Biography

"A tragic occurrence, which must have affected the Coast Surveyors, was the death of Brevet Colonel William R. Palmer, a career Army officer and topographic engineer on Brigadier General Humphrey's staff, who died of typhoid fever on June 18. Palmer had long been associated with the Coast Survey prior to the war, as he had been chief of a triangulation party for many years and then had twice been Assistant-in-Charge of the Coast Survey Office, most recently from 1858 until being detached from the Coast Survey after the war had begun. He was also a personal friend of Superintendent Bache and was his room-mate for a time at West Point when Bache was an instructor at the Military Academy."

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Central Library