Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Gibson, George 1747-

Military officer; born in Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 10, 1747. On the breaking-out of the Revolution he raised a company of 100 men at Fort Pitt, who were distinguished for their bravery and as sharp-shooters, and were called “Gibson's lambs.” These did good service throughout the war. A part of the time Gibson was colonel of a Virginia regiment. To obtain a supply of gunpowder, he went down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with twenty-five picked men and a cargo of flour, ostensibly for trade, and returned with the desired ammunition. In the disastrous battle, Nov. 4, 1791, in which St. Clair was defeated, Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded, dying in Fort Jefferson, O., Dec. 14, 1791. His brother John was also a soldier of the Revolution; born in Lancaster, Pa., May 23, 1730; was in Forbes's expedition against Fort Duquesne, and acted a conspicuous part in Dunmore's war in 1774. He commanded a Continental regiment in the Revolutionary War, his chief command being on the western frontier. He was made a judge of the common pleas of Alleghany county, and in 1800 was appointed by Jefferson secretary of the Territory of Indiana, which post he held until it became a State. He died near Pittsburg, Pa., April 10, 1822.