Randall Lee Gibson was born on September 10, 1832, in Versailles, Kentucky, to Tobias Gibson and Louisiana Hart. His father was a planter who owned at least $125,000 of real estate and 150 enslaved laborers by 1850. The family moved to Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, sometime before 1850, and he attended school there before enrolling at Yale University. He graduated in 1853 and returned to Louisiana to attend law school. By 1860, he owned $120,000 of real estate and $42,000 of personal property, including at least 10 enslaved laborers.

 

During the secession winter of 1860-61, Gibson served as an aide to Governor Thomas O. Moore. He became a captain in the 1^st Louisiana Heavy Artillery on May 8, 1861, and three months later, on August 13, 1861, he received a commission as colonel of the 13^th Louisiana Infantry. He took part in the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Chickamauga, and the Atlanta campaign. He was promoted to brigadier general in January 1864. Union forces captured him at Cuba Station, Alabama, on May 8, 1865, and he received his parole six days later.

 

He returned to Louisiana after the war, and he married Mary Montgomery around 1868. They had at least four children: Montgomery, born around 1869; Louisiana, born around 1870; Richardson, born around 1874; and Preston, born around 1879. He supported the Democratic Party, and Louisiana voters elected him to Congress in 1874. He spent the next eight years in Congress, and he became a United States Senator in March 1883. He remained in the Senate until his death in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on December 15, 1892.

 

Image: Randall Lee Gibson (courtesy Wikicommons)

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