Kibbe was wounded in the right shoulder and the left arm at Savannah on 15 December 1864. "We had four guns and the rebels had seven," he once recalled. He was the gunner on the No. 1 gun. He gave orders to run the gun to the front lines. There was one man pushing against one wheel and two men against the other. Kibbe started over to help the lone man, then a shell exploded nearby. He was thrown to the ground, bloddy and unconcious. His fellow soldiers mistakenly thought he was dead.

But he did survive, and was discharged from service six months later on 10 May 1865.

At the Wisconsin GAR Encampment at Waukesha in 1942, only he and one other man from Texas remained of the 12th Wisconsin Battery.

Kibbe was born in New York and married to Emma. He was one of the earliest settlers of New Richmond, Wis., and was a carpenter by trade. He helped build many of the original buildings in the early days of New Richmond.

Kibbe died 22 October 1943 at the age of 99.