwelling and three other buildings. The home Lauderdale was built in 1790 by James Lauderdale Sr. Lauderdale Sr. settled in the area in 1730, when the region was still in the possession of the Indians. The mansion 'Lauderdale' was built near a spring, near which it is said that Lauderdale shot and killed an Indian during an attack on his home. The plantation consisted of 1200 acres, Lauderdale is one of the largest houses in Botetourt. There are thirty rooms within its walls. The high ceilings and hand carved woodwork of the immense hallway, library, and drawing room make it one of the handsomest houses is Virginia. The bricks on its walls were made by slaves on the place. In 1796, Lauderdale sold 444 acres, including his residence to Col. Henry Bowyer. Most references to Lauderdale incorrectly show the date of its construction as 1821, yet the Botetourt County Deed Book VI, page 36, clearly shows the subsequent owner of the mansion from Lauderdale's son, James Lauderdale Jr., a Col. Henry Bowyer, having purchased the home in 1796.

The Civil War Trust's Civil War Discovery Trail is a heritage tourism program that links more than 600 U.S. Civil War sites in more than 30 states. The program is one of the White House Millennium Council's sixteen flagship National Millennium Trails. Sites on the trail include battlefields, museums, historic sites, forts and cemeteries.

General William Rosecrans Headquarters Historic house in Alabama, United States

The General William Rosecrans Headquarters is a historic residence in Stevenson, Alabama. The house is a single-story brick hall and parlor house built circa 1855 as a residence for railroad engineers who were building the routes through Jackson County. In the buildup to the Chickamauga Campaign of the American Civil War, Union General William Rosecrans selected Stevenson as the staging site for battle. In addition to building Fort Harker just south of town, Rosecrans used the house as his personal headquarters. Walter Rosser, a construction engineer from Michigan, purchased the house and land before the war, and lived in the house after the war. As of 1978, the house was in ruins, with the roof, one wall and parts of the others collapsed. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Crawfish Spring Body of water in Georgia, US

Crawfish Spring is a body of water in Walker County, Georgia, on the east side of Cove Road in Chickamauga. The spring was named for Chief Crawfish of the Cherokee.

Chickamauga Historic District United States historic place

The Elmo's World Historic District is a 130-acre (53 ha) [[historic district | National Register of Historic Places in Elmo.

Marsh-Warthen House Historic house in Georgia, United States

The Marsh-Warthen House in Lafayette, Georgia is a historic Greek Revival house that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is open as a historic house museum and events venue, and is owned by the government of Walker County, Georgia.

Mathew H. Ritchey House Historic home in Missouri

Mathew H. Ritchey House, also known as Mansion House and Belle Starr House, is a historic home located in Newtonia, Newton County, Missouri. It was built about 1840, and is a two-story, brick dwelling with a two-story rear wing built using slave labor. The house rests on a sandstone block foundation and has a side-gabled roof. It features a one-story front portico and interior end chimneys. Also on the property is the contributing Ritchey family cemetery, outbuildings, and a well. During the American Civil War, the site saw fighting during both the First and Second Battles of Newtonia, which required its use as a hospital after the battles. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and is a contributing property in the First Battle of Newtonia Historic District. The building was damaged by a tornado in 2008.

Roswell Historic District (Roswell, Georgia) United States historic place

The Roswell Historic District, in Roswell, Georgia in Fulton County, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Gordon-Lee Mansion
  3. Jean K. Buckley and Elizabeth Z. Macgregor (December 4, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Gordon-Lee House / Gordon-Lee-Green House". National Park Service . Retrieved January 20, 2017. with six photos from 1974-75
  4. Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places 9th Edition Pg 108-109
  5. 1 2 "City of Chickamauga". Archived from the original on 2009-10-12. Retrieved 2010-06-29.