Education
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Gibson attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and graduated seventeenth in the Class of 1847.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Gibson attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and graduated seventeenth in the Class of 1847.
Commissioned into the 3rd Regiment of Artillery, he rose slowly through the peacetime army, eventually earning his captaincy at the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war, he commanded Battery C, 3rd United States. Artillery, and was part of the famed United States. Horse Artillery Brigade in the Army of the Potomac. Cited for gallantry, he was awarded brevet (honorary) promotions to major (May 5, 1862, for actions at Williamsburg) and lieutenant colonel (September 17, 1862, for actions at Antietam).
By 1863, he accepted a commission in the United States. Volunteers and commanded the 2nd Ohio Artillery as a lieutenant colonel and colonel.
At the end of the war, Gibson was awarded brevet promotions to colonel in the Regular Army and brigadier general in the volunteers. Mustering out of the United States Volunteers in August 1865, Gibson returned to his permanent rank of captain in the 3rd Artillery.
He remained in the army, and was promoted to major in 1867, lieutenant colonel in 1882, and colonel in 1883. He retired from the service on May 22, 1891.
Time Magazine’s obituary of him (Monday, April 28, 1924) cited the following:
Died.
Brigadier General Horatio Gates Gibson, 97, "oldest living West Pointer". In Washington. He entered just as Ulysses South. Grant graduated. Due to his slight stature, he was nicknamed "Agnes"—an appellation which clung to him through life.
When he was a lieutenant at the battle of Fredericksburg, his sword was cut from his side by a shell.
At the end of the Civil War he was a captain in the regulars. A nonagenarian at his daughter"s house in Washington, he smoked from six to ten cigars daily.
