He was an
exemplification of the poet's line:
"I feel two natures struggling within me."
When he entered the service, as a second lieutenant of the Engineers,
at the age of nineteen, there was little to attract one in the army
life. The long peace of Europe, which had followed the defeat of
Napoleon, seemed likely to last forever. Except for a relatively small
outbreak in France, in 1848, all Europe was quiet. Consequently, the
army held little attraction to an active young man. It was all drill
and the petty details of garrison life. But underneath the placid
surface, the political pot of Europe was really boiling furiously--only
waiting a chance to bubble over. That chance soon came.
Gordon's first assignment was to Pembroke, where plans were required
for the forts at Milford Haven. Here with other engineers he worked
for a few months, when he was ordered to the Island of Corfu. This was
not altogether to his liking. He had spent a part of his boyhood there
in the Ionian Islands, but felt that they were "off the map" so far as
real activity was concerned.
Then the bubbling pot at last boiled over. Russia, impatient of
bounds, had begun her march southward, past the Black Sea, and toward
the coveted lands of Turkey. The "balance of power," that precarious
something that has always kept Europe on edge--and particularly in the
Balkans--was upset.
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