MEMOKIAL OF GEORGE GIBBS. ' 223 



euce — weeks and months in the cold and heat, amid snows and rain, 

 surrounded by the savage beasts of the forest, and exposed at times to 

 the treacherous attacks of the wikl Indian or the more dangerous whites, 

 who, breaking loose from their frail attachment to society, spread over 

 the Territories, and returned practically to the original state of man. Yet 

 with all this there was a charm which none who have experienced it 

 have ever forgotten ; not alone " the pleasure in the pathless woods," 

 nor yet the " society where none intrudes," but that intimate relation of 

 man with? man, of mind with mind, that fellowship, in the midst of 

 solitude and danger, of a body of cultivated and intellectual men, all 

 serving one common cause, and all impelled by one common impulse — 

 that cause the prosperity of their nati^e country — that impulse the love 

 of science. He who has witnessed the meeting of those friends, most of 

 them of West Point education — Army men all — has not failed to note with 

 admiration — with which even regret mingled, that such was not his lot — 

 the affectionate relations which neither time nor distance, nor the natural 

 separation which life always brings, seemed sensibly to affect or weaken. 



Many a one fell face to the foe in the dreadful struggle which brought 

 every man home from his distant T)ost. One by one they drop away and 

 join the increasing column in that undiscovered country whose boun- 

 daries no human eye shall ever survey, and whose wonders no human 

 tongue shall ever tell, where the pale-face and the red-man shall meet 

 in brotherhood, and speak one common language. To the close of his 

 life Mr. Gibbs continued warm friendships contracted amid these wild 

 scenes. His intimacies were to a great extent with Army men, but his 

 friends were in all ranks of society. Few men had such a large acquaint- 

 ance as he, and few lived more loved and died more mourned. During his 

 whole life at the West he never failed to write once or twice a week to 

 his family. His letters are full of graphic description of life and nature, 

 and should be published. No better contribution could be made to the 

 history of the early days of these settlements. 



In 1860, Mr. Gibbs returned to Kew York, not intending to remain per- 

 manently. Nature still whispered her tender song in his ear, and would 

 no doubt have charmed him to her bidding but for the outbreak of the 

 war. This brought with it other occupations and other duties. Too 

 uncertain in health for continuous service, and even then laboring under 

 the painful disease which finally brought him down, he threw himself, 

 with his strong character, his great perseverance, and his abundant 

 energy, into the service of the Union in another form. He was an early 

 and active member of the Loyal National League, which did so much 

 to crystallize public opinion in the second year of the war, and also of 

 the Loyal Publication Society, which distributed such masses of tracts 

 and healthy patriotic literature over the whole country. Of great per- 

 sonal bravery, he was always ready to expose life in defense of princi- 

 ple. In Washington, during the dark hours of March and April, 1861, 

 he took his musket and went upon duty to guard the Capitol at the 



