Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-21

leaned out of window and thanked Us
assistance.
Now, some might have called that an
adventure. Anyhow, it ended right
there. / never became acquainted with
the lady. In fact, though some of our
officers did make pleasant acquaintance
among the better class Mexican fami-
lies, l did not
But Gen. Gibson did make acquain-
ances during his Mexican service with
many men destined later to become great
figures and military leaders on both sides
during the civil war. Grant. for example,
also was a subaltern in Mexico. and the
two young men met tlere and became
acquainted The next meeting between
the two vas in st. Louis hotel IN the
fifties. after Grant had resigned fl2m the
army, and there, i'll company with
Jerry Dent, Grant brother-in-law. the
two foregathered and talked of Mexico.
Gen. Gibson next met Grant in
Louisville hotel. This time Grant was
lieutenant general of the army. and at
the immediate moment of meeting Was
issuing orders to his quartermaster gen.
eral The next meeting between the two
was in Washington, when Grant was
President.
for a short time to Fort Monroe. and
then, in command of company of ar
tillery and with q number OF recruits, ne
was sent around the Horn to join the
military forces in California and to spend
twelve active years there, most of the
time engaged in Indian campaigns.
1t was in California that he formed an
intimacy with William T. Sherman, then
only a subaltern. Young Gibson fell
sick not long after his arrival in Cal
ifornia and was laid up in a San Fran
cisco hotel. Sherman came to see him
Gibson told him that the doctor had
advised a complete change of climate
Hawaiian Islands, but to get orders per-
hitting him to go would be extremely
difficult.
go ANYWAY" advised Sherman, with
characteristic impetuosity. So Gibson
went
'"That," remarked Gen. Gibson, mere
~ demonstrates the difference between
the attitude of a subaltern and a general
in command toward orders. But, being
lucky, suffered nothing from my techni-
cal violation Soon after l arrived at
Honolulu a commissary officer of the
army came over from the coast to buy
vegetables and food upplies for our
troops in California. Californians were
$1,000 -S>
stuffs and we had to draw on the islands
for supplies.
This officer could not remain. SO he
put me on duty buying supplies and re-
manned there for several months. being
probably the first American army officer
to be placed on duty in the country which
is now a territory Of the United States
On my return to California, SO far from
being reprimanded for taking French
leave, / was placed on the staff of the
general commanding"
AS first lieutenant of the 3D. Artillery,
Gen Gibson had a wide experience on the
coast. Part of it was in building army
posts. In those pioneer days, when the
army moved into place to occupy It
permanently, it had to get out logs and
build its own habitations. The now
historic posts of Fort Churchill and Fort
Bragg in California were among those
Gen. Gibson built
His first active field service was in
the San Joaquin valley expedition to
clean up the hostile Indians in that re-
gion. Then he was in command Of the
escort accompanying the engineering
party laying out that portion of the Pa
ciflc railroad from Sacramento north 10
the Columbian, but this was interrupted
by the activity of the hostile Indians.
Subordinate to Gen. Gibson in this es-
cort party were three officers destined to
win fame in later life. One was young
Phil Sheridan, six years junior to Cen.
Gibson in graduating from the Point. In