| Name |
Simeon Beauford Gibbons |
| Unit of Confederate Service |
10th Virginia Infantry |
| Birth |
25 May 1833, near what became Shenandoah Iron Works, Page Co., Va. |
| Death |
08 May 1862, Battle of McDowell, Highland County, Va. |
| Burial |
Woodbine Cemetery, Harrisonburg, Rockingham Co., Virginia |
| Occupation |
merchant |
| Father |
Samuel Gibbons |
| Mother |
Christina Miller |
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NOTE: Eduacated and graduated from Virginia Military Institute, 1852. On the VMI Board of directors, 1859-1860. A merchant in pre-war Harrisonburg, Rockingham Co., Va.
RECORD OF SERVICE: Col. 4th Regiment Virginia Volunteers (Militia) 1859 - Apr. 1861. Appointed Colonel, 10th Virginia Infantry. Killed-in-action 08 May 1862 at the Battle of McDowell. He received two bullets in his forehead in the face of the 5th Ohio Infantry. Though his acting aide and younger brother, William S. Gibbons, had rushed to his side, the colonel died just before he reached him. His body was carried to the rear by other members of the regiment.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Reported in the May 30th edition of the Rockingham Register, Gibbons' death was mourned by many. One such tribute was written by a few members of the Union Lodge in Harrisonburg.
"TRIBUTE OF RESPECT
HALL OF ROCKINGHAM
UNION LODGE, NO. 27, F.A.M.
HARRISONBURG, MAY 22, 1862
At a call Communication of Rockingham Union Lodge No. 27, F.A.M., held in the Masonic Temple, May 22, A.L.5862 A.D., 1862, the following MEMORIAL appertaining to the death of Col. Simeon B. Gibbons, a member of Rockingham Union Lodge . . . was reported by the committee appointed in the archives of the
Lodge.
. . . The connection of Col./ Simeon B. Gibbons with Free Masonry as a member of the Order did not, at the time of his death, extend over the term of one year, yet had he, from his infancy to the date of his initiation into the sublime mysteries of our mystic brotherhood been practicing and cultivating that love of truth and justice, that patriotic devotion to country.. ."
The Rockingham Register also took the liberty of quoting from the Richmond Dispatch,which gave praise to the young enterprising citizen-soldier of Page and Rockingham. In the death of Gibbons, as in the death of so many others during the war, young and old alike, Page and Rockingham Counties sustained a loss for the future and the return to civilian living.
"No one ever drew a around him a circle of more devoted friends than had Col. Gibbons. Amiable in his nature, modest, and unassuming in his manners, firm in his attachments; disinterested in his friendship, unselfish in all the impulses of his heart. . .
As a patriot . . . surpassed by none . . . As an officer and soldier, few were more competent . . . But to all those noble and elevating qualities which we have mentioned, he added the higher and more noble character of the Christian."
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