h on January 28,
1833. He was sent to school at Taunton in 1843, and entered the
Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1848. He obtained a commission
in the royal engineers on June 23, 1852, and, after the usual course
of study at Chatham was quartered for a short time at Pembroke Dock.
In December, 1854, he received his orders for the Crimea, and
reached Balaklava on January 1, 1855. As a young engineer subaltern
serving in the trenches, his daring was conspicuous, while his
special aptitude for obtaining a personal knowledge of the movements
of the enemy was a matter of common observation among his brother
officers. He was wounded on June 6, 1855, and was present at the
attack on the Redan on June 18th. On the surrender of Sebastopol
Gordon accompanied the expedition to Kinburn, and on his return was
employed on the demolition of the Sebastopol docks. For his services
in the Crimea Gordon received the British war medal and clasp, the
Turkish war medal, and the French Legion of Honor.

In May, 1856, in company with lieutenant (now major-general) E. R.
James, R.E., he joined Colonel (now General Sir) E. Stanton, R.E.,
in Bessarabia, as assistant commissioner for the delimitation of the
new frontier line. This duty was completed in April, 1857, and he
was then sent with Lieutenant James in a similar capacity to
Erzeroum, where Colonel (now General Sir) Lintorn Simmons was the
English commissioner for the Asiatic frontier boundary. The work was
accomplished by the following October, when Gordon returned to
England. In the spring of 1858 he and Lieutenant James were sent as
commissioners to the Armenian frontier to superintend the erection
of the boundary posts of the line they had previously surveyed. This
was finished in November, and Gordon returned home, having acquired
an intimate knowledge of the people of the districts visited.

On April 1, 1859, Gordon was promoted captain, and about the same
time appointed second adjutant of the corps at Chatham, a post he
held for little more than a year, for, in the summer of 1860, he
joined the forces of Sir James Hope Grant, operating with the French
against China. He overtook the allied army at Tientsin, and was
present in October at the capture of Pekin and the pillage and
destruction of the emperor's summer palace. For his services in this
campaign he received the British war medal with clasp for Pekin and
a brevet majority in December, 1862. Gordon commanded the royal
e