Background
John Gray Foster was born on May 27, 1823 at Whitefield, New Hampshire. He was the son of Perley and Mary (Gray) Foster.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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John Gray Foster was born on May 27, 1823 at Whitefield, New Hampshire. He was the son of Perley and Mary (Gray) Foster.
Foster's father moved to Nashua in 1833 and John completed his early education in the city schools and at Flancock Academy. In 1842 he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy and graduated fourth in the class of 1846.
Foster was commissioned second lieutenant in the corps of engineers and after a brief term of service in Washington, D. C. , was ordered on active service under General Scott in Mexico. He took part in the siege of Vera Cruz and the subsequent advance into the interior, being severely w'ounded at the battle of Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847.
He received two citations for distinguished service in this campaign, but on recovery from his wound, was relegated to the more obscure, though useful, routine duties of an engineer officer in time of peace.
Until 1860 he performed miscellaneous services, including a two-year term as assistant professor of engineering (1855 - 57) at the Military Academy.
On July 1, 1860, he was commissioned captain of en gineers and when the war began a few months later was engineer in charge of the United States fortifications in Charleston Harbor. He was in Major Anderson’s command at Fort Sumter and his reports—the laconic, professional observations of the trained soldier—have contributed largely to our historical knowledge of the memorable weeks in the spring of 1861.
On October 23, 1861, Foster was appointed brigadier-general of Volunteers and in the following March he was brevetted colonel in the United States army. He took a prominent part in the North Carolina expedition, including the capture of Roanoke Island and New Bern, and on July 1, 1862, was placed in command of the Department of North Carolina.
He retained this command for Several months, engaging in several local operations of considerable importance in the early part of 1863. Later in the same year he took part in operations for the relief of Gen. Burnside at Knoxville, Tennessee , and in December succeeded the latter in command of the Department of the Ohio, although he was soon afterward obliged to ask to be relieved because of accidental injuries.
On May 26, 1864, having partially recovered, he was assigned to command the Department of the South, where he later cooperated with Gen. Sherman in the movements against Savannah and Charleston.
During the last months of the war he was in command in Florida with headquarters at Tallahassee. He had been made major-general of Volunteers, ranking from July 18, 1862, and on March 13, 1865, was brevetted major-general in the United States army.
On March 7, 1867, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, corps of engineers. Foster spent the remainder of his life in routine work. lie engaged in survey and construction operations on the New England coast and from 1871 to 1874 was assistant to the chief of Engineers.
In 1869 he published Submarine Blasting in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts; Removal of Tower and Corwin Rocks, which was long an authoritative treatise on the general subject.
Foster died in Nashua, New Hampshire, and was buried in Nashua Cemetery.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Foster knew how to adapt the raw material of the Civil War levies to the tasks at hand, and was an especially competent administrator.
John Foster was considered a dependable, courageous officer who understood both the virtues and defects of the volunteer.
John Foster was married on January 21, 1851, to Mary L. Moale, daughter of Col. Samuel Moale of Baltimore. After her death in 1871 he married, on January 9, 1872, Nannie Davis, daughter of George M. Davis of Washington, D. C.