Randall L. Gibson

Randall Lee Gibson (September 10, 1832 – December 15, 1892) was a U.S. Senator and a member of the House of Representatives from Louisiana. He was also a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and a president of the board of administrators of Tulane University.

Early life
Gibson was born at "Spring Hill", Versailles, Kentucky, the son of a plantation owner. He was educated in leading Louisiana schools. In 1853 he graduated from Yale University, where he was a member of the Scroll and Key society, after which he received a bachelor of laws (LL.B) from the University of Louisiana, later Tulane University.

Civil War
Soon after the state's secession from the Union, Gibson became an aide to Gov. Thomas O. Moore. In March 1861, he left the capital to join the 1st Louisiana Artillery. Later in the year, he was commissioned as colonel of the 13th Louisiana Infantry. Gibson fought at the Battle of Shiloh and subsequent actions. With the Army of the Mississippi, he took part in the 1862 Kentucky Campaign and the Battle of Chickamauga. After being promoted to brigadier general on January 11, 1864, he fought in the Atlanta Campaign and the Franklin-Nashville Campaign; he then was assigned to the defense of Mobile, Alabama. He inspired his troops to hold Spanish Fort, which was under siege, until the last moment, after which they escaped at night on April 8, 1865.

Postbellum career
Gibson served Louisiana as a Democrat in the House of Representatives from 1875 to 1883; at the freshman's prompting on December 10, 1875, the Committee on the Mississippi Levees was created to inquire into building and repairing levees. The committee's name was changed to the Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River on November 7, 1877. He also served as a senator from 1883 to 1892. He died while still a senator in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and is buried at Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky.

In memoriam
Gibson Hall on the campus of Tulane University is named for Senator Gibson, who was instrumental after the war in helping fund and continue the public University of Louisiana as the private Tulane University of Louisiana.