Gibbons was born in Granville, MA in 1840 and would later fight for the Union and eventually died of disease in 1862

Excerpt:
"The Great American Conflict condensed the history of ages into four years. Its history will never be written, never fully understood. Here and there some splendid name evinced its power and won immortality; but every regiment, every company, had its hero. There were marching in the ranks of the great army of the Republic men of genius and of culture. In a single company there might be sound men who could build and run a locomotive, who could edit a newspaper, teach a department in college, manage a commercial establishment, or conduct a cause successfully in a court."