William Gibson, U. S. N.

Philip St. George Cooke

Radical Freelance, Esq.

William Gibson, USN

Augustus Ely Silliman

Texts by Anonymous

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Introducing "the Gallant Commander" William Gibson (1825-1887)

Born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in York, Pennsylvania, career naval officer William Gibson first went to sea at the age of twelve, when he sailed on the Falmouth for a three-year cruise of the Pacific (1837-1840) under the tutelage of the ship’s captain, Isaac McKeever. 

On his first cruise, young Gibson would have become acquainted with Herman Melville’s cousin, Hunn Gansevoort.  An 1837 newspaper report has “H. Gansevoort” listed among midshipmen on the Falmouth, departing from Rio on 14 October 1837; see “U. S. Ship Lexington,” Hudson River Chronicle (26 December 1837). Wilson Heflin in Melville’s Whaling Years [ed. Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thomas Farel Heffernan (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004), 13] reports that Hunn Gansevoort “was detached from the Exploring Expedition and ordered to the Pacific Squadron as sailing master of the sloop Falmouth in June 1839.” 

Appointed to the rank of midshipman in 1841, Gibson led a colorful and mostly distinguished military life that included honorable service in the Mexican War, an important coastal survey of the North Pacific, the Civil War, and stints at the Pensacola Navy Yard and Hydrographic Office in Washington.  While stationed on the Ewing in the San Francisco Bay in 1849, Midshipman Gibson was sensationally involved as the victim of attempted murder during a botched mutiny and desertion.  Two sailors were hung in consequence of the widely reported assault on Midshipman Gibson.  The hangings took place on board the Ewing and Savannah under the direction of squadron commander Thomas ap Catesby Jones, who in 1843-4 had been commodore of the fleet during Melville’s homeward bound cruise aboard the frigate United States. 

For details, see H[oratio] G[ates] Gibson, “Mutiny of the Ewing,” Sunset 12 (March 1904): 422-426; Edwin G. Gudde, “Mutiny on the Ewing,” California Historical Society Quarterly 30 (March 1951): 39-47; and Thornton Emmons and Homer C. Votaw, "More on the Ewing Mutiny," California Historical Society Quarterly 36 (December 1957): 307-311.  See also the Army and Navy Journal (9 March 1878): 487 for a “true statement of the facts” by William Gibson about his role in the 1849 incident; earlier references appear in the same journal on 23 February and 2 March 1878. 

William Gibson’s parents were John Gibson (1790-1869), a Protestant clergyman and native of Ulster, Ireland, and Elizabeth Jameson (1801-1855); his maternal grandfather was Horatio Gates Jameson (1778-1855), Baltimore surgeon, editor, and founder of the Washington Medical College.  Additional biographical facts are available in the entry on William Gibson in the History of York County, written by William's younger brother John Gibson (1829-1890).  John Gibson was a lawyer and judge who married the youngest daughter of Albany editor and publisher Benjamin D. Packard.  Another brother, Horatio Gates Gibson, was a West Point graduate and career army officer.  During the Civil War, Herman Melville’s cousin Henry Sanford Gansevoort served in the 3^rd Artillery under Horatio Gates Gibson, long enough to get his picture taken with the captain; see the Civil War World of Herman Melville (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1993), 160-161 (William Gibson’s brother Horatio Gates, though unidentified by Garner, is the second person from the left in the photograph that Garner reproduces at 161).   

Chronologies of Gibson’s naval career may be found in the “Abstract of the orders issued to William Gibson, late commander, U. S. Navy” in Report No. 172 by the House of Representatives, 51^st Congress, 1^st Session (Report to accompany bill H. R. 5488), included in the pension file of navy widow Mary M. Gibson (Claim No. 4830) which is available on microfiche at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. (Fiche NWC 002987, Cert. No. 0003688); and Lewis R. Hamersly, Records of Living Officers of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps, 3^rd ed. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1878), 177-178.  For supplementary biographical details, see the obituary in the York Dispatch, 24 October 1887 (“Deaht [sic] of Wm. Gibson.”); and the sketch of “Commander William Gibson” in John Gibson, ed., History of York County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: F. A. Battey, 1886), 427-428.  For professional assistance and courtesies in locating these and other items, I am indebted to Librarian/Archivist Lila Fourhman-Shaull and Researcher John Prosser of the York County Heritage Trust.

On 26 December 1868, William Gibson married Mary Murray Addison of New Orleans, a niece of Commodore (later Rear Admiral) Benjamin F. Sands.  Mary was a daughter of Lloyd Dulaney Addison (1799-1861), a New Orleans merchant.  Between 1870 and 1876, Gibson took an extended leave of absence and sojourned with his wife in Europe.  In 1879 he received his final promotion to the rank of commander.  William and Mary Gibson resided for many years in Washington, D.C., although they evidently returned to Europe after Gibson was “granted six months leave to go abroad” in February 1883.  Gibson was in London on April 23, 1883 when he inscribed a copy of Poems of Many Years and Many Places to “His Excellency, /  J. Russell Lowell, / with the compliments of / The Author.”

Commander Gibson died in Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 23, 1887.  After her husband’s death, Mary M. Gibson resided for many years in England.  She died on May 26, 1928.

From A Naval Encyclopædia (Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly & Coo., 1881), 916-917:

William Gibson.  Born in Maryland.  Appointed from Pennsylvania, February 11, 1841; attached to line-of-battle ship "Delaware," Brazil Squadron, 1841; to sloop "Concord," and wrecked in her in the Mozambique Channel, 1842; to "Delaware" again, Mediterranean, 1843; brig "Lawrence," Home Squadron, 1845; gunboat "Reefer," Gulf of Mexico, 1846, from the beginning of the war; closely engaged with the batteries and troops in the two attacks on Alvarado; present at Tabasco.  Promoted to passed midshipman, August 10, 1847; steamer "Mississippi" and other vessels of Gulf Squadron, 1848; coast survey schooner "Ewing," Pacific coast of the United States, 1849-51; assaulted by a mutinous and deserting boat's crew in the bay of San Francisco, Cal., September, 1849, thrown overboard, rescued, and resuscitated from drowning; thanked by superintendent of Coast Survey for "characteristic gallantry"; coast survey, New England, 1852; steamer "John Hancock," North Pacific Expedition, 1853; assisted in survey of Gaspar Straits; commanding schooner "Fenimore Cooper," North Pacific Expedition, 1854-55; surveys solely conducted by that vessel, the coast of Niphon in the Japan Sea, and the Aleutian chain of islands; Commander (now Rear Admiral) Rodgers complimented him for his "zeal, his energy, and the hardships of a dangerous cruise," and wrote that his "usefulness was in inverse proportion to the size of his vessel."  Commissioned as lieutenant, September 15, 1855; special duty, Washington, 1857-58; frigate "Sabine," Paraguay Expedition, 1858-59; special duty, Washington, 1859; gunboat "Pocahontas," Gulf Squadron, 1860; steam-frigate "Minnesota," 1861; steamer "Santiago de Cuba," 1861-62.  Commissioned as lieutenant-commander, July 16, 1862; commanding steamer "Yankee," Potomac Flotilla, 1862; present during all the operations on the James River while McClellan occupied Harrison's Landing, and guarded with three gunboats his re-crossing of the Chickahominy; captured several vessels in a night expedition up Chip Oaks Creek, and thanked by Commodore Wilkes; commanding steam-gunboat "Seneca," South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1862-63; senior officer in the "Ogeechee," January, 1863, blockading rebel war-steamer 'Nashville"; engaged in three attacks on Fort McAllister and the destruction of the above-named vessel after the arrival of Capt. Worden in the "Montauk"; praised by the late Rear-Admiral Dupont, in a letter to the Department, for "great spirit and vigilance"' commanding ironclad "Catskill," steam-gunboat "Nipsic," steamer "Sonoma," and ironclad "Lehigh," successively, 1864; frequent engagements with the batteries near Charleston; Rear-Admiral Dahlgren wrote that his "monitor service would always be a handsome testimonial in his favor"; Rear-Admiral Rowan, that he "commanded one of the ironclads during the active operations off Charleston, and did gallant and efficient service"; commanding steamer "Mahaska" and First Division of the East Gulf Squadron, 1865; thanked by Major-Gen. Newton for "zealous and able co-operation with the land forces" in the joint expedition to St. Mark's; commanding steamer "Tehama," 1866-67; rode out hurricane near Bahamas, October, 1866; thanked by British government for aid rendered those islands.  Promoted to commander, April 26, 1867; special duty, Washington, 1867; navy-yard, Pensacola, 1868-70; leave of absence, Europe, 1870-1876; Hydrographic Office, 1878-80.

some trouble not reported in the Naval Encyclopædia...

On April 26, 1867, William Gibson was placed on the retired list as a lieutenant-commander, having failed to establish "his mental, moral, and professional fitness to perform all his duties at sea in a higher grade."  A letter dated March 14, 1878 to the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs from Navy Secretary R. W. Thompson explains:

Lieutenant-Commander Gibson had served in the Navy from the date of his entering it in 1841, in various positions of trust and responsibility, and in a very meritorious manner, until within a short time of his coming up before the board, above-mentioned, for promotion.

In 1865 he was arraigned and tried for drunkenness, found guilty of the charge, and sentenced to be dismissed [from] the service.  The sentence of the court was mitigated to suspension from duty on half-pay for one year.  In announcing this mitigation, the Secretary of the Navy wrote to Lieutenant -Commander Gibson as follows:

"Certain considerations, however, which could not be allowed to affect the court, have not been overlooked by the department.  Your position and long service in the Navy, while they plead for mitigation of your sentence, render your example to your junior officers of great importance to the discipline of the service.  You have hitherto borne a good character.  You have been loyal and devoted to the service under circumstances which prove your ideas of duty as an officer and a citizen to have been honest and honorable.  You have assured the department of your purpose to avoid in  the future all occasions of a renewal of the charge.  For these reasons, among others, the sentence of the court is mitigated," &c.

It was a few months subsequent to this that his case came before the examining board, and it is a fair presumption that the result of his trial and the particular acts which led to it, influenced the board to a great degree in their finding....

...During most of the time, from the date of his retirement to the passage of the act of March 3, 1873, forbidding the employment of officers on the retired-list except in time of war, Commander Gibson was employed on shore and special duty, and no complaints of misconduct were made against him.

He had seen eighteen years of sea-service out of a term of twenty-five in the Navy, when he was retired, and his professional duties were well performed.

The department has every reason to believe that his assurance, given at the time of the mitigation of his sentence, to avoid all occasions for a renewal of the charge of intemperance or drunkenness against him, has been verified, and that he has since conducted himself soberly and honorably, and now abstains from the use of intoxicating drinks.

In his autobiography, Admiral Samuel Rhoades Franklin remembers William Gibson [Memories of a Rear-Admiral (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898), 13.]:

My home at that time was York, Pennsylvania, where I was born and bred.  William Gibson, a classmate of mine, also made York his home.  He was appointed about the same time I was.  He used to wear a little round jacket with Navy buttons on it, upon which I looked with envious eyes.  He also wrote for the local newspapers, which was another cause of envy in me.  I would write mental articles to try and get even with him.  I thought mine pretty good, but no one ever saw them or knew of them but myself―while his were published and read, mine never saw the light.  I was between fifteen and sixteen; Gibson was, I think, a little my senior.  We both went to sea soon after.  He became quite a distinguished poet, and was highly commended by N. P. Willis for his productions.  We were always good friends in the service, but our paths seldom crossed.  He died a number of years ago. 

In 1845-1846, the following poems by William Gibson appeared in the New York Broadway Journal, then edited by Edgar Allan Poe:

"Stanzas" (October 11, 1845)
"The Unattainable" (October 18, 1845)
"The Sibyl" (October 25, 1845)
"To Helen" (November 1, 1845)
"To a Canary Bird" (January 3, 1846).  Reprinted in Graham's 40.4 (April 1, 1852): 377.
"The Eternal Father" (January 3, 1846)

Except for "The Unattainable" and "The Sibyl," these early poems are collected in Gibson's first book of poems, A Vision of Faery Land and Other Poems (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1853). This miscellany of romantic verse appeared just as Lieutenant William Gibson was making ready to sail for the Sea of Japan and beyond on the steamer John Hancock. 

Many years later, Gibson found popular venues for carefully crafted verses on (among other things) Greek myths, Christian saints, Art, island paradises, and post-Risorgimento Italy.  Individual poems by Gibson appeared intermittently during the 1870’s and ’80’s in popular magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Catholic World, Galaxy, and Harper’s.  In 1881, these mature efforts, remarkable for their thematic range and metrical diversity, were assembled and published by Lee & Shepard in Boston and C. T. Dillingham in New York under the title, Poems of Many Years and Many Places.  In 1883, Lee & Shepard published the Poems of Goethe, comprising translations by William Gibson into idiomatic English verse.  The Goethe volume is floridly dedicated to Gibson’s wife Mary, whom he credits as a collaborator along with the “matchless translator of Faust,” Bayard Taylor.