He moved to Jacksboro, Tennessee, in Campbell County in October 1866, and was appointed commissioner of claims by Governor William G. Brownlow in 1868.

[7] Gibson was a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1871 to 1873, representing the fourth district (Claiborne, Grainger, Anderson and Campbell).

[2] Gibson's law partner, Leonidas Houk, was elected to the 2nd district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1878, and served throughout the 1880s.

Historian Gordon McKinney described the contest between Gibson and Houk for the Republican nomination as "one of the dirtiest in East Tennessee history.

[11] Houk refused to drop out, and opposed Gibson as an independent in the general election, but again was defeated, 16,215 votes to 13,191 (the Democrats did not field a candidate).

[14] On June 14, 1898, he delivered a speech on the House floor calling for the annexation of Hawaii and the construction of the Nicaragua Canal.

In 1902, Nathan W. Hale, who was supported by the Evans faction, challenged Gibson for the 2nd district's Republican nomination, but was defeated in the primary.

[16] After his service as United States Representative, Gibson retired from public life and resided in Washington, D.C.

His remains were cremated and the ashes were spread around his hometown in Maryland, though a monument at Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville bears his name.

[1] At the time of his death, he was the last living person known to have been born in 1837, as the last Union general Aaron Daggett died 11 days prior.