[299] where Randall Gibson, grandfather of the general, was a revolutionary soldier. Subsequently moving to Mississippi, this ancestor married Harriet McKinley, and was one of the founders of Jefferson college. On the maternal side General Gibson was descended from the Harts and Prestons of Kentucky. His youth was passed at Lexington, Ky., and at his father's plantation in Terrebonne parish. In 1853 he was graduated at Yale college, after which he studied law, was admitted to practice, and traveled in Europe. Returning to enter upon the career of a planter, the political crisis diverted his energies to war and he became an aide-de-camp to Governor Moore. He entered the Confederate service March, 1861, as captain of the First Louisiana artillery. On August 13, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the Thirteenth Louisiana infantry. He drilled and disciplined this regiment until it was one of the best in the service. In April, 1862, the effect of his good work was seen in the cheerful and ready courage with which his men encountered the dangers and hardships of the Shiloh campaign. In the battles of the 6th and 7th of April Colonel Gibson, after the wounding of General Adams, commanded a brigade whose losses showed the nature of the work done by it on that well-fought field. Colonel Gibson and his regiment participated in the Kentucky campaign of the summer and fall of 1862. Gen. D. W. Adams, in his report of the battle of Perryville, three times mentions Colonel Gibson in terms of the highest praise, and ends by saying, ‘I will recommend Colonel Gibson, for skill and valor, to be brigadier-general.’ At Murfreesboro (Stone's river) he commanded the Louisiana brigade in the latter part of December 31st and in the memorable charge of Breckinridge's division, January 2, 1863. After the fall of Vicksburg he was for a time in the army of Joe Johnston in Mississippi, but was back in the army of Tennessee in time for the battle of Chickamauga. On the first day Gen. D. W. Adams was wounded, and Colonel Gibson again took
