Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                              #1152
                  GEORGE WASHINGTON GIFT PAPERS
                            Inventory

Abstract:      George Washington Gift (b. 1833) of Tennessee was a
           lieutenant in the Confederate Navy during the Civil
           War.  In April 1864, he married Ellen Augusta
           Shackelford of Early County, Ga.
               Chiefly correspondence between Ellen Shackelford
           Gift and George Washington Gift, written before and
           after their marriage, with a few letters from other
           members of the Shackelford and Gift families and from
           friends, including Catesby ap Roger Jones, Gift's
           captain on the Chattahoochee.  Most of the letters
           were written by George to Ellen while he was serving
           on Confederate Navy ships--the Chattahoochee, based at
           Chattahoochee, Fla.; the Gaines, based at Mobile,
           Ala.; and the Tallahassee, based at Wilmington, N.C. 
           All of these letters concern daily life on these
           ships.  After the war, Gift wrote many letters from
           Memphis, Tenn., as well as a few from New York, Hong
           Kong, and other places where he was involved in a
           variety of business ventures.  These letters chiefly
           concern daily life, family news, and routine events,
           though there are extensive descriptions of Hong Kong. 
           Letters from Ellen to George chiefly concern family
           life.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Chattahoochee (Ship).
   Confederate States of America. Navy--Officers--Correspondence.
   Confederate States of America. Navy--Sea life.
   Gaines (Ship).
   Gift, Ellen Augusta Shackelford, fl. 1862-1870.
   Gift, George W.
   Gift family.
   Hong Kong (China)--Description and travel.
   Jones, Catesby Ap Roger, 1821-1877.
   Memphis (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
   Shackelford family.
   Tallahassee (Ship).

Size:          About 200 items (0.5 linear feet).

Provenance:    Received from Jeanne Rice of Fillmore, Ca., in
               September 1946.

Access:        No restrictions.

Processing Note:   This collection was rehoused under the
                   sponsorship of a grant from the National
                   Endowment for the Humanities, Office of
                   Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.

Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or 
           their descendants, as stipulated by United States
           copyright law.

                        BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

   George Washington Gift (b. 1833) was raised in Tennessee, and
went to California some time before the Civil War.  He came home
from California in the summer of 1861 in order to join the
Confederate Navy.  He served on several C.S.N. vessels in the
coastal waters of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama,
including the C.S.S. Chattahoochee, based at Chattahoochee, Fla.;
the C.S.S. Gaines, based at Mobile, Ala.; the R.E. Lee, off the
North Carolina coast; and the Tallahassee, based at Wilmington,
N.C.  In April 1864, Gift married Ellen Augusta Shackelford of
Early County, Ga.  After the war, Gift spent time in New York
City; in Memphis, Tenn., where the Gift family apparently lived;
and in Hong Kong.

                           DESCRIPTION

   Chiefly correspondence, 1862-1876, between George Washington
Gift and Ellen Augusta Shackelford Gift, written before and after
their marriage in April 1864.  Most of the letters were written
by Gift while he was in the Confederate Navy, 1862-1865, and
concern his daily life on ships such as the Chattahoochee, the
Gaines, and the Tallahassee.  The early letters, written from the
Chattahoochee, include references to Captain Catesby ap Roger
Jones, the commanding officer, and descriptions of the routine on
board the ship.  Many of the letters were written in the form of
journals, recording events over the span of several days.  Of
special interest are several letters concerning the explosion
that destroyed the Chattahoochee on 27 May 1863; a letter
containing a substitution cipher, evidently devised by Gift; and
four letters from Canada written by Gift, but signed "O. P.
Fannin."
   In 1865, Gift wrote a few letters to his wife from New York
City, where he was evidently engaged in shipping.  In 1866, he
moved to Memphis, Tenn., and wrote many letters about family
members who lived in the area and about acquiring land to build a
cotton gin with his oldest sister Maria Louisa Sims.  In 1869 and
1870, he was in Hong Kong, which he described extensively in
letters home.
   There are about twenty-five letters from Ellen to George. 
Most early letters consist of news about her friends and family;
later letters are similar, but primarily concern their children.
   Also included are a few letters, 1863 and 1864, to George Gift
from Ellen's sisters Hannah and Georgie; a letter, June 1863, to
Ellen from George's sister Sarah Jane Gift; and two letters,
January 1864 and October 1876, from George's friend and sometime
commanding officer, Catesby ap Roger Jones.

Folder     1       1862-March 1863
           2       April-June 1863
           3       July-December 1863
           4       January-June 1864
           5       July 1864-December 1865
           6       1866
           7       1869-1876 and undated

                           SHELF LIST

   Box 1 (only)