Old photograph of Glassel House two miles South East of Torphins, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Small plain two storey mansion house, granite ashlar and slate. 18th century altered and with 19th and early 20th century additions.
Famous people named Glassel include;
William Thornton Glassell, born January 15, 1831, died January 28, 1879, was an officer in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. He laid out the city of Orange, California. He was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy from the state of Alabama on March 15, 1848. When he was still a midshipman, his ship, the St. Laurence was sent to The Great Exhibition in London, England. Lady Byron, Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron, widow of the famous Lord Byron, visited the ship and invited only Glassell to dine with her the next evening. He accepted and " had a very pleasant interview. " Promoted to lieutenant in 1855, he was aboard USS Hartford off China when the Civil War broke out. When Hartford reached Philadelphia, Glassell declined to swear an additional oath of allegiance prescribed for Southerners, and was consequently imprisoned at Fort Warren and dropped from the U.S. service. Confederate authorities issued him a lieutenant's commission, arranged his exchange, and assigned him to CSS Chicora in the Charleston Squadron. On the night of October 5, 1863, Glassell and a crew of three in the diminutive torpedo boat David attacked the most powerful ship in the United States Navy, New Ironsides. Glassell, and the other crewman were however captured and returned to Fort Warren. Glassell, while in prison, was promoted to commander for his attack on New Ironsides. Exchanged in the last six months of the war, he returned to Charleston, South Carolina. On the evacuation of that city he was transferred to Richmond, Virginia and assigned to command the ironclad Fredericksburg in the James River Squadron. With Richmond's evacuation, the squadron's personnel were reorganized as artillery and infantry, and Glassell commanded a regiment. He was paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 28, 1865. Captain Glassell's health had been broken as a result of his experiences while in the Confederate Army, both by his hazardous undertaking, and subsequent capture and eighteen months in a northern military prison. He came to visit his elder brother Andrew Glassell in Los Angeles, and stayed to help in developing the Richland Tract in the capacity of surveyor. The city of Orange was founded by attorneys Andrew Glassell and Alfred Chapman. William T. Glassell died at the age of 48 in Los Angeles, unmarried and childless and is interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. His great nephew was George Smith Patton.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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