Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/289

 JOHN GRAY FOSTER. 261

of Engineering at West Point. Among the cadets who received instruction from him were G. K. Warren, the famous commander of the Fifth Corps ; Eugene A. Carr, one of the heroes of Pea Ridge ; Henry Warren Slocum, Sherman's right hand man ; John B. Hood, the Confederate Hotspur ; Phil. Sheridan, the world-renowned heutenant-general ; James B. McPherson, one of the noblest men that ever lived ; Wesley NTerritt. the cavalry leader ; Oliver Otis Howard, the Christian soldier ; George Washington Curtis Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee, who graduated at the head of his class, and afterward became a major-generalin the Confederate service.

In i860, Foster was made captain and sent to Charleston to repair and com- plete the forts in Charleston Harbor, 'i'hese forts had been purposely allowed, liv the traitors at Washington, to fall into a state of neglect, so that when threatened by the South Carolina troops. Major Anderson, the commander at Moultrie, was compelled to evacuate that fortress and take up his quarters in Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor. We need not here repeat the story of the attack on Fort Sumter. The nation can never forget how the South Carolina troops erected their batteries around the fort, how the Sfar of the West was fired upon anti [prevented from relieving the devoted garrison, hovv' the fort was bombarded for thirty-six hours, the quarters being entirely burned by the red- hot shot, the magazine surrounded by flames, the mrn having no food but pork, and how at last the little band of seventy men surrendered to seven thousand Confederates. They can never forget the part taken by each and every man, and especially that taken by Major Anderson, Captains Foster, Doubleday and Seymour, and Lieutenant Jeff. C. Davis.

In August, 1 86 1, Foster was made brigadier-general of volunteers, and was subsequently given command of one of the three brigades under Burnside in the Roanoke exp^^dition. Foster's brigade was composed of the 23d and 25th Massachusetts and the loth Connecticut, as gallant troops as were ever led into the field. With this brigade Foster performed wonders on the coast ' of North Carolina, early in the year 1S62. In every battle he was unwearied in his exertions, leading his men, inspiriting them by his co irageous example, and skillfully selecting the points in the enemy's' lines most available for attack. He received the surrender of four thousand Confederates, together with all the batteries and defenses on Roanoke Island. In short he so distinguished himself in this campaign that he was promoted to be major-general of volunteers, and was placed in command over the country he had so gallantly aided to conquer.

Foster commanded the Department of North Carolina until October, 1S63, when he succeeded Burnside in East Tennessee. In 1 864 he was placed in command of the Department of the South, and assisted Hazen in the capture of Fort McAllister, which contributed so greatly to hasten the fall of Savannah, and was subsequently relieved on account of an unhealed wound. In 1865 he was placed over the Department of Florida, and remained in the South until September, 1866, when he was mustered out of the volunteer service. He was then made lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and once again resumed his engineering duties. He was given charge of the work for the preservation and improvement of Boston Harbor, and the construction of the defenses of Portsmouth Harbor.

General Foster died in 1S74, at the age of fifty-one, leaving behind him a record as pure and spotless as that of Washington. From boyhood he had been a soldier, and in whatever ]josition he had been placed, whether as a subaltern in Mexico, an instructor at West Point, a major-general in the Civil War, or an officer high in rank in the Enghieer Corps, he always served his country with his whole heart, and performed every duty as became a true, loyal soldier. — Manchester Times, 2

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