Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/668

634 war he commanded the " Peqnot." He was pro- moted to commander in 18Gti, to captain in 1874, and to commodore in 1884. In 1880 he was made commandant of the Brooklyn navy-yard, on 24 Aug., 1887, he became rear-admiral, and in Novem- ber, 1894, he was retired by reason of the law.

GHOLSON, Samuel Jameson, jurist, b. in Madison county, Ky., 19 May, 18S ; d. in Aberdeen, Miss., 1(5 Oct., 1883. He went with his fanuly in 1817 to Alabama, was educated in the common schools in that state, studied law at Russellville, Ala., and was admitted to the bar. He removed to Athens, Miss., in 1830, and in 1833-6 was a member of the Mis- sissippi legislature. He was chosen to congress as a Democrat in January, 1837, to fill a vacancy, and a few months afterward was elected for a full term ; l)ut his seat was contested by his opponent, and on i^l Jan., 1838, was declared vacant by the house. While in congress, he had several sharp passages with Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, and a duel be- tween the two was at one time prevented only by the influence of John G. Calhoun and other friends of the disputants. Mr. Gholson was appointed U. S. judge for the district of Mississippi by President Van Buren in 1838, and held this office till 1861, when he resigned and took an active part in the secession convention. He then enlisted in the Con- federate army as a private, was chosen captain, and after the fall of Fort Donelson, where he was wounded, raised another company and was at luka and Corinth, where he was wounded again. He was made major-genei"al of state troops in the spring of 1863, and on 1 June, 1864, was promoted to brigadier-genei'al in the Confederate army, com- manding a cavalry brigade in Alabama, Missis- sippi, and Louisiana. He received two more seri- ous wounds near Jackson in 1864, and on 27 Dec. of that year lost his right arm in the action at Egypt, Miss. After the war he was again a mem- ber of the legislature in 1866 and 1878, being speaker of the house in the latter year. — His cous- in, William Yates, jurist, b. in Virginia in 1807 ; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 21 Sept., 1870, was the son of Thomas Gholson, member of congress from Vir- ginia in 1808-16. He was graduated at Princeton in 1825, studied law with Creed Taylor, removed to Mississippi, where he practised for several years, and then to Cincinnati, Ohio. He was judge of the Cincinnati superior court in 1854-"9, and of the Ohio supreme court in 1860-'5. He had few equals at the Ohio bar, and was an effective politi- cal speaker. He published an " Ohio Digest." — Another cousin, Thomas Saunders, son of Maj. William Gholson, 1). in Gholsonville, Brunswick co., Va., 9 Dec, 1809 ; d. in Savannah, Ga., 13, Dec, 1868, was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1827. He became a judge of the state circuit court in 1859, was president of several railroads, and founded and aided to support a public library in Petersburg, Va. He was a member of the Con- federate congress. — His elder brother, James Her- bert, b. in Virginia in 1798 ; d. in Brunswick, Va., 2 July, 1848, was a member of congress in 1833-'5.

GIBAULT, Peter, clergyman, d. probably in New Madrid, Mo., near the end of the 18th century. He was vicar-general for the bishop of Quebec over niinois and the adjacent countries. In 1770 he was sent to Post Vincennes at the request of the inhabitants, and remained there two months. He afterward resided in Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and St. Genevieve. For a long time he was the only priest in Illinois and Indiana, and the labors and joui'- neys in which he is said to have engaged seem in- credible. He embraced ardently the cause of American independence. When Col. Clark cap- tured Kaskaskia, 4 July, 1778, and Cahokia after- ward. Father Gibault was principally instrumental in rallying the French settlers on the Wabash and Mississippi to the American cause. When Clark de- termined on taking Vincennes, he sent Gibault for- ward to learn the views of the inhabitants. On his arrival he assembled them in the church, explained the object of his mission, and aroused such enthusi- asm that they rose en masse and took the oath of allegiance to the connnonwealth of Virginia. A commander, Capt. Helm, was elected, and Col. Clark found himself master of Vincennes without striking a blow. Father Gibault did much to ren- der the Indian tribes friendly to the American government, and in this way facilitated the subse- quent occupation of the northwest by the United States. Vincennes was retaken by the British, and when Col. Clark marched to dispossess them a small body of French Canadians was induced to join him by Gibault. Col. Clark appeared before the town, but hesitated to attack it ; until, urged by Gibault, he retook it, 27 Feb., 1779. For his patriotism on this and previous occasions Gibault received the thanks of the commonwealth of Vir- ginia. He then returned to his missionary duties, and in 1785 fixed his residence at Vincennes, finally leaving it, 11 Oct., 1789. In 1791 he petitioned the governor of the northwestern territory for the re- payment of 7,800 livres by the United States govern- ment, which he had advanced for the public ser- vice, and also for five acres of the government land near Cahokia. Gov. St. C!lair, in his report to Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state, dwelt on the services rendered by Father Gibault and the losses he had suffered; but it does not appear that his services were recognized in any way, or that he was repaid the money advanced. " Next to Clark and Vigo," says Judge Law, " the United States are indebted more to Father Gibault for the acces- sion of the states comprised in what was the origi- nal Northwest territory than to any other man."

GIBBES, William Hasell, lawyer, b, in Charles- ton, S. C, 16 March, 1754; d. in 1831. His great- grandfather, Robert, was chief justice of South Carolina in 1708, and his father, William, was one of the secret committee of five of the council of safety in Charleston at the beginning of the Revo- lution. William Hasell studied law with John Rut- ledge, and afterward, in 1774, at the Inner Temple, London. He was one of the thirty native Ameri- cans residing in London who petitioned the king against the series of acts of parliament that were the immediate cause of the Revolution. At the beginning of the war he escaped to Bermuda, went thence to Charleston, where he became captain- lieutenant of the ancient battalion of artillery, and fought at Beaufort and in the siege of Savannah. He was admitted to the bar prior to 1.783, and from that year till his resignation in December, 1825, was master in chancery. In 1811 he was tried before the state senate on articles of impeach- ment preferred by Thomas Lehre, senior, but was acquitted.— His son. Robert Wilson, scientist and historian, b. in Charleston, S. C, 8 July, 1809 ; d. in Columbia, S. C, 15 Oct., 1866. was graduated at South Carolina college in 1827, and at the Medical college of South Carolina, Charleston, in 1830, after attending lectures in Philadelphia in 1827-'8. In 1827-'35 he was assistant professor of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy in South Carolina college. He was twice mayor of Columbia, and in 1852-"0 was editor of the " Daily South-Carolinian " and the "Weekly Banner." 'Ple was surgeon-general of the state from 1861 till the close of the war, and during that time made an examination of the Vir-