Edward D. Townsend
Townsend, 1865–80
Born	(1817-08-22)August 22, 1817 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	May 10, 1893(1893-05-10) (aged 75) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Place of burial	Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S.
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Army
Years of service	1837–1880
Rank	Brigadier General Brevet Major General
Commands	Adjutant General of the U.S. Army
Battles / wars	Second Seminole War American Civil War American Indian Wars
Relations	Elbridge Gerry (grandfather)

Edward Davis Townsend (August 22, 1817 – May 10, 1893) was an American military officer who was Adjutant General of the United States Army from 1869 to 1880. In 1861, then-Lieutenant Colonel Townsend was the first to propose the idea for the Medal of Honor.

The son of David S. & Eliza (Gerry) Townsend and grandson of Vice President and Founding Father Elbridge Gerry, Townsend was educated at Boston's Latin School before graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1837.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Second U. S. Artillery and served as that regiment's adjutant and participating in the Second Seminole War and the relocation of the Cherokee Nation. In 1846 he was transferred to the Adjutant General's Corps and assigned to duty in Washington, D.C. He served on the Pacific coast from 1851 to 1856, after which he returned to Washington for the remainder of his career. In February 1869 he was promoted to brigadier general and became adjutant general.

Townsend retired in 1880. He died in Washington in 1893 after an accidental shock from a cable car and is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

• List of Adjutant Generals of the U.S. Army
• List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War

• Association of Graduates (1893). Twenty-Fourth Annual Reunion of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 9, 1893. Saginaw, Michigan: Seeman and Peters. pp. 133–137.
• "Obituary, Gen. Edward D. Townsend" (PDF). The New York Times. May 12, 1893. Retrieved 2009-03-10.

• Townsend, Edward D. (1884). Anecdotes of the Civil War in the United States. New York City: D. Appleton and Company. Retrieved 2009-03-10.

• Edward D. Townsend at Find a Grave