Item No. 7205691

A CDV portrait of Brigadier General Alfred Gibbs, best known as a cavalry commander under Phil Sheridan in 1864 and 1865. The general is identified in period ink in the hand of Bernard J. D. Irwin, the noted army surgeon, naturalist, and Medal of Honor recipient, in whose family album the CDV appeared. On the reverse of the carte is the imprint of E. & H. T. Anthony of New York, with credit to Mathew Brady’s original negative.

Gibbs was a career Army officer and West Point graduate (1846) whose service spanned the Mexican War, frontier duty, and the Civil War. In Mexico, he earned brevets for gallantry at Cerro Gordo and for his actions at Mexico City, also participating in the major engagements from Vera Cruz through Chapultepec. He spent the 1850s on frontier service in Texas, California, and New Mexico (where he must have met Irwin), including operations against Native American tribes.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Gibbs was captured by Confederate forces in New Mexico and later exchanged. He was appointed colonel of the 130th New York Infantry, which he reorganized into the 1st New York Dragoons (19th New York Cavalry). He went on to command cavalry brigades under Sheridan in 1864–65, earning brevet promotions for gallantry at Trevilian Station and Winchester, and was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in October 1864. Gibbs led cavalry in the final Appomattox Campaign and was present at Lee’s surrender. After the war, he continued in the regular army as a major in the 7th U.S. Cavalry until his death in 1868.