William Harvey Gibson Brigadier General William Harvey Gibson ( May 16 , 1821 – November 22 , 1894 ) was a Republican politician from Ohio . He resigned from the Ohio State Treasurer ' s office in disgrace and redeemed his reputation in war . He was brevetted Brigadier General of the Union Army ' s 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War . Early life . William Harvey Gibson was born at Cross Creek Township , Jefferson County , Ohio on May 16 , 1821 to John Gibson ( 1778 – 1852 ) and Jeannette Gibson ( née Coe ) ( 1782 – 1850 ) . He was raised in a family that valued hard work , plain dress , temperance and sympathy for the unfortunate and opposed slavery and " social gilded livery . " The Gibson family also placed special attention on developing good oratory and debating skills and held a regular family debating circle during the long winter evenings . On his mother ' s side , Gibson was descended from Robert Coe who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 aboard the ship the " Francis " . On his father ' s side , he was of Scotch - Irish descent , the grandson of Colonel John Gibson , commanding officer of Virginia ' s 7th Regiment during the American Revolutionary War , Secretary of the Territory of Indiana ( 1800 – 1810 ) , and Acting Governor of Indiana ( 1811 – 1813 ) . William Harvey Gibson was known to everyone except his mother as " Bill . " He was the tenth of 11 children . He had five brothers and five older sisters ( Sally , Polly , Hetty , Patty , Eliza , Robert McDowell , Moses Coe , John Kendall , Benjamin , and James Allen ) . Gibson ' s father purchased 320 acres from the Federal Government in Seneca County , Ohio in 1821 . When he was only four months old , the Gibson family moved to Seneca County from Jefferson County . The family settled in Melmore , Ohio . At the time , it was still a wooded frontier and home to Seneca and Mohawk Indians . Both sides of the family were Presbyterians and Gibson recalls being baptized with ten Indian children by Rev . James B . Findley with the ceremony being translated by the Indian interpreter " Black Jack . " Gibson also recalls hearing Chief " Grey Eyes " preach . In the 1820s , the Gibson brothers took their corn for milling at the mill that the U . S . government built for the Wyandotte Indians on the Upper Sandusky River . Gibson attended the first school organized in Seneca County , Ohio in 1826 with his brothers Robert , Benjamin and James Allen . It was located in the second room of James Latham ' s log cabin and the teacher was Mrs . Laura Latham . The Lathams later donated land and asked the community to help build a one - room log schoolhouse , which became known as Craw ' s Hill School . It was run by Headmaster Edward Ranger . Among Gibson ' s early schoolmates were Anson Burlingame ( diplomat ) , Consul Wilshire Butterfield ( author and historian ) , O . D . Conger ( U . S . Congressman and U . S . Senator from Michigan ) , and Charles Foster ( 35th Governor of Ohio and U . S . Secretary of the Treasury ) . In his late teens , Gibson was eager to explore the American West . Together with his brother Robert McDowell Gibson and his neighbors John Kennedy and James Downs , he formed an exploration party that traveled west to explore the Territory of Iowa . The trip was a disaster with Kennedy and Downs dying by the time they reached Iowa City . The Gibson brothers returned to Melmore , Ohio . It would be their youngest brother James Allen Gibson who would explore the West and settle in Kansas . Bill and his brother Robert McDowell Gibson ( who would later become a practicing M . D . ) , enrolled in Ashland Academy in Richland County , Ohio in 1841 . ( The school later became Ashland University and Ashland Theological Seminary ) . Here , he honed his debating and oratory skills , becoming known for his strong position on temperance . He learned the carpenters trade , and studied law . Early Legal and Political career . In 1841 when William Harvey Gibson petitioned the law firm of Rawson & Pennington to join their firm , he was following in the steps of his older brother John Kendall Gibson who had studied law at Washington & Jefferson College and during the U . S . Presidential campaign of 1840 , campaigned alongside General William Henry Harrison . Bill ( William Harvey ) Gibson and Warren P . Noble ( later a prosecuting attorney , judge and U . S . Congressman ) studied law together under Abel Rawson . Gibson was admitted to the Ohio bar and his first case was defending a client against racial slurs before Judge Reuben Wood . Gibson became involved in politics as a member of the Whig Party with strong anti - slavery views . During the U . S . Presidential campaign of 1844 , he gave stump speeches for Henry Clay due to the Whig Party ' s platform that opposed admitting Texas into the Union because it was a slave state . In the U . S . Presidential campaign of 1848 , Gibson supported Whig candidate , " Rough and Ready " General Zachary Taylor . However , he was concerned about the Whig Party ' s lack of opposition to the abolition of slavery and personally visited Henry Clay at his home in Ashland , Kentucky in 1848 to discuss this issue . He lost as a Whig candidate for Ohio Attorney General in 1853 . In 1853 , following the large defeat of the Whig candidate General Winfield Scott in the U . S . Presidential election of 1852 , Gibson threw his support to the Free Soil Party and began organizing what would become the Republican Party in Ohio . He attended the first organization meeting of the Republican Party in spring of 1856 in Pittsburgh . He was one of the 69 Ohio delegates ( of a total 600 delegates from around the country ) that attended the first Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia in June 1856 . In 1856 , he ran and was elected as the first Republican to hold the office of Ohio State Treasurer . State Treasurer . In 1855 , Gibson ran for Ohio State Treasurer , defeating the incumbent Democrat , John G . Breslin . Breslin was a fellow Tiffin resident , and was related by marriage to Gibson . Gibson was inducted into the office January 14 , 1856 , and resigned June 13 , 1857 . Gibson found that the treasury was short several hundred thousand dollars when he entered office . He confronted Breslin , who assured him that the money would be made good . Breslin noted that his predecessor , Albert A . Bliss had been $ 65 , 000 short , and had made it up . He intended to do the same . When the Breslin Treasury Defalcation became public , Gibson was forced to resign . An indignation meeting of leading politicians in the streets of Columbus denounced Breslin and Gibson . A commission appointed to investigate found Gibson ' s crime was not in taking money for himself , but in participating in a cover - up . Breslin had moved to Canada to avoid prosecution , and Gibson returned to Tiffin and opened a law office . Civil War General , Commander of the Union Army ' s 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry . On July 25 , 1861 , Gibson had a large recruiting poster printed : Gibson entered service July 31 , 1861 , and by August 31 was named Colonel of the Forty - Ninth Regiment , Ohio Volunteer Infantry . Gibson was the 49th Ohio Infantry ' s commanding officer throughout the U . S . Civil War . In August and September 1861 , he organized and trained the 49th Ohio Infantry at Camp Noble , near his home in Tiffin , Ohio . With Gibson in command , the regiment was mustered for three years and fought at 42 Civil War battles including : the Battle of Shiloh , the Siege of Corinth , the Battle of Stone River , the Tullahoma Campaign , the Battle of Chickamauga , the Battle of Missionary Ridge , the Atlanta Campaign , the Battle of Resaca , the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain , the Siege of Atlanta , the Battle of Jonesboro , the Second Battle of Franklin , and the Battle of Nashville . Gibson was known amongst his soldiers for his leadership , his positive speeches , and willingness to personally command in battle . At the Battle of Shiloh he had three horses shot from under him and was wounded by bayonet . Gibson was mustered out September 5 , 1864 , and brevetted Brigadier General March 13 , 1865 . Whitelaw Reid summarized Gibson ' s service in the American Civil War thusly : In his home town of Tiffin , Ohio Gibson is commemorated for his leadership during the U . S . Civil with a bronze statue known as the William Harvey Gibson Monument , located on the grounds of the Seneca County Courthouse . Funding for this statue came from state funds and also from donations made by his soldiers . After the Civil War . Following the Civil War , General Gibson returned to civilian life to practice law . In 1868 , Gibson was nominated for Ohio ' s 9th congressional district , but lost to Democrat Edward F . Dickinson , with his biographer alleging voting fraud . In 1871 , he laid out the town of Gibsonburg in Sandusky County , Ohio . He continued as active stump speaker in support of Republican candidates . In the 1880s , Gibson was made a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church , and was appointed Ohio Adjutant General by Governor Foster . In 1887 , Ohio Governor Joseph B . Foraker appointed him to the Ohio Canal Commission . Legacy . William Harvey Gibson is best remembered for his eloquent oratory during at a difficult period in U . S . history . Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe said that she had " listened to many of the most gifted orators of Europe and America , but have never listened to such eloquence as poured forth for two hours and half as from the lips of William H . Gibson , of Ohio . " At Gibson ' s funeral in 1894 , William McKinley , who at the time was Governor of Ohio ( 1892 – 1896 , and later U . S . President , 1897 – 1901 ) made the eulogy . McKinley also noted Gibson ' s gift for oratory saying that , " For fifty years , Gibson has been the most attractive and sought after of public speakers . On the lecture platform , at hundreds of Grand Army camp - fires , and in the pulpit , wherever duty called him , General Gibson made fitting responses . . . . I am here , to pay tribute to the man I loved so much . The last time I heard him was at Old Fort , the Sunday before Memorial day . He was never more eloquent . General Gibson believed the two most important things in life were piety and patriotism . In his creed they were linked in indissoluble union . His piety was broad enough to include every creed and his patriotism wide enough to cover the whole country . " He was interred in Greenlawn Cemetery . On May 25 , 1847 , Gibson was married in the Presbyterian Church to Martha Matilda Creeger of Tiffin , who was born in Maryland .