His sketches are not particularly high quality but they do provide the earliest picture of St. Peter’s as well as provide drawings of other sites around Port Royal:
These sketches were found in the Jim Patton file on St. Peter’s. Someone penciled a key to the picture which is shown below
St. Peter’s drawing is found here
Journalist and novelist George Alfred Townsend was born in Georgetown, Delaware, on January 30, 1841, to the Reverend and Mrs. Stephen Townsend.
By 1866, Townsend had become a noted news journalist, as a war correspondent covering the Civil War for the New York Herald, the New York World, and later, as a ghost writer, for The New York Times
His reports of Lincoln’s assassination (part of which was later published as Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth [1865]) and General Sheridan’s victory at the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia, brought him considerable recognition. He may have have visited Port Royal while writing the former book.
He writes in the Booth book : "How like that fearful night of Richard on Bosworth field must have been Booth’s sleep in the barn at Port Royal, tortured by ghosts of victims"
Townsend’s recognition as a war correspondent led to his popularity as a lecturer. He traveled throughout the United States, lecturing on the Civil War, European politics and U.S. government.
By 1867, Townsend had made his home in Washington, D.C., choosing the capital because of his desire to report on political news and issues. His books, The New World Compared with the Old (1869), Washington Outside and Inside (1873), and Events at the National Capitol and the Campaign of 1876 (1876), explore American government, the nation’s capital, and political topics.
During the 1860s and 1870s his columns, articles, and letters appeared in newspapers throughout the United States, including papers in Boston, Baltimore, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Cincinnati
Several of Townsend’s books, written during the 1880s, are set in Delaware and Maryland. It was in this period it appears he visited Port Royal and St. Peter’s to make the sketches
In 1884, Townsend purchased land near Burkettsville, Maryland, and established an estate, which he named Gapland. It was on this estate, in 1896, that he built the only national memorial to Civil War correspondents. Located near the Antietam Battlefield, the monument bears the names of 157 correspondents and artists.
After Townsend’s death in 1914, and following a succession of other owners, the estate was deeded to the Maryland State Department of Forests and Parks in 1949. The estate was renamed Gathland State Park, using Townsend’s popular pen name "Gath." The park honors George Alfred Townsend as one of America’s most important journalists and novelists of the Reconstruction Era.
Here is another sketch, viewing Port Royal from Port Conway:
