This collection contains journals of United States Army topographical engineer J. W. Gunnison (1812-1853), kept on expeditions between 1840-1853, including one with descriptions of life among the Mormons in Utah; correspondence during the American Civil War period from family in the South; and letters, sketchbooks, and journals of nephew Charles Andrew Gunnison (1861-1897) in Europe and Japan in the 1880s.

John Williams Gunnison (1812-1853), the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Williams Gunnison, was born in Goshen, New Hampshire, in 1812. He attended Hopkinton Academy in New Hampshire, then taught school before he entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1833. Gunnison graduated from West Point in 1837, second in his class of 50. During the winter of 1837-1838, Lt. Gunnison served as an ordnance officer in the Seminole War in Florida, and in the spring of 1838 he aided in the transfer of the Cherokees to Indian Territory. He then returned to the Florida War, having been transferred to the Corps of Topographical Engineers. From 1840 to 1849 Gunnison was engaged in survey work in Georgia and in the Wisconsin-Michigan Lake region. While in Georgia, he married Martha A. Delony in 1841.

83 pieces in 4 boxes + 2 volumes

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