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J. Gibbon
(1827 - 1896)
Home State: North Carolina
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1847
Command Billet: Brigade Commander
Branch of Service: Artillery
Unit: 4th Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
His family moved to Charlotte, NC when he was young. He graduated from the USMA in 1847, served in the Mexican and Seminole Wars, was an artillery instructor at West Point, and was the author of the Army's Artillerist's manual. In 1861 he was Captain of Battery B of the 4th US Artillery, and served as Chief of Artillery to McDowell. In May 1862 he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers and commanded the 4th ("Black Hat") Brigade/1st Division/First Corps at Second Bull Run.
On the Campaign
He led the 4th ("Black Hat") Brigade in the First Division of the First Army Corps. After this campaign his Brigade was known as the Iron Brigade.
The rest of the War
He commanded the 2nd Division/First Corps at Fredericksburg (wounded), commanded the 2nd Division/Second Corps at Gettysburg (wounded), and commanded draft depots while convalescing. He continued to lead the 2nd Division at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. In June 1864 he was promoted Major General of Volunteers, and commanded the 24th Corps in the Army of the James to Appomattox.
After the War
He continued in career Army service (initially as Colonel, 36th US Infantry) in the West, and was an author and commander-in-chief of MOLLUS . He retired from the Army as a Brigadier General in 1891.
Birth
04/20/1827; Holmsburg (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania
Death
2/6/1896; Baltimore, MD; burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 452 [AotW citation 17516]