removed to Lynchburg. There he engaged in business and has met with notable success, now being identified with the wholesale grocery trade, and is reckoned among the useful and enterprising citizens of the town.
Colonel J. Catlett Gibson, of Culpeper, was born in that county in 1835, and was educated at the university of Virginia. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted at Harper's Ferry in the Culpeper Minute Men, later a company of the Thirteenth regiment. After serving as a private six weeks, he organized a new company, of which he was elected captain, and which was assigned to the Forty-ninth infantry. He commanded his company at the first battle of Manassas, upon the reorganization in 1862 was elected lieutenant-colonel, and not long after was promoted colonel, the rank in which he served throughout the remainder of the war. Colonel Gibson was wounded twice at Seven Pines, one of the wounds being quite serious; again by a fragment of shell at White Oak swamp, and slightly at both Second Manassas and Chantilly. At Sharpsburg he was slightly wounded on the night of the 16th, and on the 17th was wounded by a canister shot so seriously that he was unfit for duty for several months. He was slightly wounded at Fredericksburg, and at Bethesda church, in 1864, his right leg was so mangled that he was compelled to retire from active service. During the fight of May 12, 1864, at the "bloody angle," near Spottsylvania, Colonel Gibson was particularly distinguished for gallantry. His brigade went into action, after Johnson's division had been overwhelmed, under command of Col. John S. Huffman, in Gen. John B. Gordon's division. Gen. R. E. Lee, riding up, undertook to lead the charge with uncovered head, but was dissuaded by General Gordon, his horse being led back to a space between the Forty-ninth regiment and Gordon's brigade. As Lee rode with Gordon to the rear, Colonel Gibson cried out: "General, shall we give them the bayonet?" and, receiving the answer "Yes," gave the command to charge. In this movement Colonel Huffman was wounded, and, when the brigade reached the redoubts on the left of the angle, the center was exposed to a rear fire. The command was then divided, Colonel Gibson taking charge of three regiments on the right and Col. James B. Terrill of two on the left. A bloody fight followed, in the midst of which Colonel Gibson moved part of his command to the right to support a portion of Gordon's brigade, which was commanded in this fight by Gen. Clement A. Evans. Presently his ammunition gave out and he rode to General Ewell to report his necessities. On his return he ran into a Yankee line, but they laughed at his mistake and cheered him. A moment later, in the terrible confusion, he encountered another line of Federals, who fired upon him and wounded his horse so that the animal fell just as Colonel Gibson reached his command. Subsequently, at Morton's ford, he remembered the consideration of his enemies at Spottsylvania and prevented his men from firing upon a gallant Federal officer who was trying to force his skirmish line upon the Confederate breastworks. In 1866-67 Colonel Gibson represented Fauquier and Rappahannock counties in the Virginia constitutional convention. In the meantime he engaged in the practice of law, and, a few years after the war, removed to Culpeper and married the daughter of Judge Henry Shackelford. They have one son living, Edwin H. Gibson, commonwealth attorney for
