The Calvin Shedd Papers > Background > East Key, Dry Tortugas
East Key, Dry Tortugas
| Date(s) of Letter(s) | Schmidt, Lewis G. The Civil War in Florida: A Military History. Vol III: Florida's Key's & Fevers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: L. G. Schmidt, 1989. |
| April 19, 1862 April 30, 1862 |
"East Key was densely covered with brushwood, and in the brooding season entirely covered with sea gulls. The key was nine to twelve acres in size with a three foot elevation, and was used as a burial ground for several members of the 47th Pennsylvania in 1863. This may have been the period of the destabilization of Bird Key, and the burial ground that had been located there....The men of the 7th New Hampshire also acquired countless turtle and bird's eggs from adjacent keys." (Schmidt, pp. XXXI, XXXIX). |