| Summary: | Abstract: Original and typed copy from Radford to Lieutenant Commander T. C. Harris, discussing a possible attempt to rescue Jefferson Davis, a prisoner at Fortress Monroe. Scope and Content Note: The collection contains the original, along with a typed transcript of a letter, from Radford in Norfolk, Virginia, to Lieutenant Commander T. C. Harris, commanding U.S.S. Yantic, relative to the security of Jefferson Davis, a prisoner at Fortress Monroe. Biographical/Historical Note: William Radford, born 9 September 1809 was a rear admiral of the United States Navy who served during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War. There is a discrepancy with some references which report his birth date as March 1, 1808, but family records and the U.S. Federal Census forms support the 1809 date.Radford married Mary "Minnie" Elizabeth Lovell in Morristown, New Jersey, on 3 November 1848. The couple had seven children: Mary Lovell Radford (1849--1929); William Radford (1851--1852); Sophie Adelaide Radford (1854--1957); Stephen Kearny Radford (1856--1930); George Reginald Radford (1860--1945); Edmund Ironsides Radford (1865--1881); and Henry Carlton Radford (1867--1896).After an extensive naval career where he served in the Mediterranean, the East and West Indies, the Pacific, North Atlantic, and European squadrons of the U.S. Navy, Radford died on 8 January 1890 in Washington, DC.
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