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:
“The secret of heaven is kept from age to age. No imprudent, no sociable angel ever dropt an early syllable to answer the longings of saints, the fears of mortals. We should have listened on our knees to any favorite, who, by stricter obedience, had brought his thoughts into parallelism with the celestial currents, and could hint to human ears the scenery and circumstance of the newly parted soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The Virgin filled so enormous a space in the life and thought of the time that one stands now helpless before the mass of testimony to her direct action and constant presence in every moment and form of the illusion which men thought they thought their existence.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Tanks. In any normal war they’re a beautiful sight, on your side.”
—Richard Blake, and William Cameron Menzies. Col. Fielding (Millburn Stone)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)