Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

E.D. Townsend Letter, 1837, Accession # 10935, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This letter was originally purchased by the Rare Books Division of Special Collections from Thomas T. Moebs of Washington, D.C., in 1983, and was subsequently transferred to Manuscripts on April 4, 1990.

Biographical/Historical Information

Townsend graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1837 as a second lieutenant, 2nd Artillery, and biographical information concerning his subsequent career in the military can be found in the Dictionary of American Biography article.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of a four page letter from Lt. Edward Davis Townsend (1817-1893), Fort New Smyrna, Florida, to his mother, Eliza Gerry Townsend, wife of Major David S. Townsend, U.S. Army, Boston, Massachusetts, December 21, 1837, written while a lieutenant in the Second Seminole War campaign.

Townsend describes his work in surveying and laying out the city of New Smyrna as a favor for Major Lytle, one of the owners of the New Smyrna property. He also furnishes many details concerning several of the more well-known Indian leaders of the Seminoles during the Second Seminole War when the Indians began to resist the plan of the United States Government to remove the tribe further to the West. Another company of the Second Artillery was to soon join them at Fort Smyrna to help drive the estimated one thousand remaining Indians into the swampy area near the St. Johns River where they could be dispersed or forced to surrender.

He also mentions the escape of Coacoochee from Fort Marion at St. Augustine where he was imprisoned with Seminole leader Powell, also known as Osceola, (1800-1838). Townsend credits Coacoochee with convincing Indian chief Sam Jones to refuse to surrender and to continue to harass United States troops. He also highly praises the character and ability of Osceola, the most well-known Seminole leader of resistance, and furnishes a second-hand description of the Battle of Withelacoochee between Osceola and Captain [Gustavus S.?] Drane. He expresses his pity for the Indians imprisoned at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, who were dying two or three a day due to the unhealthy conditions of the fort.