Gordon's research focuses on the
American Civil War. Her first book, published in 1998, was a biography of the
Confederate general
George E. Pickett, famed for his
failed charge at the
Battle of Gettysburg. Gordon argued that Pickett's posthumous reputation as
tragic hero of the
Lost Cause was largely the creation of his wife, LaSalle Pickett, who made a living giving talks about her deceased husband on the
lecture circuit for more than fifty years after his death, and that his actual achievements were more modest. The book was described as "well-written and exhaustively researched", and praised for bringing attention to the actions of women in the period.[8][9][10][11]
Her other books include This Terrible War (2003), a textbook on the Civil War co-authored with Daniel E. Sutherland and
Michael Fellman,[12][13] currently in its third edition, and A Broken Regiment (2014), a regimental history of the
16th Connecticut Infantry Regiment.[14] She has also edited and contributed to a number of edited volumes,[1] and was formerly the editor of the journal Civil War History.[15]
—; Inscoe, John C., eds. (2005). Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press.
ISBN9780807130995.
—; Bleser, Carol K., eds. (2007). Intimate Strategies of the Civil War: Military Commanders and Their Wives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0195330854.
—;
Fellman, Michael; Sutherland, Daniel E. (2014). This Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.
ISBN978-0205007912.
— (2014). A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut's Civil War. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press.
ISBN9780807157305.
^Reviews of General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend:
Kirkus Reviews (1998),
[1];
Elizabeth D. Leonard (1999), The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 123 (4): 385–387,
JSTOR20093332;
J. Tracy Power (1999), Civil War History 45 (3): 272–273,
doi:
10.1353/cwh.1999.0080;
Michael Fellman (1999), The Georgia Historical Quarterly 83 (1): 166–168,
JSTOR40584023;
Paul Christopher Anderson (2000), The Florida Historical Quarterly 78 (3): 377–379,
JSTOR30150585.
^Review of This Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath:
Thomas A. DeBlack (2004), The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 63 (1): 77–79,
JSTOR40019014.
^Reviews of A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War:
Thomas J. Balcerski (2015), Civil War History 61 (3): 303–305,
doi:
10.1353/cwh.2015.0047;
Gerald. J. Prokopowicz (2015), The Journal of the Civil War Era 5 (4): 601–603,
doi:
10.1353/cwe.2015.0068,
JSTOR26070363.