In a letter from Charleston, Tennessee, on April 25, 1837, General Nathaniel Smith, superintendent of Cherokee removal, wrote to C.A. Harris that when Cherokees were asked when they were going to remove west, they answered that they would rather die there than go west to die. Thousands of Cherokee are estimated to have died as a result of removal, both in the camps and on the way to Indian Territory. At the Fort Cass internment camps, over approximately two months, 469 coffins were provided for 185 adults and 284 children who perished there.