Tuesday, October 28, 2008

William Gibson

William Gibson was born 1837 in England.

William left England and immigrated to the United States, eventually settled in western Michigan.

By 1860 William was a mill hand working at Henry Beidler’s mill in Muskegon, Muskegon County.

William stood 5’7” with brown eyes and hair and a fair complexion, and was 24 years old and still residing in Muskegon County when he enlisted in Company H on April 28, 1861. (Company H, formerly the “Muskegon Rangers,” was made up largely of men from the vicinity of Muskegon and Newaygo counties.) He was wounded by a gunshot to the left arm on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, and subsequently reported hospitalized from August through September, on detached service, probably in the hospital, in October. Indeed he probably remained hospitalized until he was discharged on February 27, 1863 at the Convalescent Camp, Virginia, for “tuberculosis contracted since enlistment and loss of use of left arm from gunshot wound received” on May 31, 1862.

William may have settled for a time in the area of Cleveland, Ohio (he listed Cleveland as his mailing address on his discharge paper).

According to one source William is buried in Homer, Calhoun County.

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