The Online Archive of Terry's Texas Rangers
Sharing & preserving the history of the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment, 1861-1865
The Online Archive of John Lee W. D. Gibson
John Gibson was in from start to finish. He left his birthplace
(b: 9/23/1888) in the town of Gonzales, Gonzales County, Texas to join the
army in Houston on September 12, 1861. He mustered in at Gonzales in September
1861 (according to George Thomas McGehee, president of the Terry Ranger 
Association
in his letter of 29 March 1922), and returned home in August of 1865 having
surrendered at Charlott, N. Carolina in Apr. 1865 (although no official record
of this has been found, it was mentioned in his pension testimony).
At one point while fighting with Bragg's Army in the Kentucky & Eastern Tennessee campaigns, he and a companion were separated from his unit. They walked across the Cumberlain Mountains to rejoin; literally walking out of their boots. Even the tops of their boots, which they had used to make moccasins, were worn away. They stopped at Gum Springs to rest and wash their torn and bloody feet in the spring. A woman came by with a bucket to get water, seeing they were rebels, in poor condition, and she being sympathetic with the cause, invited them to her home. After feeding them, she offered hem her shoes to use for creating moccasins to assist them on their way to rejoining the good fight.
The roster of Company E, Terry's Texas Rangers lists him as: "wounded at Murfreesboro, Sept. 29, 1862, killed near Southern University July 4, 1863". We assume that he was separated from the Regiment on the July 4 incident and reported as killed. It does not look like he successfully rejoined the Rangers as he surrendered in Charlott in March of 1865 approximately two months prior to the surrender of Bragg's Army of Tennessee which surrendered in late May of 1865 (a month and a half after the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia). That could be why the records were never corrected.
John Lee became a farmer in Gonzales after the war. He applied for his pension from the State of Texas in April of 1922. He was 84 years old t the time of his death on 29 March 1923. He was noted as the oldest native born person in Gonzales county at that time. He had been a life long Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church, Cumberland branch.
In his obituary and the tribute by the adjutant of Camp Keys he was attributed to being the Texan who grabbed Traveler's bridle and brought Lee to the rear as the brave Texans led the charge against the Yankees in the battle of the Wilderness.
I think that this is perhaps a traditional tribute on the passing of any Confederate Texan, rather than fact (just my conjecture). In all that I have been able to research, Terry's Texans were not at this battle, only Hoods Texas Brigade and a few other remnant Texas units.
The last reunion of this most famous bunch took place in Austin at the Driscoll Hotel in October of 1921. John Lee Gibson was too ill to attend, but based upon the testimony of the president of that organization he was well remembered and sorely missed.
Go back to John Lee Gibson's Page.