George Gibson

Background

Gibson George was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was of Scotch-Irish and French-Huguenot parentage, the son of George and Elizabeth (de Vinez) Gibson.

Education

Little information concerning Gibson's early life and training is extant, though his ability to speak French, German, Spanish, and Delaware-Indian languages bears evidence of his education. When about fifteen years old he became an apprentice in a Philadelphia mercantile house and later made several voyages to the West Indies as a supercargo.

Career

Gibson left Philadelphia to join his brother, John Gibson, and his brother-in-law, Captain Calender, at Fort Pitt, to engage with them in the Indian trade.

His residence at Fort Pitt ended when a trading adventure to the British posts in Illinois under his personal direction came to grief. He then returned to eastern Pennsylvania. He rented a farm and mill near Carlisle in Cumberland County. He commanded the company and played the fife.

Later, his command was attached to Col. Hugh Mercer’s brigade then stationed at Williamsburg, Virginia, where the turbulent and undisciplined frontiersmen found British “redcoats” scarce, but remedied the situation by engaging in fistic combats with other Colonials quartered near.

Gibson participated in minor engagements in Virginia during 1775 and 1776 until he was selected as agent to negotiate the purchase of powder from the Spanish at New Orleans for the use of Virginia and Continental troops.

He left Fort Pitt July 19, 1776, with about twenty-five men disguised as traders, and after a perilous journey made in flatboats down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, reached New Orleans about the middle of August.

The purchase of 10, 000 pounds of powder was made through Don Galvez, the Spanish governor, who obligingly placed Gibson under arrest to allay the suspicions of British agents and then aided his escape with the consignment of powder.

During 1777-78, Gibson served under Gen. Washington and Gen. Lee in campaigns around New York and in New Jersey, with the rank of colonel, but he was relieved from active service in 1779 and placed in charge of the American prison camp at York, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the signing of peace.

He then kept to his farm at Carlisle until 1791, when he joined St. Clair’s ill-fated expedition as lieutenant-colonel in command of the 2nd Regiment. In the engagement with British renegades and Indians in the Black Swamp region along the Wabash River, Gibson was twice wounded and after the battle was carried to Fort Jefferson, about thirty miles distant, where he died.

Achievements

• In 1774, in the Ohio Valley, Gibson participated in Dun- more’s War, and in 1775, at the outbreak of the Revolution, he organized a company of frontiersmen for service in the W.

Connections

In 1772, Gibson married Anne West, a daughter of Francis West.

Father:

George Gibson

Mother:

Elizabeth (de Vinez) Gibson

Wife:

Anne West