Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/673

Rh aide-de camp to Gen. Persifor F. Smith in Mexico, California, and Texas in 1848-'56, was promoted to 1st lieutenant, 31 May, 1853, and served on the frontier till the civil war, being severely wounded in a skirmish with Apache Indians at Cooke's Spring, K M., 8 March, 1857, and taking part in the Navajo expedition of 1860. He was depot- commissary at Albuquerque, N. M., in 1860-'l, was promoted to captain, 13 May, 1861, and on 27 Aug., 1862, was taken prisoner by the Confederates at San Augustine Springs, N. M. He was paroled till ex- changed, 27 Aug., 1862, and on 6 Sept. became colo- nel of the 130th New York regiment. He was en- gaged in the operations about Suffolk, Va., till June, 1863, and in July and August of that year in organizing his command as a cavalry regiment, which was afterward known as the 1st New York dragoons. In 1864-'5 he commanded a cavalry re- serve brigade, and served under Gen. Sheridan on several of his cavalry raids. He was brevetted major, 11 June, 1864, for gallantry at Trevillian Station, Va., lieutenant-colonel for services at the battle of Winchester, and on 19 Oct., 1864, became brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded a cavalry brigade in the final attack and pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia in March and April, 1865, and on 13 March received all the brev- ets up to and including that of major-general, U. S. army, for his services during the war. I3e was mus- tered out of volunteer service, 1 Feb., 1866, became major in the 7th cavalry on 28 July, and served in various forts in Kansas till his death.

GIBBS, Josiah Willard, philologist, b. in Sa- lem, iMass., 30 April, 1790; d. in New Haven, Conn., 25 March, 1861. He was graduated at Yale in 1809, and from 1811 till 1815 was connected with the college as tvitor. Subsequently he spent some years at Andover, where he devoted himself to the study of Hebrew and biblical literature, producing at this time some of his most im])ortant works. In 1824 he was called to New Haven, and became pi'ofessor of saci'ed literature in the theological school of Yale college, which chair he retained until his death. He also held the office of librarian from 1824 till 1843, and in 1853 received the degree of LL. D. from Princeton. Prof. Gibbs was a constant con- tributor of articles on points of biblical criticism, archaeology and philological science to the " Christian Spectator," "Biblical Repository," " New Eng- lander," and the "American Journal of Science." He was particularly fond of gi'ammatical and philo- logical studies, and attained a high reputation for thoroughness and accuracy in them. His work ap- pears in several of the most important philological books published during the century, and among others in the revised edition of Webster's " Un- abridged Dictionary " and Prof. William C. Fow- ler's " English Language in its Elements and its Forms " (New York, 1850). For some years he was one of the publishing committee of the American oriental society. Prof. Gibbs published a transla- tion of Storr's " Historical Sense of the New Testa- ment " (Boston, 1817) ; a translation of Gesenius's " Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament " (An- dover, 1824 ; London, 1827) ; an abridged form of Gesenius's " Manual Hebrew and English Lexi- con " (1828); "Philological Studies with English Illustrations " (New Haven. 1856) ; " A New Latin Analyst " (1859) ; and " Teutonic Etymology " (1860). — His son. Josiah Willard, scientist, b. in New Haven, Conn., 11 Feb., 1839, was graduated at Yale in 1858, and subsequently pursued mathe- matical and other studies at that university, for which in 1863 he received the degree of Ph. D. For the three following years he was a tutor in Yale, and then spent several years in study at the universi- ties of Paris, Berlin, and Heidelberg. In 1871 he became professor of mathematical physics in Yale, a chair which he has since held, also lecturing at the Johns Hopkins university in 1880. His work has been principally in the development of graph- ical and analytical methods in thermodynamics, and for his researches in this direction he was hon- ored by the American academy of arts and sciences with their Rumford medal. lie was elected a mem- ber of the National academy of sciences in 1879, and in 1886 was vice-president of the American associa- tion for the advancement of science, for the sec- tion of mathematics and astronomy, delivering an address on " Multiple Algebra." His published papers include memoirs on " Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids "(1873); "A Meth- od of Geometrical Representation of the Thermo- dynamic Properties of Substances by Means of Sur- faces " (1873) ; " Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances," Part I. (1876) ; Part II. (1878) ; and several " Notes on the Electro-magnetic Theory of Light " (1882-'3). He has also applied the methods of thermodynamics to chemical dissociation, and has developed a system of vector notation simpler than that of quaternions and more approximating to the German notation, notably that of Grassmann.

GIBBS, Sir Samuel, British soldier, d. near New Orleans, La., 9 Jan., 1815. He became ensign in the 102d foot in October, 1783, lieutenant- colonel of the 10th West Indian regiment in 1802,. brevet colonel in July, 1810, and major-general in June, 1813. He served at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1796, was taken prisoner at Os- tend in 1798, commanded the 11th regiment at the attack of St. Martin's in the expedition against the Danish and Swedish islands, and led a brigade in Travancore and the expedition to Java. He was second in command to Sir Edward Pakenham in December, 1814, and was mortally wounded at the battle of New Orleans in the following month.

GIBSON, James, merchant, b. in London about 1690; d. in the West Indies in 1752. In early youth he entered the British army and served in Barbadoes, where he married a native heiress of Ja- maica, retired from the service, and settled as a merchant in Boston, Mass. In 1745 he joined the Louisburg expedition to Cape Breton with 4,000 New England colonists, under Sir William Pep- perell, and as " gentleman volunteer " served at the siege, was present at the surrender of the French garrison, and superintended the removal of the prisoners to France. In 1748 parliament voted him £547,155 as a reimbursement of his expenses, but this money was never paid. He returned to Boston, engaged in the West India trade, and died while on"a visit to the islands. In 1745 he published an account of the Louisburg expedition, which was republished by a descendant under the title of " A Boston Merchant of 1745 " (Boston, 1847).

GIBSON, James, soldier, b. in South Milford, Sussex CO., Del. ; d. in Fort Erie, Canada, 18 Sept., 1814. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1808, appointed captain in 1810, assistant inspector - general in 1813, colonel and inspector-general in July of the same year, and colonel of the 4th rifles, 21 Feb., 1814. He was engaged in the battle of Queenstown Heights, 13 Oct., 1812, and served with distinction in the campaign on the Niagara frontier in 1814. During the months of August and September of this year Gen, Drummond, of the British army, besieged Fort Erie, which was held by the Americans under Gen. Jacob Brown. On 17 Sept. Gen. Brown made a sudden sortie with 2,000 men against the besiegers, dis-