The Civil War Correspondence of Quartermaster Edmund Townsend, June 8, 1864 - January 3, 1865

During the summer and fall of 1864, Lieutenant Edmund Townsend, the regimental quartermaster of the 3rd Delaware, penned a series of letters to his brothers, Samuel and John Townsend, during the siege of Petersburg. His letters serve as a fascinating insight into the mind of an independent and somewhat cynical minded staff officer who had his share of scrapes with the army command. Lt. Townsend, considered middle-aged at the age of forty-five, rails in his letters about army politics and martinet generals. When not pining for his discharge, Townsend describes his experiences as a witness to the trench-like fighting along the Petersburg line, the City Point explosion and the 1864 presidential election. The following selections of letters date from Cold Harbor on June 8, 1864 until Townsend's discharge in January 1865.