Shiloh. Equestrian Monument, Erected by the Veterans of the Army of Tennessee
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Improvement of the Mississippi River: Speech of Hon. Randall L. Gibson, of Louisiana, in the House of Representatives, February 5, 1879 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Improvement of the Mississippi River: Speech...)
Excerpt from Improvement of the Mississippi River: Speech of Hon. Randall L. Gibson, of Louisiana, in the House of Representatives, February 5, 1879
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Gibson Randall Lee was a lawyer, a sugar-planter, a statesman, a soldier. He was made brigadier-general in 1864, fought in the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns.
Background
Randall Lee Gibson was the son of Tobias and Louisiana (Hart) Gibson. He was born on September 10, 1832, at “Spring Hill, ” Woodford County, Kentucky, while his parents were on a visit from their home in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. His great-grandfather, John Gibson, emigrated from England in 1706 and settled in Middlesex County, Virginia.
Later, he removed to the Great Peedee River in South Carolina. His grandfather, Rev. Randall Gibson, a soldier in the Continental Army, settled (after the war) in the central part of Warren County, Mississippi, and is credited with having founded Jefferson College near Natchez. His father went shortly after his marriage to Louisiana and soon became a prominent sugar- planter in Terrebonne Parish.
His mother was the daughter of Col. Nathaniel Hart of “Spring Hill, ” whose family was among the earliest settlers in Kentucky and was closely connected with the Clays, the Prestons, and other prominent families of that state.
Education
Randall Lee Gibson received his early education at the hands of a private tutor at “Live Oaks, ” his father’s plantation, and in the schools of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and of Lexington, Kentucky, where his father long maintained a summer residence.
In 1849, he entered Yale College. Upon the completion of his course in 1853, he studied law in the office of Clark & Bayne in New Orleans and was graduated from the law department of the University of Louisiana in 1855.
He then spent several years abroad, studying in Germany, traveling in Russia, and serving as attaché to the American embassy in Madrid for six months.
Career
On his return home, Gibson began the practice of law and engaged in sugar-planting in Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the service of the Confederacy, serving first as aide-de-camp on the staff of Gov. Thomas O. Moore.
In March 1861, he was made captain in the 1st Regiment, Louisiana Artillery, and in August he was made colonel of the 13th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry. He took part in the battle of Shiloh, commanding the Louisiana brigade after Gen. Adams was wounded, and participated in the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga.
He was made brigadier-general on January 11, 1864, fought in the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns, and finished his military career with a gallant defense of Spanish Fort near Mobile.
After the war, Gibson began the practice of law in New Orleans, first in partnership with Edward Austin and later with his brother, McKinley Gibson. He ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1872 and claimed the election but was not allowed to take his seat.
He was elected in 1874 and again in 1876, 1878, and 1880. In 1882, he was elected by the state legislature of Louisiana to the United States Senate and was re-elected in 1888. He died before his second term expired.
He died in Hot Springs, Arkansas, whither he had gone for his health, and was buried in Lexington, Kentucky.
Achievements
Gibson was the chief agent of Paul Tulane in the founding of the Tulane University of Louisiana. After a first-hand study of the universities of Europe, he projected a plan by which in 1884 the University of Louisiana in New Orleans was transferred to the Tulane board of administration and was renamed Tulane University of Louisiana.
At Tulane’s request, Gibson was chosen as the first president of the board of administration and continued in that position until his death. He served also on the boards of administration of the Howard Memorial Library in New Orleans, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Peabody Education Fund.
Gibson Hall on the campus of Tulane University is named for Senator Gibson, who was instrumental after the war in helping fund and continue the public University of Louisiana as the private Tulane University of Louisiana.
(Excerpt from Improvement of the Mississippi River: Speech...)
Views
In the disputed presidential election of 1876, Gibson was one of the four who offered objections before Congress against the recognition of the Hayes electors from Louisiana, and when the decision of the electoral commission favoring those electors was presented to Congress, he offered the objections of eighteen senators and one hundred and fifty representatives.
Gibson was active in getting President Hayes to order the removal of the United States troops from Louisiana. Because of his interest in improving the navigation of the Mississippi River, he was largely influential in getting Congress to adopt in 1878 the plan of James B. Eads for constructing jetties at the mouth of the river for the purpose of keeping the channel open to the Gulf of Mexico.
He was also active in urging in 1879 the creation of the Mississippi River Commission to look after the further improvements of the navigation of the river and to protect adjacent lands from overflow.
He was opposed to the Greenback craze in the late seventies and early eighties, and although the Louisiana legislature passed a resolution instructing him to support “rag money” measures in the Senate, he refused to be bound by these instructions.
Personality
In all engagements, Gibson was especially commended for skill and bravery by his superior officers.
He was a man of extensive reading, a ready debater, logical and accurate in his speech, but with little of the oratorical flourish that characterized many of the public men of his time. Though decidedly aristocratic in his bearing, he was always courteous and gentle, and in the society of his friends was very companionable and entertaining.
Connections
Gibson was married on January 25, 1868, to Mary Montgomery, daughter of R. W. Montgomery, of New Orleans. She died in 1887.
