Gilbert Elliott

This article is about the shipbuilder. For others with similar names, see Gilbert Elliot (disambiguation).

Gilbert Elliott (December 10, 1843 – May 9, 1895) was builder of the ironclad ram CSS Albemarle.

Family

Elliott's parents were Gilbert Elliott (May 20, 1813 – May 20, 1851) and Sarah Ann Grice (June 1, 1819 – April 22, 1891), granddaughter of shipbuilder Charles Grice and Mary Grandy. He was born at "Milford" estate in Camden County, North Carolina. After his mother became a widow she moved to Oxford, North Carolina, and became the author of a cookbook, "Mrs. Elliott's Housewife", published in New York in 1870.

Education

Elliott was educated in the local schools of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He was a law clerk by 1860.

Military career

He probably enlisted in the Confederate Army on May 16, 1862 at Camp Mangum in North Carolina, the next day he was appointed First Lieutenant and given duty of Regimental Adjutant.

CSS Albemarle

Construction of the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle began in 1862 in a former cornfield in Halifax County, North Carolina.

References

Elliott, Robert G., Ironclad of the Roanoke, White Mane Publishing, 1994, ISBN 0-942597-63-X