Gordon, Charles George

(born Jan. 28, 1833, Woolwich, near London, Eng.—died Jan. 26, 1885, Khartoum, Sudan) British general. Gordon distinguished himself as a young officer in the Crimean War (1853–56) and subsequently volunteered for the second Opium War (1856–60). In 1862 he helped defend Shanghai during the Taiping Rebellion. These exploits earned him the epithet “Chinese” Gordon. In 1873 the Egyptian ruler Ism, who regularly employed Europeans, appointed Gordon governor of the province of Equatoria in southern Sudan (1874–76) and as governor-general of the Sudan (1874–80). In that post Gordon acted to crush rebellions and suppress the slave trade. He was again sent to the Sudan by Britain in 1884 to evacuate Anglo-Egyptian forces from Khartoum, which was threatened by Mahdist movement insurgents. After his arrival the city was besieged; it remained isolated for several months until it finally succumbed (Jan. 26, 1885). Gordon was killed in the action.

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