GIBBS, Asa

BRYANT, COLLINS, GIBBS

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/28/2009 at 21:01:19

~Source: History of the 68th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 1862-1865, by Edwin W High, 1902, pp 299-300.

The subject of this sketch was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, April 14, 1844, the son of Aaron C. and Eliza Gibbs. His father had been a soldier in the Mexican war, a captain in the company raised for the First Indiana, and served with his regiment during that war. Asa Gibbs received a common-school education, and worked at farming until he arrived at the age of eighteen years, when, as did so many of the men of that day, he enlisted in the service of his country and joined Company E, Sixty-eighth Indiana, on August 11, 1862. Shortly after his muster-in, he was taken prisoner with his regiment at Munfordville, Kentucky. In the Chattanooga campaign he was made a corporal, and served faithfully until the battle of Chickamauga, where he was severely wounded in the left thigh and fell into the hands of the enemy. He remained on the field with but slight attention paid to his wounds for nine days, when, with others severely wounded, he was paroled and sent to Chattanooga, and from thence was sent north for treatment. Upon recovery, and being then exchanged (May, 1864), he rejoined his regiment at Chattanooga. About this time he was promoted to be a sergeant, by Captain Charles H. Bryant, of his company. In the battle at Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864, he was again wounded, this time in the cheek. Although the wound was slight, it was a close call, and it will always be remembered by the recipient. However, it was severe enough to render him unable to follow Hood in his retreat from Nashville, and he did not rejoin his regiment until after its return to Chattanooga. To sum up his army experience, he was twice taken prisoner by the enemy, twice wounded, and served with his command until its final muster-out at Nashville, Tennessee.

After the war closed, Sergeant Gibbs entered the quartermaster's service and had charge of the stables of horses belonging to the government at Carthage, Ohio, and also had charge of the watch until that station was given up. He then went into the oil busines in eastern Ohio, afterwards learning the carpenter and bridge-building trade, and became a member of the firm of Chamberlin, Gibbs & Co., extensive bridge builders and railroad contractors. He was married to Belle L. Collins, at Delhi, Ohio, February 26, 1872, of which union seven children were born, all of whom are living except one who died in infancy. In the fall of 1889, with his family, he removed to Hancock County, Iowa, where he opened up a farm, and where at present (July, 1900) he still resides, and where he would be happy to greet his old comrades.