I can't thank you enough for this information. Even if it does not turn out to be my great grandfather, it gives me leads to follow up on. Dates on the John S. Gibson you list cut it close to his being the biological father of Arthur Cinclair Gibson (b 8 May 1862), but it is possible. What allows me to continue this possibility is the info you list of the regiment serving in Mobile before going to Corinth. Perhaps he met Mary there.

Family information (oral history only) has it that "the family became separated after the Civil War" and Arthur was placed in an orphanage at age 7 (@ 1869), taken from the Protestant Episcopal Home for Boys in New Orleans by a Mr. William Wood, with several other boys, to work on his fields in Amite, Tangipahoa Parish, LA. The 1870 census shows him a resident in this orphanage, listed as Arthur St. Clair. The 1880 census shows him living in Amite with a family and several unrelated individuals, listed as Arthur Saintclair. He married Nanny Carpenter in 1888, as Arthur Cinclair Gipson, the first documented use of the name Gibson (as spelled by the marriage officiant). Lived the rest of his life in Tangipahoa Parish as a farmer, mostly strawberries. It is curious that a 7 yr old would know his birthdate and place of birth and have no written documentation (like a birth certificate).

He fathered 10 children, of which 8 were boys, many of whom bear the middle name of Cinclair (and their descendants were also given that name). My goal is to document the existence of Arthur's father and true last name.

Once again, I am grateful to you for these leads. Marilyn Gibson Jones