Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/675

Rh tachcd with 3,500 men to Spanish Port, where he held the National forces at bay for two weeks, and then withdrew his entire command, nnder cover of darkness, threading a pathway only eigh- teen inches wide through a marsh. He was finan- cially ruined by the war, but, resuming his profes- sion in New Orleans, soon acquired a lucrative practice. In 1873 he was elected to congress as a Democrat, but w^is not admitted to a seat. He was again elected in isr4, bsTG, 1878, and 1880. He was sent to the United Slates senate in 1883, and was re-elected in 1888. He may fairly be said to have been the father of the policy for the improvement of the Mississippi river, which he originated, and has consistently advocated and successfully guided. He has been the most pro- nounced opponent in the south of all forms of finan- cial inflation and irredeemable issues. As a mem- ber of the ways and means committee he steadily advocated moderate measures of revenue I'eform, and resisted alike the extreme protectionists and the free-traders. In 1883 he was selected by Paul Tulane as president of the board of administra- toi's who were to manage his gift for education in New Orleans, now estimated at $1,500,000. Under his auspices Tulane university was founded.

GIBSON, Tobias, pioneer, b. in Liberty, S. C, 10 Nov., 1771; d. in Natchez, Tenn., 10 April, 1804. Nothing can be learned of the history of his early years ; in 1793 he entered the itinerant ministry of the Methodist church, travelled and preached throughout the most important districts of the Carolinas, and in 1800 went to Natchez as a missionary. After penetrating the forest alone, for six hundred miles, he reached the Cumberland river, took a canoe and paddled himself eight hun- dred miles from that sti'eam to the Ohio, and thence down the Mississippi. He made four trips while a missionary, through -the wilderness, to the Cum- berland, and laid the foundations of Methodism in the southwest. He continued alone upon this sta- tion till 1803, when, in a dying condition, he pre- sented himself before the western conference of the Methodist Episcopal church and asked for further aid in the prosecution of his work. The council responded favorably to this application, and sent other missionaries to his assistance. His early death was the result of privation and exposure.

GIBSON, William, surgeon, b. in Baltimore, Md., in 1788 ; d. in Savannah, Ga., 3 March, 18(58. He was graduated at Princeton in 180G, took his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1809, and was the pupil and associate of Sir Charles Bell, the eminent Scotch surgeon. After his re- turn to the United States he began practice in Bal- timore, and was one of the earliest professors of surgery in the University of Maryland. In 1813 he rendered essential service in the Baltimore riots, x-evisited Europe in 1814, and fought on the side of the allied forces at the battle of Waterloo, where he was slightly wounded. He was intimate with the surgeons Sir Astley Cooper, Velpeau, Aber- nethy, Hastings, and Halford, and was the friend and companion of Lord Byron. In 1819, having returned to the United States, he succeeded Dr. Physick in the chair of surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained more than thirty years. Dr. Gibson made frequent visits to Europe, and also travelled in remote regions of Asia and Africa. At the age of seventy, having acquired a fortune, he retired from practice and removed to Newport, R. I. He was the first to perform the C£esarean operation twice successfully to both mother and child on the same patient. His works include " Principles and Practice of Surgery " (Philadelphia, 1834) ; " Rambles in Europe," containing sketches of eminent surgeons (1839) ; and " Lecture on Eminent Belgian Surgeons and Physicians" (New York, 1841). — His son, Charles Bell, surgeon, b. in Baltimore, Md., 16 Feb., 1816 ; d. in Richmond, Va., 33 April, 1865, studied medicine in Philadelphia under his father. He was elected professor of surgery at Washington medi- cal college, Baltimore, in 1843, and in 1846 occu- pied the same chair in the Medical college of Rich- mond, Va. When that state seceded he was made surgeon-general, became the chief consulting sur- geon and operator in Richmond, and died from heart disease induced by excessive labor and fatigue. He published among other papers a widely circulated pamphlet entitled " Statement of Facts in a Case of Dislocation of the Femur" (Richmond, 1855).

GIBSON, William Hamilton, artist and author, b. in Sandy Hook, Conn., 5 Oct., 1850; d. in Washington, Conn., 16 July, 1896. He studied at the Gunnery school, and in the Polytechnic institute, Brooklyn, and determined to devote himself to art as an illustrator. He began work in New York in 1870, after various discouragements, obtained a foothold as a specialist in botanical drawing, and became connected with the " American Agriculturist" and " Hearth and Home." He also drew hundreds of natural history subjects for the " American Cyclopadia." He afterward became dissatisfied with work of this character, and fur- nished illustrations for sundry magazine articles on natural history. For a year he was next en- gaged on the "Art Journal," and was also one of the corps of illustrators of " Picturesque America." His first notable appearance in the magazines was in connection with an article in " Harper's Maga- zine" on "Birds and Plumage," which he had pro- posed to the editor under the title of "The Plu- mage of Fashion." The initial design, a full-page peacock's feather, won high praise. This was fol- lowed by " A Winter Idyl," " Springtime," and other similar essays, which have been collected in his published volumes. Mr. Gibson was a regular exhibitor at the water-color exhibition in New York after 1873, and became a member of the water-color society in 1885. His large " Autumn Study " was shown in the first American water- color exhibition in London in 1873, and in Edin- burgh the same year. He was also a member of the Authors club and the Art union. The books that he illustrated include " The Heart of the White Mountains " (1883) ; " Nature's Serial Story " (1885) ; and various collections of poems, among others the " Pictorial Edition of Longfellow " and "In Berkshire with the Wild Flowers," by Dora and Elaine Goodale. The works of which he was both author and illustrator are "Camp-Life in the Woods " and " Tricks of Trapping and Trap- making" (New York, 1876); "Pastoral Days, or Memories of a New England Year " (1881) ; '" High- ways and Byways, or Saunterings in New Eng- land" (1883); and "Happy Hunting-Grounds, a Tribute to the Woods and Fields " (1886).

GIDDINGS, Joshua Reed, statesman, b. in Athens, Bradford co., Pa., 6 Oct., 1795; d. in Montreal, Canada, 27 May, 1864. His parents removed to Canandaigua, N. Y., and in 1806 to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where the boy worked on his father's farm, and by devoting his evenings to hard study made up somewhat for his limited educational advantages. In 1812 he enlisted in a regiment commanded by Col. Richard Hayes, being the youngest member, and was in an expedition sent to the peninsula north of Sandusky bay. There, 29 Sept., 1812, twenty-two men, of whom he was one, had a