Gibson worked as a teacher in Rindge, New Hampshire and became known for her writings and lecturing on abolition and other issues.

In 1864 Gibson became an ordained minister and served the 1st Wisconsin Regiment of Heavy Artillery, but was not recognized by then Secretary of War Edwin Stanton because she was a woman.

[1] After the war, Gibson even had trouble getting paid for her work, and did not receive any pay until 1876.

[2] To support herself, she continued writing, often on women's issues, for such periodicals as The Truth Seeker, The Boston Investigator, The Ironclad Age, and The Moralist.

She was posthumously given the rank of captain in the Chaplains Corps of the U.S. Army with the passage of Senate Bill 1438 in 2002.