Search

Journal in manuscript kept by US Army Private Bartholomew M. Lynch, commanded by Lieutenant John Graham during the Florida War. Early entries document his training and travel from New York to Florida on board the "Southern liner called America." Includes an eyewitness description of the captive Seminole leader Osceola, dated May 2, 1837.

This item is a letter from Captain John Rogers Vinton at Fort New Smyrna, Florida and dated 1840. Addressed to his mother, it was written on his birthday and he wrote: "Since my last birthday, another year has passed over my head, and brought me to that period when it is my wont to make a retrospect of the past and pour out my thoughts to you. It has been a year of exile from civilized life - but not altogether profitless, and by no means an unhappy one..." His letter is highly religious and rather contradictory, as he wrote of having found "in the wilderness of Florida" many things pleasing to him. As Captain Vinton was at Fort Mellon and Fort Taylor in 1837 and 1838, his letter dated Fort New Smyrna, June 20, 1840, must have described the place.