A South Carolina Upcountry Saga

Description

Collected letters of a Confederate officer and his family detail daily life and loss on the battlefield

Hope, sacrifice, and restoration: throughout the American Civil War and its aftermath, the Foster family endured all of these in no small measure. Drawing from dozens of public and privately owned letters, A. Gibert Kennedy recounts the story of his great-great-grandfather and his family in A South Carolina Upcountry Saga: The Civil War Letters of Barham Bobo Foster and His Family, 1860-1863.

Barham Bobo Foster was a gentleman planter from the Piedmont who signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Third South Carolina Volunteers alongside his two sons. Kennedy's primary sources are letters written by Foster and his sons, but he also references correspondence involving Foster's daughters and his wife, Mary Ann.

The letters describe experiences on the battlefields of Virginia and South Carolina, vividly detailing camp life, movements, and battles along with stories of bravery, loss, and sacrifice. The Civil War cost Foster his health, all that he owned, and his two sons, though he was able to rebuild with the help of his wife and three daughters. Supplementing the correspondence with maps, illustrations, and genealogical information, Kennedy shows the full arc of the Foster family's struggle and endurance in the Civil War era.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• George Brinton McClellan
• Carolina del Sur
• States Rights Gist
• Furlough
• South Carolina Railroad
• 3rd South Carolina Regiment
• Battle of Mill Springs
• Cooper River (South Carolina)
• Battle of Appomattox Court House
• Ashley River (South Carolina)
• Battle of Ball's Bluff
• Battle of Gaines' Mill
• Battle of Williamsburg
• William Dorsey Pender
• State
• Siege of Yorktown
• Southern Baptist Convention
• George B. McClellan
• Battle of Antietam
• South
• Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
• South Carolina
• History of the Americas
• Convention baptiste du Sud
• Ambrose Burnside
• United States
• Francis Wilkinson Pickens
• FL
• Local
• George McClellan
• KY
• LA
• TN
• MS
• SC
• NC
• AR
• VA
• GA
• Caroline du Sud

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 09 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781643360225
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

A South Carolina Upcountry Saga
A South Carolina Upcountry Saga
THE CIVIL WAR LETTERS OF Barham Bobo Foster and His Family 1860-1863
To live in hearts one leaves behind is not to die.
EDITED BY
A. Gibert Kennedy

The University of South Carolina Press
Publication of this book is made possible in part by the support of the South Caroliniana Library with the assistance of the Caroline McKissick Dial Publication Fund.
2019 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/ .
ISBN 978-1-61117-924-8 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-64336-022-5 (ebook)
Front cover image provided by the author:
Foster s Tavern by Eola Dent
To Pam, Grace, and Gibert
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Letter Sources
Methodology
Genealogy
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Secession
CHAPTER 2
No Prospect of a Fight
CHAPTER 3
Bull Run: We soon saw the Elephant
CHAPTER 4
The Elephant Hides
CHAPTER 5
Winter Quarters
CHAPTER 6
The Peninsula: The Elephant Returns
CHAPTER 7
Maryland Campaign: The Third Sight of the Elephant
CHAPTER 8
Marye s House: Last Sight of the Elephant
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
Foster s Tavern
Lt. Col. Barham Bobo Foster, 3rd S.C. Volunteers, circa 1861
Mary Ann Perrin Foster
Lt. Lewis Perrin Foster, 3rd S.C. Volunteers, circa 1861
Lewis Perrin Foster
Sarah Agnes (Sallie) Foster as a young woman
Captain Benjamin Kennedy, 3rd S.C. Volunteers, Company K
Lewis Perrin Foster, circa 1861
James Anthony Foster, circa 1861
Eunice (Nunie) Foster as a young woman
Confederate Winter Quarters, Centreville, Virginia 1861-1862
Confederate Winter Quarters, Centreville, Virginia, South View 1861-1862
Confederate Defensive Works at Centreville
Wreckage of Orange and Alexandria Rail Road at Manassas Junction
Savage s Station, Union Field Hospital
Telegraph from L. P. Foster to B. B. Foster
Marye s House, Showing Rifle Pits, Fredericksburg, Virginia
Col. Barham Bobo Foster during the years he was living in Jonesville, South Carolina
Advertising Poster from B. B. Foster s store
Mary Ann Perrin Foster
Eunice Foster Kennedy
Sarah Agnes (Sallie) Foster McKissick in De Land, Florida, March 9, 1916
Barham Bobo Foster in old age
Maps
South Carolina, 1861
Virginia, 1861
The Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861
Bearden Bull Run
Northern Virginia, 1861
Coastal South Carolina, 1862
The Peninsula Campaign, 1862
The Seven Days Battle, June 25-July 1, 1862
The Battle of Savage s Station, June 29, 1862
The Battle of Maryland Heights, September 13, 1862
The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
PREFACE
In 1989 my father asked me if I wanted my great-great grandfather Barham Bobo Foster s pockets which contained some old papers. Being an ancestor-worshipping South Carolinian, I naturally accepted. These Civil War-era pockets were originally tied around the waist and worn inside the pants, rather like a modern money belt. As I began going through the documents in the pockets, I found they included a series of about seventy-five Civil War letters between Lt. Col. Barham Bobo Foster; his wife, Mary Ann Perrin Foster; and his sons Lewis Perrin and James Anthony.
The Civil War was a cataclysmic event that affected not only soldiers but also their families. Where the details of most family stories are now lost, this group of letters formed the core of my family s story. By compiling the letters and doing the research to discern their context, I could rebuild and preserve this story for my family and other interested persons. I felt obligated to do so.
As I learned of Lieutenant Colonel Foster s importance as an upcountry community leader, as a representative to the S.C. Secession Convention, as a signer of the Ordinance of Secession, as the organizer of a celebrated South Carolina Infantry regiment, and as a post-war leader, the scope of the project grew beyond mere family interests.
The project received a significant boon when I found another 225 letters in Rion McKissick s papers in the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina. McKissick, a beloved president of the University of South Carolina in the 1930s and 1940s, was Foster s grandson.
These letters, records, and research reveal a complex picture of the life of a Southern family living through the historical events of the American Civil War. Their words and actions were framed by Protestant religious conviction and a sense of duty to God, personal honor, state, and country-I think pretty much in that order.
There remains a small monument to James Anthony Foster and Lewis Perrin Foster in the family graveyard beside their ancestral home outside Spartanburg, South Carolina. The monument is inscribed from Thomas Campbell s Hallowed Ground : To live in hearts one leaves behind is not to die. I hope that through these letters, these young men will live in the hearts of this and future generations.
I feel very fortunate to have had a chance to get to know these people. I have learned much about the family life; the military life; and the personal motives, hopes, loves, and fears of these individuals during the Civil War.
I hope that you will enjoy meeting them, also.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Upon the completion of this project, I feel an immense gratitude to the many people who have encouraged and assisted me in this effort.
I especially owe a debt to those who preserved the letters and made them available to me. My father, Barham Foster Kennedy II and my grandfather Albert Gibert Kennedy enabled this study by preserving and passing to me the initial set of 75 Foster letters. Herb Hartsook and, later, Nathan Saunders at the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia made more than 150 letters from the Rion McKissick papers available for this project. The staff of this library was always very helpful to me. Ruth Ahlers of Lafayette, Colorado, made six letters to Eunice Foster available. The late Sam Cothran and his son, Frank Cothran, generously permitted the use of letters from the Cothran-Chiles Notes as well as an update more than a half century later (1992). Harvey Teal of Columbia, South Carolina, provided a letter from his personal collection; it is now in the South Caroliniana Library. Another letter was found in clippings from an unknown newspaper, and I include it with gratitude to the unknown owner.
I relied upon the research of Mac Wyckoff and his A History of the Third South Carolina Infantry 1861-65 in making sense of the movements of these soldiers in the 3rd S.C. The identification of many of the soldiers in this story would not have been possible without his earlier research. In 2008 Wyckoff published A History of the 3rd South Carolina Regiment: Lee s Reliables , an even more comprehensive account of this storied regiment. I have not attempted to provide a history of the 3rd S.C., but, instead, to focus on telling the family story. I strongly recommend Mac Wyckoff s books to any who seeks a military history of this storied unit. Mac gave me helpful advice when I toured the Fredericksburg battlefield.
At a roundtable discussion at the University of South Carolina Aiken in 1995, Mac admonished would-be Civil War storytellers to Do the research. I have sought to follow his advice and I hope that I have done so.
Althea Northcross of Boston, Massachusetts, created the maps used in the book. Her precise and efficient work will greatly enhance the reader s understanding of the soldiers engagements and movements described in these letters.
Thank you to those who read my early drafts and manuscript, for providing excellent suggestions: the late Myrna Kennedy; Barham Foster Kennedy; Jim Arnett; James Everett Kibler; and my wife, Pamela Kennedy. The book was shaped in many ways by your wise advice.
I am grateful to those who encouraged and advised me in this project, perhaps in ways that they don t know: James Everett Kibler, Bill Brockington, Gordon Smith, Mac Wyckoff, Theresa Shackelford, and Herb Hartsook.
A project like this occurs in a context of those who advise, encourage, wait, are inconvenienced, listen, care, and love. My context is:
my wife, Pam
my children, Grace and Gibert
my parents, Barham Foster and the late Myrna Kennedy
my brothers, Perrin Kennedy and Foster Kennedy
my Sewanee Temperance League friends-You know who you are.
To live in hearts.
LETTER SOURCES
The following Letters were passed down through the family to A. Gibert Kennedy and are presently in his possession.
February 25, 1856
Mary Foster to her son LPF
Spartanburg, S.C.
October 29, 1857
Mary Foster to her son LPF
Spartanburg, S.C.
January 31, 1858
LPF to his sister Sallie
South Carolina College Columbia, S.C.
April 1861
BBF to his wife
Camp Ruffin, Columbia, S.C.
April 26, 1861
LPF to his mother
Camp Ruffin, Columbia, S.C.
April 27, 1861
BBF to his wife
Camp Ruffin, Columbia, S.C.
May 7, 1861
BBF to his wife
Camp Ruffin, Columbia, S.C.
June 20, 1861
BBF to his wife
Camp Jackson, Richmond,