Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/288

 26o THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

great comfnrt and support to them in bearing up under the righteous conse- quences of their craven-heartedness.

And they rejoiced to hear of the safe and early arrival of the Frances in port, and the tale of seas so rough that the outward voyage seemed like a pleas- ant sail on a placid summer lake by contrast, alleviated somewhat the pangs of conscience, voted by the deserters less hard to endure at that time than the pangs of sea-sickness.

��JOHN GRAY FOSTER.

��BY CLARENCE E. E. STOUT.

FEW regular army officers were more universally admired by the volunteers, and so really deserved that admiration, as John Gray Foster. He passed through West Point and fifteen years of service in the engineer corps without becoming a martinet, and the honors he won in the early part of the war did not make him vain and overbearing, as was the case with too many of his brother officers. His fame as a general rests chiefly upon his achievements in the first two years of the war ; had he been placed in command of a corns he would undoubtedly have won a record equal to that of Hancock, Warren, Sedg- wick, "Baldy " Smith, or Wright. But it was decreed that a man possessing the executive ability of John G. Foster should have a district of the conquered country to command. Hence, while his comrades were winning renown on the battle-field, his life was comparatively an uneventful one. Many soldiers would have grumbled at such a fate, but Foster was too loyal to ever complain of his lot. He was content to serve his country in any capacity, however humble it might be, rather than stand idly by and see her in peril.

John Gray Foster was born in Whitefield, New Hampshire, May 27, 1823, and graduated at West Point in 1846. The class of 1846 contained fifty-nine cadets, many of whom became famous generals. At the head stood George Derby, eminent not only as an engineer, but also as an humorist as witty as any America has produced. Next came George B. McCIellan who, eighteen years later, was to command the largest army that had ever been orgaiiized on the Western Continent. Then came our hero, the Granite State cadet ; followed by Jesse L. Reno, who fell at South Mountain, wearing the twin stars of a major-general; Darius N. Couch, the future corps commander; Samuel G. Sturgis, major-general of volunteers, and now colonel of cavalry ; Thomas Jonathan Jackson, a quiet, studious cadet, who in after years was to become such a dangerous foe to his country ; George Stoneman, the future cavalry comman- der ; Cadmus M. Wilcox, who became a Confederate major-general ; Truman Seymour, the Union, and D. R. Jones, the Confederate, infantry leaders.

The whole class took part in the Mexican war, and all fought gallantly, and in most cases were brevetted for their bravery. Foster was severely wounded at the battle of Molino del Rey, and was brevetted captain for his gallant con- duct. On the same field, lying but a few steps from the Granite State cadet, lay another wounded officer — an artillerist named. Robert Anderson, who in after years was to command Fort Sumter, when the secessionists besieged it. The two wounded men little knew that in less than fifteen years they would stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of their country's flag, assailed by their own countrymen, led by their brother officers who were then fighting valiantly for the stars and stripes.

From the close of the Mexican war until 1854 he was Assistant Professor

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