Letter from Edgar Allan Poe to Colonel Sylvanus Thayer: One Last Request

Authored by Robert B. Repenning

Four days after his official court-martial dismissal from the United States Military Academy, West Point, this handwritten letter from Edgar Allan Poe requests the assistance of the USMA Superintendent, in securing an appointment into the Polish Army. At the time, Poland was embroiled in the Polish-Russian War of 1830-1831 (the November Uprising).

On May 26, 1827, Edgar Allan Poe, under the alias of Edgar A. Perry, enlisted as a private in the United States Army (Howard 2003, 55). Thus began a curious, lesser known, chapter in the life of one of America’s greatest writers. In less than a year, serving in the 1st Artillery Regiment, Poe was promoted to the unit’s artificer. As artificer, “both officers and gun crews relied on him to craft the artillery bombs properly and oversee the ammunition supply for the battery” (Hecker 2005, xxxiv). Within seven months, Poe would be selected “from the regiments nearly 500 authorized enlisted men to become” (Howard 2003, 56) sergeant major.  

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