Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

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

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the George Beall Balch Papers, #1591, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Mrs. George W. Lay of Chapel Hill, N.C. and Mr. Malcolm K. Gordon of N.Y., 1949

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Adam Fielding, Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, September 2010

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Balch, George Beall, 1821-1908.
• Cyane (Ship)
• Logbooks--History--19th century.
• Pawnee (Ship)
• South Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Naval operations.
• United States Naval Expedition to Japan (1852-1854)
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Naval operations.
• United States. Navy--History--19th century
• United States. Navy--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• United States. Navy--Sea life--History--19th century.

George Beall Balch (1821-1908) of Tennessee received an appointment in 1837 from Alabama as midshipman in the U.S. Navy. On the Princeton and the Falcon he took part in the Mexican War. As a lieutenant on the Plymouth he was a member of the Perry expedition to Japan. Balch remained in the Navy through the Civil War, commanding the Pocahontas and the Pawnee in operations along the East coast from Jacksonville, Fla. to Georgetown, S.C. After the war, Balch held a series of posts with the Navy, retiring as a rear admiral in 1883 and living in Baltimore, Md. Admiral Balch was twice married: to Julia Grace Vinson in 1844, and to Mary Ellen Booth in 1865.

This collection contains official orders, reports, correspondence, and other records of the naval service of George Beall Balch (1821-1908). The collection includes a log of the U.S.S. Cyane in the Mediterranean, 1838-1840; a few papers pertaining to service in Latin American waters and the Perry expedition to Japan in the 1850s; order and letter books of the U.S.S. Pawnee, 1862-1865, commanded by Balch in South Carolina coastal operations, and other Civil War papers; scattered postwar papers related to various duties and to personal affairs at Baltimore; clippings about and a few brief writings by Balch; and a manuscript novel about the Naval Academy.

• Photographs (PF-1591/1-2)