Abraham Myers: The man who never came

Many notable characters have come through Fort Myers, Florida since it was founded in 1850; however, the eponym of the fort is not one of them.

In the 78 years of Col. Abraham Myers' life, he had never set foot in the in the city that was named after him.

Abraham Charles Myers was born in on May 14, 1811 in Georgetown, South Carolina to a well-to-do Jewish-American family. His father, also Abraham Myers, was a successful attorney and mayor of Georgetown. Myers was also a direct descendant of Moses Cohen, the first rabbi of Charleston, South Carolina.

Glenn Miller of the Southwest Florida Historical Society spoke on this matter.

“It surprises many, including myself, that at a time of such great prejudice of the Jews, Abraham was able to climb through the ranks and was oppressed in the military,” Miller said.

In July 1828 at the age of 17, Myers was enrolled in West Point Military Academy – the same year Confederate President Jefferson Davis graduated and Gen. Robert E Lee the following year.

In Myers’ personal memoirs he recalled taking engineering, tactics, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, history, ethics and law.

After being retained his freshman year for “deficiency in his studies,” Myers finally graduated 32^nd in his class of 46 in 1833. Upon graduating, he was promoted to the rank of brevet second Lieutenant and station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He remained there until 1836 where he was then transferred to Florida where he fought in the Battle of Oloklikaha under Gen. Edmund Gaines during the Second Seminole War.

In 1838, Myers was relocated to West where he was commissioned to a surveying team.

Myers returned to Florida in 1839 and made captain of the quartermaster department of Florida where he remained until the outbreak of the Mexican-American War. As a result of “gallant and meritorious conduct,” during the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Myers was promoted to brevet major and later to colonel. In 1848 he was named interim chief quartermaster of the Army of Mexico in Texas. While in Texas, he met Marion Twiggs, daughter of Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs. They later married when Myers was again transferred back to Florida.

It was for this reason that Twiggs commissioned the construction of a new fort south of the Caloosahatchee River and for it to be named Fort Myers after his new son-in-law.

“To honor me, [he] named a fort in Florida Fort Myers,” Myers wrote in his memoirs. “That was real nice of him.”

For the following decade, Myers remained colonel in the quartermasters department for the southern states. When the south seceded from the union on the advent of Civil War in 1861, he surrendered his assets to Confederacy and became the first quartermaster general of the Confederate Army. However this position was short lived.

Throughout Myers’ run as quartermaster general he was under severe criticism; he often blamed for the lack of supplies and persecuted for his Jewish lineage. He rebutted by writing:

“We never had enough money. My office was efficient but was not able to overcome the carelessness and deficiency of my remote subordinates.”

In 1863 at the age of 52, Myers was personally relinquished by President Davis for his failure to sufficiently supply the Confederate Army, though Myers felt this was a conspiracy to remove him from his rank.

“In 1863 Jefferson Davis dismissed me,” Myers wrote. “He said I was not qualified but me and my friends know the real reason. He was angry that Mrs. Myers remarked that Mrs. Davis looked like a squaw. She did have a dark complexion.”

After retiring from a lifelong career in the military, Myers and his wife traveled through various countries in Europe until 1877 when he permanently settled down in Washington, D.C. He died in 1889 at the age of 78. He is currently buried in Saint Paul's Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.

In all this time he never made it down to the fort that bears his name; however it is rumored that he may have traveled down the Caloosahatchee River during a surveying mission through South Florida.

Myers lives on through his great grandson Dr. Samuel Myers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.