Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/674

610 mounted their guns, and destroyed their works. In this attack Col. Gibson received a wound, from which lie died the next day.

GIBSON, John, soldier, b. in Lancaster. Pa., 28 May, 1740; d. at Braddock's field, near Pitts- burg, 10 April, 1822. He received a classical education, and in 1757 joined the expedition against the Indians in which Fort Duquesne was captured. He settled at Fort Pitt as a trader, was taken prisoner, and rescued from the stake by a scpiaw that adopted him. He married the sister of Logan, an Indian chief, and became familiar with the Indian manners, language, and customs. At the close of hostilities, Gibson again settled at Fort Pitt, and in 1774 acted a conspicuous part in Lord Dunmore's expedition against the Shawnee towns. In the treaty that followed the battle of Point Pleasant, he negotiated between Logan, the Shawnee chief, and Lord Dunmore, and through his mediation many captive Indians were set at liberty. At the beginning of the Revolution he was appointed to command a regiment, served with the army in New York and in the Jer- sey retreat, and commanded the western military department from 1781 i;ntil peace was established. In 1788 he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention, subsequently was associate judge of the court of common pleas of Alleghany county, and major-general of militia. President Jefferson appointed him in 1801 secretary of the territory of Indiana, and he held this otiice until Indiana became a state, when he was acting governor from 1811 till 1813. — His brother, George, soldier, b. in Lancaster, Pa., 10 Oct., 1747; d. in Fort Jefferson, Ohio, 14 Dec, 1791, received an academic educa- tion, entered a mei'cantile house in Philadelphia, and made several voyages as supercargo to the West Indies. When the Revolution began, he raised a company of one hundred men, and was appointed captain of a state regiment. His sol- diers were distinguished for good conduct and bravery, and were known in the army as " Gib- son's Lambs." In order to obtain a supply of gunpowder, he descended the Mississippi river with twenty-five picked men, and after a hazardous journey succeeded in accomplishing his mission. On his return he was appointed to the command of a Virginia regiment, joined Gen. Washington before the evacuation of New York, and was en- gaged in all the principal battles of the campaign of 1778. He retired to his farm in Cumberland county. Pa., after the war, and was county lieutenant until 1791, when he took command of a regiment in the St. Clair expedition against the Ohio Indians. At the battle of Miami, 4 Nov., 1791, he received a mortal wound. — His son, George, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania in 1783; d. in Washington, D. C, 29 Sept., 1801, entered the army from civil life, and was appointed captain of infjintry, 3 May, 1808: was promoted major in 1811, and served throughout the war of 1812, as lieutenant-colonel of the 5th infantry. In 1810 he was appointed quartermaster-general, served with Gen. Andrew Jackson during the Florida campaign, was pro- moted commissary-general in 1818, and in 1826 brevetted brigadier-general for faithful service. He served throughout the Mexican war, and was brevetted major-general, 10 May, 1848, for meri- torious conduct. Gen. Gibson was at the head of the commissary department more than fifty years. — His brother, Joliii Bannister, jurist, b. in Car- lisle, Pa., 8 Nov., 1780 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 3 May, 1853, was graduated at Dickinson college in 1800, studied law, was admitted to the bar of Cumberland county. Pa., in 1803, and practised in the counties of Carlisle and Beaver, and in Hagers- town, Md. In 1810-'l he represented Carlisle in the state legislature, and in 1813 was appointed judge of the 11th district of Pennsylvania. In 1816 he was promoted to the supreme court, and in 1827 became chief justice of Pennsylvania. By a change in the constitution in 1851, an amendment made the judiciary elective, and lie was returned by a large majority to the supreme bench, where he remained until his death. Chief- Justice Gibson was eminent as a Shakespearian authority, and re- lieved the tedium of his professional studies by readings from his favorite dramas.

GIBSON, John Morison, Canadian lawyer, b. in the township of Toronto, York co., Ontario, 1 Jan., 1842. He was graduated at University col- lege, Toronto, in 1863, studied law, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1807. He entered the law course at the LTniversity of Toronto, receiving the degree of LL. D., and the gold medal of the fac- ulty in 1869, and was examiner in that faculty for the years 1871-'2. He was elected a member of the senate of Toronto university in 1873 and 1878. He is a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, has been an active member of that force since 1860, and was with his regiment at Ridgeway in 1866. He was a member of the Canadian Wimbledon rifle-teams in 1874-'5 and 1879, winning prizes on these occa- sions. In 1879 he won the Prince of Wales's prize (a badge and £100). In 1881 he commanded the Canadian Wimbledon team that defeated the British team in the contest for the Rajah of Kolo- pore's cup, and was also a member of the Canadian team at Creedraoor in 1876 and 1880. He is a Liberal in politics, and was elected to the Provin- cial parliament in 1879 and again in 1883.

GIBSON, Randall Lee, senator, b. at Spring Hill, Woodford co., Ky., 10 Sept., 1832; d. in Hot Springs, Ark., 15 Dec, 1892. His grandfather was a soldier, who, after the war of independence, re- moved with liis kindred to the southwest, and finally made his home at Oakley, Warren co., Jliss. He built the first church, and founded the first colfege (Jefferson) in the Mississip[)i valley. His father, Tobias Gibson, was a large sugar-planter in Terre Bonne parish, Louisiana. Randall was graduated with honors at Yale in 1853, and was also class orator. He was graduated in 1855 at the law department of the University of Louisi- ana (now Tulane university), of which he was for seven years the official head, being president of the board of administrators. He then studied at Berlin, travelled in Russia, and spent six months as an attache of the American legation at Madrid. On his return he engaged in sugar-plant- ing, until the civil war, when he joined the Con- federate army as a private, but was made a cap- tain in the 1st Louisiana artillery, and stationed at Fort Jackson, below New Orleans. Not long afterward he was elected colonel of the 13th Louisiana infantry. At Shiloh he commanded a brigade, which attacked the " hornet's nest " in front, and was four times repelled with great slaughter, but he held on, was in the front line at sunset, and was distinguished in the fighting next day. Gibson was with Bragg's army in the Ken- tucky campaign, and was recommended for pro- motion for skill and gallantry at Perry ville. where one third of his brigade were killed or wounded, and at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga. He was in all the battles in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's retreat from Dalton to Atlanta, and at Jonesboro lost half his command. In the defeat of Gen. Hood at Nashville he successfully covered the retreat. In Canby's campaign against Mobile, Gibson was de-