Edwin H. GIBSON

     Edwin H. GIBSON, son of Col. Jonathan Catlett GIBSON and Mary Williams SHACKELFORD, was born circa 1846 in Culpeper County, Virginia.¹ Edwin H. GIBSON also went by the name of Ned.

Ned GIBSON appeared on a census, enumerated 30 July 1850, in the household of his mother Mary Williams GIBSON in Culpeper County, Virginia. He was listed as Edwd. Gibson, age 4.²

Edwin H. GIBSON appeared on a census, enumerated 16 June 1860, in the household of his mother Mary Williams SHACKELFORD in Homeland, Culpeper County, Virginia. He was recorded as Edwin Gibson, 14.

Edwin began military service on 18 June 1861 in Sperryville, Virginia, where he enlisted as 1st Sergeant in Company K, the "Sperryville Sharpshooters," of the 49th Virginia Infantry Regiment. His brother, Jonathan was captain and later Colonel of the regiment, and their brother Eustace was quartermaster and later captain of the company. He was promoted 2nd Lieuenant. November 18, 1861; elected 1st. Lieutenant April 3, 1862. Ned was serving with the 49th Virginia Infantry in 1862 when he was sent to study at the Virginia Military Institute. This was at the urgent request of his brother, Col. Jonathan C. Gibson, who must have felt he needed to get his youngest brother out of harm's way. Ned returned to service in 1864 as a member of Mosby's Rangers after Federal troops occupied much of Northern Virginia. He fought without a scratch, but died from an accident after the war.^1,3,4

In 1867 Edwin left Culpeper to reside with Eustace and penned the following letter to his mother from Giles County. He gave her a long description of the scenery and weather before finally getting to the information she really wanted to know:

Giles C. H. March 7th 1867
My dear Mother:

I found upon my arrival here just such a little village as I expected to see from the descriptions I had heard of it before leaving home – tis a very little place in the midst of high, rugged mountains that seem to shut it out from the rest of the world.

The town is like many other little towns I have seen in Va. with only one street about three hundred yards long, and houses scatteringly built, good, bad & indifferent. At each end there is a church & on each church there is a steeple. About the center of the town is the court house which also has a steeple. And these buildings give the place an appearance distingue peculiar to most county seats. So much for the capital. The surrounding country is rather more striking. Tis much more mountainous than I expected to find it- and along some portions of the road between here & the railroad the scenery is very wild and grand. But until today we have had falling weather ever since my arrival. Last night a heavy snow fell about three inches deep. Today is warm and sunshiny, but the previous rains together with the melting snow have made the ground so soft & roads so muddy as to render walking out of the question. So for these reasons I have not seen much of the country or people.

I room with Eustace in his office, about which you and Bessie were so curious to learn. Tis a little room at the east end of the village about fifteen feet square, more or less, chock-full of furniture, and everything else pertaining to the office of a lawyer. I have seen Eustace’s sweetheart, have called upon her twice. Her name is Mattie Lackland. She is a music teacher and boards with a Dr. Easley whose house is across the street about 20 or 30 yards from this office. I do not think her very pretty. Eustace does – visits her at least once a day and generally oftener.
I shall look impatiently for letters from home. Write to me some & make Bessie do so too.
Your devoted son
Ned

“Bessie” was their sister, Elizabeth Gibson. Eustace married Miss Lackland in December 1867.⁴


Edwin H. GIBSON died in August 1869 in Culpeper Courthouse, Virginia. He died from a snake bite on the family farm.⁵ He was buried in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Culpeper, Virginia.⁶