Major Works
- Like a Hideous Nightmare: Vicksburg Women Remember the Horrors of the Civil War (2009)
- The Past and Repast (2009) Cookbook
- I Live In a Cat House (2008)
- Mrs. Balfour’s Civil War Diary: A Personal Account of the Siege of Vicksburg (2008) Editor
- Vicksburg and the War (with Greg Giambrone) (2004)
- From the Letters of Emma Balfour 1847-1857 (2004) Editor
- Vicksburg (MS) (Images of America) 2003
- Vicksburg: Town and County (MS) (Images of America) 2001
- From the Pen of a She-Rebel: The Civil War Diary of Emilie Riley McKinley (2001) Editor
- The Murder of Minerva Cook (1993)
- With Malice Towards Some (1991)
- Yankee Bullets, Rebel Rations: Caught Between Two Armies (1984)
- Asbury, of Primitive Faith and Order
- Old Hopewell Cemetery
- Antioch
- Carrie Lee Cotton, her Kith and Kin
- Some of Eva’s People
- 15 China and Other Tales
- A History of the Old Courthouse
- Jefferson County Storeis and News from Rodney
Biography
Gordon Cotton was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1937. He attended Mississippi College where he earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
He was a high school teacher in Warren and Holmes Counties, worked at the Hinds County Gazette, and was a reporter for the Vicksburg Evening Post. He wrote a weekly column for the Vicksburg Evening Post called Old Courthouse Comments. Cotton was awarded the Meritorious Leadership in Mississippi History, Genealogy, and Historic Preservation award from the Order of the First Families of Mississippi in 2005.
He was Director of the Old Warren County Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg for 30 years. He retired in 2007.
Most of his books are histories such as Asbury, Of Primitive Faith and Order, Old Hopewell Cemetery, Anitoch, Vicksburg and the War, Vicksburg Town and Country, Vicksburg, From the Pen of She-Rebel, Carrie Lee Cotton, her Kith and her Kin, Some of Eva’s People, China and other Tales, A History of the Old Court House, Jefferson County Stories and News from Rodney.
Related Websites
- Gordon Cotton on C-SPAN discussing the history of Vicksburg
- Newspaper article “Memories Linger On Down In Dixie” 1987, The Blade
- Gordon Cotton’s life in ‘cat house’ highlighted in book at flea market (2008) Vicksburg Post