Early Life and Pre-Civil War Career
Townsend received his primary education at The Albany Academy, and his secondary education at the Rev. Dr. Dewey's Boarding School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. After graduating he attended Union College in Schenectady, New York, but left college before graduating in order to join the board of survey of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad Company.
Townsend entered the United States Navy on August 4, 1837, serving first as a midshipman on the ship John Adams. In 1838 he was ordered to the battleship Ohio, then in each subsequent year to the sloop Falmouth, the steamship Missouri. In 1843 he was promoted to passed midshipman and served on the frigate Raritan, then a year later on the brig Porpoise.
He served in the Mexican-American War from 1846–1847 where he was engaged in the capture of Vera Cruz. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1850, and resigned from the navy on April 7, 1851.
On June 19, 1850, Townsend married Harriet Munro, the daughter of Nathan Munro and Cynthia Champlin, of Elbridge, New York. The couple had three children; a son, Robert Townsend, Jr., born October 4, 1854, and daughters Mary Walker Townsend, born December 23, 1858, and Elizabeth Munroe Townsend, born July 19, 1860.
Read more about this topic: Robert Townsend (captain)
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, war and/or career:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“Now ... that you are going to marry, do not expect more from life, than life will afford.””
—Samuel Johnson (1704–1784)
“Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)