GORDON CHARLES GEORGE: (1833-1885) British Army officer, known as Chinese Gordon. A lengthy A.L.S., C. G. Gordon, seven pages, 8vo, Gravesend, 17th May 1866, to 'My dear Nugent', on mourning stationery. Gordon writes an informative letter to his correspondent, commenting on an attack on a station ('…it seemed situated exactly where they might be expected to come, but I suppose they are expended by this time') and further referring to a Corps dinner and meeting, 'though unanimously attended went off entirely without incident, the Duke was as dull as ever. The next day at the Corps meeting Emmett….wanted to come back to Widows fund, but March made a very good speech & they were refused admittance. After this there was a motion to give Davison a dinner on his return and then some one proposed that an annual medal should be given to the young officers at Chatham for the best paper on Engineer subjects considering that these young fellows are officers & therefore should only be probably interested in our medal. Also that engineering subjects are as boring as they could probably be. I should say it was nonsense & I trust will not be carried', also writing of mutual acquaintances, and remarking 'After the Corps meeting Hutchinson read the report of the Corps papers after which Simmons got up & asked why Inglis' paper on an experiment which had been tried….had not been published. He was answered by Jervois & then commenced a row. Jervois lost his temper and spoke in a most dictatorial way….& so it went on till Owen called both to order as it was not a matter to be discussed at a meeting like that. He was right for there were too many young fellows there. You never heard such a row….Jervois answer was self defence for Inglis paper wound up with these conclusions derived from the experiment viz that granite was useless and was obsolete. Forts must be of iron for the future. It was useless to build forts of granite of course as Jervois is building many forts of granite & still thinks it very good (as cheaper) these conclusions are quite condemnatory of him & his work & he was right to defend himself but his manner was very rude & violent. I do not care granite or iron….it is doleful but I have not given up agitating the matter and I hope I may make Jervois do something about the matter.' Gordon also reflects on his unhappiness with Chatham ('what silliness….You never saw such a lot of talking and such a little doing') and concludes by again referring to various mutual acquaintances and their travels to Newfoundland and Ceylon. Some very light, minor age wear, VG €750-1000

At the time of the present letter Gordon was in command of the Royal Engineers at Gravesend, Kent, and oversaw the erection of forts for the defense of the River Thames, as directly referred to in his letter.