Ionia-Montcalm County MI Archives Obituaries.....Gibson, Richard H. 1897
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net August 29, 2010, 8:32 pm

The Greenville Independent, Wednesday, October 13, 1897


Richard H. Gibson died, after an illness of four days, at his home in North 
Greenville Thursday afternoon, October 7, from a carbuncle on the nose from 
which inflammation extended to the brain.  The deceased was born in Lyons, 
Ionia county, August 26, 1841.  His parents moved to Fairplain in this county 
when he was but three years of age.  He has since been a resident of Montcalm 
county.  For some years he was a citizen of Greenville.

After the war he was married to Miss Agnes Wilcox, a daughter of Mrs. John 
Churchill.  A wife, daughter and son survive him and mourn his loss.  His 
brothers Hiram and Mark were present at the funeral with other relatives of 
the family.

R. H. Gibson enlisted with his brother Hiram at Ionia in Co. F of the 21st 
Mich. Inf., September 4, 1892, (transcriber’s note:  The date on the obituary 
is clearly 1892 but from the context most likely should be in the 1860s) and 
shared in the campaign life of his regiment until the battle of Chickamauga, 
September, 1863, where he received a wound which caused the loss of his left 
arm.  The regiment was in Sheridan’s division of McCook’s (4th) corps on the 
Union right which was forced back by fierce rebel charges.

In was in this fierce conflict that Comrade Gibson exhibited distinguished 
bravery and rare endurance.  The rebel fire was so severe that two color 
bearers had been shot down and a third hesitated to take up the colors because 
of the great peril when Comrade Gibson lifted up the flag and kept the colors 
flying at the front.  This was in the crisis of the battle when the Union 
lines were staggering under the heavy blows of the rebel charges.  Then a ball 
crashed through the flagstaff and the arm of the brave standard bearer; the 
flag for the third time fell to the ground and, stunned by the wound in the 
arm, he was drifting back with the Union forced when he thought of the flag 
lying in the path of the advancing rebel forces.  At once he turned back amid 
the storm of shot and shell and rescued the colors of his regiment which, had 
it not been for this brave deed, would have been captured by the rebels.  
Severely wounded he drifted back with the fragments of the right wing and 
marched 13 miles to Bridgeport before he received relief.  Here he found 
Comrade Dan Judd who wrapped up his shattered arm and bathed it in cold water 
until next morning when he went to the hospital.

After recovery from the loss of his arm, he returned north and was discharged 
from the service.  Later he returned to Chattanooga where he was employed by 
the government.

Since the war he has been prominent in Grand Army circles and in all movements 
for the benefit of veteran soldiers.  He was an ex-commander of Greenville 
Grand Army post, its second commander, and a member of the commission to 
establish Michigan monuments on the battlefield of Chickamauga and 
Chattanooga.  He was sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives in the 
late state legislature.  

The news of his death following such brief illness gave great surprise and 
caused deep sadness and sorrow.  The Grand Army post promptly made 
arrangements for the funeral and loving ministrations were tendered the 
bereaved family.

The funeral was Sunday afternoon.  He had always expressed himself in favor of 
a military funeral for the soldier dead and his comrades decided to bury him 
in accord with his preference expressed while in the vigor of health.

The Grand Army post in a body went to his late residence and comrades were 
pall bearers and guards of honor.  When the funeral procession reached W. H. 
Bradley’s store, the city band led the march with funeral dirge to the 
Congregational church.  At the church in waiting stood the W.R.C.  The post 
and the relief corps marched to seats reserved for them in the body of the 
church next behind the bereaved family and relatives.  The church was filled 
to overflowing.

The services were: Hymns sung by the choir; scripture reading and prayer by 
Rev. F. W. Hodgdon; sermon by Rev. D. E. Hills; brief address by C. C. 
Ellsworth, giving the incident of carrying the flag at Chickamauga.  At the 
close of the formal services friends passed by taking a last look at the face 
of the deceased.  The casket, draped with The Flag and covered with flowers 
was put in the hearse, carried from the church between the ranks of the Grand 
Army comrades and the W.R.C.  The band played another dirge, Grand Army 
comrades and the Relief Corps marching at the head of the procession as far as 
the Baptist church were transportation was waiting to bear them to the 
cemetery.

At Forest Home cemetery, after the brief funeral rites of the Grand Army 
ritual, all that was mortal of Comrade R. H. Gibson was laid away to sleep the 
sleep that knows no waking.


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