George Washington Gift George Washington Gift ( 1833 – 1879 ) , U . S . Navy officer , writer , banker , civil engineer , politician , Confederate Navy officer , businessman , and newspaper editor . Early life . A native of Tennessee , he was born near Nashville , Tennessee , March 1 , 1833 . Gift entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland , 1846 . Following his graduation he was assigned as a midshipman to the Pacific Squadron , in 1848 . He resigned from the U . S . Naval service , in 1852 and settled in California . In 1854 , he published " The Settler ' s Guide " about California ' s land laws . It contained the preemption laws , and laws of Congress in relation to locating school land warrants ; also , the swamp land act , and a synopsis of the state law on the same subject , together with the military bounty land act , with forms etc . , for locating and assigning the warrants . He established a banking business in Sacramento , California then moved to Southern California and became a civil engineer and also represented Los Angeles County in the state legislature . Civil War . In mid - February 1861 , Los Angeles County Judge Dryden approved a petition presented by Gift and others to open enrollment for a volunteer militia company . Gift chaired the first meeting of the pro - Confederate " Los Angeles Mounted Rifles " company , then about 80 - 85 men , on March 17 , 1861 . Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War , Federal troops were sent into Los Angeles and Gift escaped to the east with the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles , riding through the southern deserts , with hostile Apache and Union patrols searching for them , to Mesilla , the new capital of Confederate Arizona Territory . For his role in organizing the Rifles , he was hanged in effigy in Sacramento as a traitor in August 1861 . Leaving the Rifles , he entered the Confederate Army , and then the Confederate Navy , where he was commissioned Acting Master in December 1861 , where he commanded a floating battery at Columbus , Kentucky . He was appointed Lieutenant , March 18 , 1862 , serving at New Orleans on the CSS Louisiana . Following the Battle of Forts Jackson and St . Philip and prior to the surrender of Fort Jackson and Fort St . Philip , April 28 , 1862 , he was given permission by his immediate commander , John K . Mitchell , to abandon his vessel and to try and escape capture . He was then sent aboard the CSS Arkansas , at Memphis , Tennessee and slightly wounded in action , July 15 , 1862 , during the ram ’ s passage through the Federal fleet , above Vicksburg . He participated in the taking of the USS Underwriter , at Newbern , North Carolina . He was then stationed aboard the CSS Chattahoochee , in 1863 , as a lieutenant and married Miss Shackleford , of Florida . Gift was detached from the CSS Chattahoochee , May 18 , 1863 , and ordered to proceed to Mobile , Alabama , for duty aboard the CSS Baltic . When he reported at this station , June 8 , 1863 , he was immediately ordered aboard the CSS Jarvis . He was ordered , September 18 , 1863 , to proceed to Wilmington , North Carolina , to await orders from the Navy Department , reporting there for duty on October 4 , 1863 . Gift was later involved in the Johnson ' s Island Expedition in late 1863 . He was then appointed 1st lieutenant , Provisional Navy , from January 6 , 1864 and ordered to report aboard the CSS Savannah . Sent to the Naval station at Charleston , then ordered to proceed back to Columbus , Georgia on February 15 , 1864 . Next he was sent to command his old ship the CSS Chattahoochee from March 1864 until July 1864 . Carman Frazee who had been with Gift in the " Rifles " also joined the Confederate Navy and in April 1864 was appointed by Gift as a Master ' s Mate on the CSS Chattahoochee . Gift was then involved in a failed attempt to capture the USS Adela , at St . George ' s Sound , Florida , in May , 1864 . On July 5 , 1864 , he was sent to the Savannah squadron , for torpedo placing duties . Gift reported sick that same month and did not return to duty before the end of the war . After the Civil War . Following the Civil War , Gift lived in Georgia and Tennessee and was an active contributor to several agricultural journals , writing on various topics pertaining to bringing in Chinese labor to relieve the agricultural labor shortage in the South . He had first hoped to appeal to subscribers in Georgia and to introduce Chinese through the port of Savannah . Disappointed there , he moved to reside in Memphis , Tennessee and had more success , getting various subscribers to organize the Arkansas Emigration Company . In July 1869 , he left for San Francisco , and then China , to arrange for Chinese laborers , in the interest of the Arkansas Emigration Company . He returned to California in 1874 , settling in the Napa Valley where he edited newspapers , the Napa Weekly Reporter and Napa County Recorder . He died February 11 , 1879 , while serving as editor of the Napa City Reporter . He was buried at Tulocay Cemetery , Napa , California .