The Shipman correspondence was occasioned by the Civil War service of Jesse Albert Shipman (c1843-1863), for two years a private in the Confederate States army. Shipman was the oldest child (and only son) of Andrew Robinson Shipman (c1820-1906) and Sarah Tow (or Towe), of Henderson County, North Carolina. On 20 May 1861 Albert Shipman enlisted in a cavalry company then forming at Asheville, the Buncombe Rangers, who that October would be incorporated into the Confederate army as Co. G, 1st Regiment North Carolina Cavalry. Shipman served in the regiment (in the Department of Northern Virginia, October 1861 to March 1862; the Department of North Carolina, March to May 1862; and the Army of Northern Virginia) until being fatally wounded in a cavalry skirmish near Martinsburg, West Virginia, 19 July 1863. He died three days later.