Object Details
- Description
- The letter was sent unpaid and the Pensacola postmaster marked it in the upper right corner for 25 cents postage due at destination, the correct rate for a single sheet letter going a distance more than 400 miles.
- David Shelton Edwards focuses this missive to his wife Harriet on their future plans since he does not feel he has given that enough attention since he has been on the Constellation. He knows she will agree with him that he should not "think of giving up his situation" but "it has become necessary for our mutual happiness that we should be together" thus insinuating that she should come for another visit. He explains that while some men, such as Mr. Ward, spend time with other women when their wives are far away, "there is no fair one so attractive as to cause me even for a short period to forget my own Harriet." He goes on to tell of a Mrs. Stewart that Mr. Ward has been keeping company with and claims she is the same person as a Mrs. Richards that caused a stir in Tallahassee by getting divorced last winter. He relates news of people Harriet met in Pensacola and asks again for her to visit again in the autumn and concludes the letter with his thoughts on leaving the next summer with Com. Dallas. He asks her to make a sketch of the house at Sing Sing, New York with the street layout and asks for news from home.
- This letter is part of the correspondence of David Shelton Edwards between the years 1835 and 1848. The 48 letters from this period held by the National Postal Museum are primarily addressed to Edward's wife Harriet; in 1830, Edwards married Harriet Eliza Henry and they had two children, William and Harriet. They kept up a frequent correspondence when his naval service kept them separated. Between 1835 and 1848, Edwards served as a Surgeon at the hospital in the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida; Fleet Surgeon to the West Indies Squadron; and Surgeon aboard many vessels engaged in the Mexican-American War. His naval career spanned from 1818 to 1861 and his last sea cruise ended in October of 1859 after which he retired to his family home in Connecticut except for a brief time spent at New Bedford, Massachusetts recruiting for the Union Navy during the Civil War. He died in Trumbull, Connecticut on March 18, 1874.
- Reference:
- National Museum of American History, Naval History Archives. David Shelton Edwards Papers. Accession Number: 1978.0652.
- New York Public Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. "David S. Edwards papers, 1818-1865."
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Writer
- David Shelton Edwards, American, died 1874
- Date
- August 4, 1837
- Medium
- paper; ink / handwritten
- Dimensions
- 39.4 x 32.1 cm (15 1/2 x 12 5/8 in.)
- Type
- Covers & Associated Letters
