A South Carolina Upcountry Saga: The Civil War Letters of Barham Bobo Foster and His Family, 1860–1863

Introduction

Barham Bobo Foster’s grandfather Anthony Foster moved from Fairfax, Virginia, to the Cross Anchor settlement in Union District, South Carolina,* in about 1792. With him came his second wife, Sarah Barham Foster; his daughter, Mary; and his living sons, John, James, Fielding, and Anthony, Jr. The McKissick family tradition says that his son, Achilles, was killed in the Revolutionary War at Bunker Hill in 1775 and another son, Joel, was killed at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777.† By the time Anthony Foster died in 1805, he had established a home and plantation in Cross Anchor. His wife, Sarah, died in 1812.

Anthony Foster, Jr. used his share of his father’s estate to build Foster’s Tavern in 1807 at the crossroads near Cedar Spring within the present city limits of Spartanburg. This building was both a home and a public tavern. The 1820 Mills’ Atlas survey of Spartanburg District shows Foster’s Tavern at the intersection of the road To Union Line and a road running southwest to northeast. These roads connected Spartanburg with Columbia; Charleston; Charlotte, North Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; and Atlanta, Georgia. Foster’s Tavern is an impressive two-story structure constructed with slave-made bricks fired in a kiln built on the property. The homesite included slave cabins and a family cemetery. The cemetery was occasionally shared with unfortunate travelers who died along their journey. The tavern and Foster home place still exists at the intersection of S.C. 295 (Southport Road) and S.C. 56 (Union Road). The tavern prospered due to its location along these important stagecoach routes.

One of the most prominent guests was John C. Calhoun, who always took the same room during his trips between his home in Pendleton, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. This room became known as the John C. Calhoun room. Many years later, when Anthony Foster, Jr.’s son Barham Bobo Foster was an old man, he explained with pride to a Dr. Lancaster that his room was next to Mr. Calhoun’s.*

Foster’s Tavern, home of B. B. Foster, 1997. Photograph taken by the editor.

On June 16, 1796, Anthony Jr. married Elizabeth Bobo. They had eleven children. The ninth child, Barham Bobo Foster, was born February 22, 1817 in the Cross Roads tavern home. Little is known of Barham Bobo’s earliest years. As a young adult, B. B. Foster managed a successful plantation, so he must have had significant exposure to farm life in his youth, probably at the family plantation in Cross Anchor. Mills’s Statistics of South Carolina, published in 1826, reported on schools in Cedar Spring, An academy is established here, which promises well. In it are taught the Latin and Greek languages, and mathematics, besides the usual course of English studies.† This was the Word Academy, founded in 1824 as a Latin school, with a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Porter, serving as the first teacher. Barham Bobo and his brother, Joel, attended this academy.‡ Barham Bobo Foster’s daughter Eunice later wrote that as a young man her father studied medicine under Dr. R. M. Young in Spartanburg, until the health of his father, Anthony Foster, declined, at which time B. B. Foster returned home to manage the family farm.§

The Tariff of 1824 and the Tariff of 1828, both Federal protective acts, infuriated many South Carolinians who saw the tariffs as a way of raising costs for imported British goods to promote Northern manufacturing. South Carolina leaders saw that Federal laws could as easily affect slave institutions, and the South Carolina legislature passed laws nullifying or vetoing the Tariff Acts. The Force Act of 1833 authorized President Jackson to dispatch military forces to the state to enforce the tariffs. An uneasy truce was reached when the Tariff of 1833 reduced tariffs and South Carolina repealed the nullification laws. Even at sixteen years old, Barham Bobo Foster was an ardent nullifier during the Nullification Crisis of 1833. Before he was eighteen years old he was elected captain of a local militia company.* His letters reflect a love for his home state of South Carolina and a commitment to states’ rights.

On January 19, 1837, at the age of twenty, B. B. Foster married Mary Ann Perrin, the daughter of Samuel Perrin and Eunice Chiles from Abbeville. They made their home in the Cedar Spring area near Spartanburg; and, later that same year their first child, Lewis Perrin, was born. He was followed by James Anthony (Tony) in 1839 and Sarah Agnes, nicknamed Sallie, in 1840. Around 1840, the young family moved to Glenn Springs to manage the family plantation.† Eunice Elizabeth was born June 13, 1845, in Glenn Springs. In 1852, Jane Eliza (nicknamed both Jennie and Lizzie), the last child of Barham Bobo and Mary Ann Foster, was born. A son, Barham Bobo, was born in 1848 and died at the age of two. Another son, Joel, apparently died as an infant or child.

As a young man, Barham Bobo Foster prospered professionally. His plantation was productive, and he was known for using advanced farming practices of his day. He was one of the first in the Spartanburg area to use guano as a fertilizer. His neighbors teased him for subsoiling, a practice of deep tillage to prevent soil compaction, telling him God knew which side of the ground to put on top.‡ While Foster earned his living as a successful planter, he kept a keen interest in his militia duties and in politics. He was a state militia officer, holding every rank from captain to major general; a Commission of Spencer Morgan Rice signed by Major General B. B. Foster of the 5th Division of the South Carolina Militia confirms that he was leading this unit in December 1849.§ In later years, Foster’s daughter Eunice fondly remembered him drilling his men while astride his parade horse, Dinah. Before the Civil War, Foster served as a magistrate for many years.¶ He was elected twice as Union County Treasurer* and he served four terms in the State House of Representatives.† He was a legislator in the State House of Representatives in the 1844–46, 1846–48, 1848–50, and 1864–65 terms. He was County Treasurer during Reconstruction.

Lewis Perrin Foster, the Fosters’ oldest son, was born November 14, 1837. He received his primary education under the instruction of the Reverend Clough S. Beard at the Glenn Springs Academy in the 1840s and under Captain A. F. Edwards at the Spartanburg Male Academy.‡ In 1848 Perrin Foster’s cousin, Oliver E. Edwards, boarded at B. B. Foster’s home while he attended the Glenn Springs Academy, also studying under Beard.§ It seems apparent that Perrin attended the Glenn Springs Academy at about the same time. Eunice Foster reported that Perrin boarded with Simpson Bobo,¶ a prominent Spartanburg resident and Barham Bobo Foster’s brother-in-law by his sister Nancy. Perrin apparently attended the Spartanburg Male Academy, located in a brick building at what is now the intersection of Henry and Union Streets in Spartanburg; he later attended the South Carolina College in Columbia and graduated in 1858.

Anthony, Sarah Agnes, Eunice, and Jane Eliza were all educated in the manner of planter’s children. On January 31, 1858, Lewis Perrin wrote to his sister (probably Sallie) and said that he was glad that Anthony was placed in the St. John’s School. This was the St. John’s High School in Spartanburg. Sarah attended the Johnson Female University** in Anderson, South Carolina.†† Eunice was in attendance at Limestone College no later than 1861; she completed her education there. It is not clear whether Jane Eliza attended a university or college. She reached college age just about the time that her father was going through bankruptcy. In 1870 his bankruptcy proceedings were finalized; and, there may not have been any money to give her an advanced education.

At the start of the Civil War in April 1861, none of the Foster children were married. Perrin was twenty-three; Tony was twenty-two; Sarah Agnes (Sallie) was nineteen; Eunice (Nunie) was fifteen; and Jane Eliza was nine years old.

Benjamin Kennedy, Jr. and his family from nearby Union County were closely linked to the Foster family during and after the war years. In 1754, Benjamin’s grandfather William Kennedy moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina during Scotch-Irish immigration, along with the Brandon, Jolly, Savage, and McJunkin families. This group settled in the South Carolina Piedmont and founded the village of Unionville. Kennedy built his homestead in the Brown’s Creek area a few miles east of present-day Union. William Kennedy, Sr. fought in the Revolutionary War; he served with his son, William, in Col. Thomas Brandon’s Regiment at Cowpens, King’s Mountain, and in other Revolutionary War engagements.

After the war, William Kennedy served in the state legislature for several terms and was a magistrate and a county judge. William Kennedy, Sr.’s last child, Benjamin, was born in 1788 and lived near Brown’s Creek in present-day Union County. In 1818, Benjamin married Lucy Gibert of Abbeville. Lucy was the daughter of Pierre Gibert and Elizabeth Bienaime, who had come to America in 1764 to settle the Huguenot New Bordeaux Colony along the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. A son, John Lewis, was born to Benjamin and Lucy on October 7, 1819. Their second son, Benjamin, Jr., was born November 23, 1821, shortly after his father’s death that same year.* A few years later, Lucy Kennedy moved with her two boys to Jonesville, South Carolina.†

Educated by Rev. James Hodge Saye and Abiel Foster,‡ Benjamin Kennedy, Jr. completed his studies at the Fair Forest Academy in 1843. He studied reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, geography, English, classics in Latin, and Latin and Greek grammar. Abiel Foster declared Kennedy qualified to teach and govern a school.§

Kennedy used this education to teach school while assisting with the family farm, and he became a successful planter. He inherited enslaved people from his father, but he never bought or sold one.¶ Benjamin and his brother John built a profitable merchant mill on Harris Creek, known locally as Kennedy’s Mill.** Kennedy served as a major in the state militia during the years preceding the Civil War.

The close ties between the Foster and Kennedy families strengthened during the Civil War when Benjamin Kennedy, Jr. served as a company Captain under Lt. Col. Barham B. Foster. Perrin Foster was a company Lieutenant and later a Captain of Kennedy’s company. After the war, in 1869, Benjamin Kennedy married Lieutenant Colonel Foster’s daughter Eunice.

The Spartanburg District

Spartanburg County is situated on the Piedmont at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and was formed from erosion of an ancient mountain range. The land is generally hilly, and the clay soil is thin and stony. The county is drained by the Enoree, Broad, Tyger, and Pacolet Rivers flowing generally northwest to southeast. Although these rivers were not naturally navigable to the sea, the drop in elevation offered water power which was used to drive mills and factories.

In 1755, Governor Glen established a treaty with the Cherokees in Saluda Old Town that resulted in ceded land that included present-day Spartanburg and Union counties. These lands became part of the Ninety Six District; in 1785, the South Carolina legislature passed an ordinance establishing districts including Spartanburg; and the Constitution of 1868 changed districts to counties.

The Piedmont was opened to settlement by the 1755 treaty. The most notable migration to the area came from the Scotch-Irish. England encouraged the migration of impoverished Scottish lowlanders to present-day Northern Ireland by offering time-limited land grants. As these grants expired, rents exceeded the capacity of the farmland to yield both rent and a subsistence living. These economic pressures resulted in the immigration from Ireland to the North American colonies, with many arriving in Pennsylvania. The general path of migration was toward western Pennsylvania, down the Shenandoah Valley, and into the Carolinas. These Scotch-Irish developed a reputation for toughness, hard work, a Calvinistic religious ethic, and a willingness to fight. These traits were needed to extract a pioneer farmer’s living from the stingy soil of the Piedmont.

By the Civil War, most people in the area made their living by farming. Most farming was done by small, family farms raising primarily corn, other grains, and livestock. Small amounts of cotton were raised as a cash crop. If a yeoman farmer owned enslaved people at all, it was typically one family.* In 1860, most slave owners in the Spartanburg District (52.6%) owned one to five people.† Some families had grown their farms sufficiently to become members of the planter class. The planters were able to farm much larger tracts using paid farm hands and the enslaved. In the Spartanburg District in 1860, 9.8% of slaveholders owned more than nineteen people.* While the upcountry planter operations were small compared to the large, wealthy lowcountry plantations, they were prosperous enough to live in comfortable houses, educate their children, and devote time to politics. Spartanburg District industries at the time included sawmills, gristmills, cotton mills, and tanneries.†

Spartanburg was the major town in the District with a population of about a thousand residents. Being the district administrative seat, Spartanburg had a courthouse and a jail. The town had merchants, doctors, tailors, bootmakers, blacksmith shops, law offices, hotels, and churches. Educational institutions included day schools, a male academy, a female academy, and Wofford College.‡ The town had the businesses, professionals, and institutions needed to support the farming community.

The town was well connected by roads and rails to other cities and towns. A road to the southwest connected Spartanburg to Greenville and Pendleton, South Carolina, and on to Atlanta, Georgia. Another road led southeast to Union, South Carolina, and from there to both the state capital, Columbia, and to Charlotte, North Carolina. A road to the north connected Spartanburg to Asheville, North Carolina. A railroad line connected Spartanburg and Union, on to Columbia where rail connections to other southern cities were available.

The Letters

The Foster family letters provide a picture of planters in the upper echelon of society in the Spartanburg District during the Civil War. Barham Bobo Foster’s plantation, which primarily grew corn and cotton, was in Glenn Springs about thirteen miles south of Spartanburg. Foster owned forty-three people according to the 1860 census, up from thirteen such ten years earlier. Of these, twenty-two were over the age of ten. He possessed $10,100 of real property and $46,300 of personal property.§ The Fosters were closely associated with professional society in Spartanburg. As an example, Perrin Foster boarded with attorney Simpson Bobo, who was his uncle, while attending the Spartanburg Male Academy; and, he later studied law with the firm of Simpson Bobo, Oliver E. Edwards, and John W. Carlisle.

The letters cover the period of the Civil War beginning with Barham Bobo Foster’s letter from the Secession Convention (December 20, 1860) through the last letter concerning the death of Perrin Foster, dated February 17, 1863. The epilogue contains letters and excerpts of letters that show how the lives of the central figures played out over the postwar period. The last letter is dated July 26, 1894.

Most of the letters were written by Lt. Col. Barham Bobo Foster and his sons, Capt. Lewis Perrin Foster and Corporal James Anthony Foster. Most of the letters were written to Mary Ann Perrin Foster and, upon his discharge in 1862, to Barham Bobo Foster. There are also letters from Foster’s daughters, Sallie and Eunice, and from family friends.

The letters provide insight into many aspects of the war, beginning with B. B. Foster writing from the Secession Convention. Lieutenant Colonel Foster and his son, Perrin, give us a picture of the early organization of the 3rd S.C. Volunteer Infantry at training camps established outside Columbia in the spring of 1861. We see confidence and high spirits on their travels to the Confederate lines in Virginia. The father and son wrote home about the preparation, infantry movements, and the battle of the Confederate victory at Bull Run. Perrin took ill and was sent to recover in Charlottesville, Virginia. There is a bucolic interlude in the letters during Perrin’s convalescence, when he wrote to family members about a happy, prosperous people inhabiting a beautiful countryside.

Returning to camp, the soldiers moved into Winter Quarters during the winter of 1861 to 1862. There, B. B. Foster suffered from edema, was discharged from the army, and returned home. In March 1862, Tony Foster enlisted with the 13th S.C. Volunteers assigned to the South Carolina coastal defenses; and, he camped at Green Pond. With the arrival of spring, military action resumed. Perrin Foster described their movements and engagements in the face of McClellan’s advance up the Peninsula. Tony Foster obtained a transfer to join his older brother Perrin with the 3rd S.C. on the Richmond defenses. The brothers fought in the Seven Days’ Battle, and they wrote vivid descriptions of the battle in their letters home. In August 1862, Perrin developed a severe abscess on his arm and was sent to Richmond to recover. While he was recovering, Confederate forces were ordered to take Harpers Ferry in preparation for Lee’s movement into Maryland, a campaign that ended at Antietam. Kershaw’s brigade was dispatched to take Maryland Heights, across the Potomac from Harpers Ferry; and Tony Foster was killed in action. Friends in the 3rd S.C. wrote to B. B. Foster about Tony’s death. Perrin rejoined his unit in October and wrote about their subsequent movements, culminating in their defensive positions at Fredericksburg. Those are his last letters.

These letters are important in many ways. The letters reveal the thoughts of educated, well-informed people of the upcountry planter class, individuals whose letters reveal an awareness of the initial hope of the Confederate strategy (to win independence through a steadfast defense until England and France would recognize Southern independence and force the Federals to cease the war). As the war closed in on its second year we see that the letter writers became aware that this strategy would not be successful, and that the Confederacy would have to survive on its own resources.

We see a more complex relationship than some would expect between the enslaved and their owners. B. B. Foster sent messages of greeting to the enslaved at home in a friendly manner. He seemed at a loss when one of them with him at camp, Mid, slipped through the Confederate lines to freedom in the North. We see another who captured a Federal soldier, marched the prisoner to his master, and was rewarded with the prisoner’s weapons.

Camp life is revealed: its tedium, constant drilling, conflict, threat of disease, camaraderie, reunions of friends and family, and a bit of humor. Women in uniform drilled their husband’s companies. We hear what it is like to camp on the grounds of an earlier battlefield, where corpses in shallow graves lay exposed.

Battles are described in detail that begins to explain the physical exertion of war. We hear of Tony Foster being hit by spent balls, of the calls for help from the wounded, of the terror of being pinned under the continuous cannonade at Malvern Hill. We hear the last words of a mortally wounded young man. We can understand what it means to march over a small hill onto an exposed position at the killing ground of Fredericksburg.

We get, in short, a personal picture of life and death in the Confederate army, told by articulate, discerning writers. Their story is one of courage and duty that needs to be preserved and shared.

I think the Governor better form a company of you and send you to Kansas. You are too full of fight.

Mary Ann Perrin Foster, February 25, 1856

There seems to be no prospect of a fight and think there will not be any use for us soon if ever.

Lt. Col. Barham Bobo Foster, April 27, 1861

The price of human freedom has ever been human life. If we prize the latter higher, then the other cannot be ours.

Lt. Lewis Perrin Foster, August 5, 1861

I am not as keen myself for a third sight of the elephant as I was for the first.

Private James Anthony Foster, August 1, 1862

I feel like shrieking now.

Eunice Foster, December 19, 1862

* Billy Glen Foster, The Foster Family of Flanders, England, and America (Bryan, Texas: Insite Publishing, 1990), 53.

† Research by B. G. Foster suggests that Achilles may have lived into 1777 and died before 1778. Further, Foster suggests that Anthony Foster’s son, Joel, may have survived the war contrary to the McKissick family history. N. Graydon, T. Graydon, and Davis, McKissicks, 161–163.

* N. Graydon, T. Graydon, and Davis, McKissicks, 165.

† Robert Mills, Statistics of South Carolina (Charleston, S.C.: Hurlburt and Lloyd, 1826), 726.

‡ J. B. O. Landrum, History of Spartanburg County (Atlanta, Ga., 1900, reprinted by Reprint, Spartanburg, S.C., 1985), 87.

§ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 6, 432.

* Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 430.

† Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 430.

‡ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 430–431.

§ South Carolina Daughters of the Confederacy, Recollections and Reminiscences 1861–1865 Through World War I, Vol. 3 (Daughters of the Confederacy, 1992), 98–99.

¶ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 431.

* N. Graydon, T. Graydon, and Davis, McKissicks, 172.

† John Amasa May and Joan Reynolds Faunt, South Carolina Secedes (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1960), 145.

‡ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 435.

§ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 510.

¶ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 435.

** The Johnson Female Seminary was founded by the Reverend William B. Johnson in 1848 and operated until it closed during the Civil War. In 1853, the school transitioned from a seminary to a university. Rev. Johnson was the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Seminary was one of the nation’s first institutions of higher learning for women. Late in the Civil War, the administration building was used as a branch of the Confederate Treasury. The building is extant. Anderson College, which opened in 1912, traces its history to this early university.

†† N. Graydon, T. Graydon, and Davis, McKissicks, 37.

* Albert M. Hillhouse, Pierre Gibert, French Huguenot, His Background and Descendants (Danville, Kentucky: Bluegrass Printing Company, 1977), 211.

† Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 539.

‡ Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 540.

§ Hillhouse, Pierre Gibert, 234.

¶ Hillhouse, Pierre Gibert, 234.

** Kennedy operated a gristmill and sawmill on present-day Kennedy Mill Creek which drops into Fairforest Creek in western Union County. The gristmills and sawmills are shown together on the 1825 Mills’ Atlas on the creek identified as Harris Creek. Landrum, History of Spartanburg County, 540.

* Phillip N. Racine, Living a Big War in a Small Place (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2013), 9.

† Bruce W. Eelman, Enterpreneurs in the Southern Upcountry (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008), 15.

* Eelman, Enterpreneurs, 15.

† Racine, Living a Big War, 6.

‡ Racine, Living a Big War, 5.

§ Ralph Wooster, Membership of the South Carolina Secession Convention. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. LV (1954), 196.

CHAPTER 1

Secession

BARHAM BOBO FOSTER TO HIS SON, PERRIN

Charleston 20th Dec 1860

My Dear Son

I merely have time to say to you that South Carolina is out of the Union without a dissenting voice. It took place at a quarter past one o’clock. I am well.

Your & C B. B. Foster

B. B. FOSTER TO HIS WIFE

December 23, 1860 South Carolina Republic Charleston Sunday

My Dear Wife

I went today to the Baptist Church. A fine church it is. Mr Landrum* preached a fine sermon. I shipped your sugar & coffee yesterday morning. I think you can get it certainly Thursday morning. I received Perrins letter to day the first I have received from home. I written every day but one since I left. I sent a letter containing vaxine matter. I suppose Perrin did not get it if he has received it tell him to vaxinate all the family it has taken on me and my arm is very soar. I now think I will be at home Wensday or Thursday remember me to all

your husband B B F

This will be mailed by John Green on the road.

B B F

In the following letter we see that Tony Foster intended to follow his brother in attending South Carolina College; however, the smallpox outbreak and the war kept him from doing so.

B. B. FOSTER TO HIS DAUGHTER, SALLIE

South Carolina Republic Charleston Dec. 25th 1860

My Dear Daughter

I received your letter yesterday evening. I have written every day since I left home but one and have not received but two letters. Today is a lively time here. I never have seen such a Christmas. The streets are alive with people with a crowd of children all seem to be enjoying themselves to the fullest extent. I wish I could be at home but so it is I must stay and attend to the business of the young republic. It is believed here by the wise men that there will be no war. The commissioners started yesterday for Washington to treat with congress for our share of the public property and the forts in Charleston it is believed that all will be done in peace. The governor of Florida is here a fine looking man.* Florida will be with us in a short time. We received a dispatch from Mississippi. That state has elected secession to the convention. The election came off in Alabama yesterday. As far as heard from that state the principal cities have gone largely for secession. We will hear today by telegram from other parts of the state. It is believed that Georgia will go with us by a large majority. This convention is the ablest body I have ever seen assembled together. We was in secret session last night and will be today. I think now that I will be at home by Saturday night. I have suffered for two days with my arm. The vaxine matter took well and I now feel safe as far as small pox is concerned. The report here is that there is now in Columbia two or three hundred cases. Tell Perrin that the matter will not be apt to take under eight or nine days. He must then put it in all the negroes. I hope however to be at home. It will not do for your brother Anthony to go to Columbia now. There is no doubt but the small pox is prevailing there as an epidemic. He must studdy on and apply when the danger is over. I have visited as far as I could the principal parts of the citty. The Catholics worshiped all night last night and are still worshiping today. The convention will meet in a few minutes and I must close this letter. I will bring your music. I cannot find the piece Eunice sent for. I am sorry I cannot. It is not in the citty. She certainly gave me the wrong name your Uncle Bobo and all the delegation are well. Remember me to your mother and all the family. Tell Maj. Lancaster all is safe and he need fear no evil.

your affectionate Father B. B. Foster

In early December 1860, Barham Bobo Foster made his way from his Glenn Springs home south of Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the capital in Columbia. He was headed for the First Baptist Church on Hampton Street as the elected representative from the Spartanburg District to a convention to consider the dangers incident to the position of the State in the Federal Union.* This convention was afterward known as the South Carolina Secession Convention. The forty-three-year-old planter had served in political offices before, as a three-term member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1844 to 1850. He had been a nullifier† with strong views that the Federal Constitution was a compact between sovereign states; that states had the sovereign right to nullify or void Federal law; and that sovereign states had the right to secede from the Union. The State of South Carolina and President Jackson had gone to the brink of military confrontation over the right of South Carolina to nullify Federal tariffs in 1833. While both sides compromised and avoided confrontation, Jackson saw that the simmering desire to test the right of secession was unsatisfied. He predicted the next pretext will be the Negro, or slavery question.‡

The convention, called by Governor Pickens and legislatively empowered, opened on Monday, December 17. In his opening address the convention president-elect D. F. Jamison encouraged the assembly with Danton’s revolutionary motto, To dare! And again to dare! And without end to dare! Later that day, a committee was appointed to draft an Ordinance of Secession. The convention was adjourned to Institute Hall in Charleston because of a smallpox outbreak in Columbia. On Thursday, December 20, the committee returned with the draft Ordinance. The members voted 169–0 to pass the Ordinance. That evening, Foster and the other members signed the Ordinance and the convention proclaimed South Carolina an independent commonwealth.

On Saturday, Foster and several other members were appointed to a committee to determine how much congressional legislation would be canceled by the secession of the state. Over the next two weeks, the convention directed actions concerning Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter, Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor, Federal properties in South Carolina, and the publication of the Ordinance of Secession—and spent time reading letters of support from other Southern states. Aware of the historical importance of their actions, the convention members sent the table, chair, and other items used to ratify the Ordinance to the Legislative Library in the State House in Columbia. The convention adjourned its first session on January 5, 1861.

The second session of the Secession Convention opened on March 26, 1861, at St. Andrew’s Hall in Charleston. The purpose of this session was to consider the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, which had been adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 8, 1861. On April 3 of that year, B. B. Foster, with 137 fellow delegates, voted to ordain the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. Twenty-one delegates voted against it. South Carolina joined the Confederate States of America.

On April 9, the convention granted Foster leave for military duties.

* Rev. John Gill Landrum, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, was a representative from Spartanburg and a signer of the Ordinance of Secession. He later served as Chaplain in the 13th S.C. Volunteer Infantry.

* Governor Madison Starke Perry.

* May and Faunt, South Carolina Secedes, 3.

† May and Faunt, South Carolina Secedes, 145.

‡ Samuel Eliot Morison, Henry Steele Commager, and William E. Leuchtenburg, The Growth of the American Republic. Vol. I (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), 434.

CHAPTER 2

No Prospect of a Fight

In January 1861, following adjournment of the Secession Convention, troops began to assemble and drill at a makeshift camp at the Columbia Fairgrounds.* The camp was called Camp Ruffin in honor of Edmund Ruffin,† a prominent secessionist. A camp was established at Lightwood Knot Springs, a popular resort for Columbians of the day, about four miles from Columbia along the Columbia-Charlotte railroad line. Early on, the Lightwood Knot Springs Camp was called Camp Williams, in honor of Col. James H. Williams who had been elected colonel of the Third South Carolina Infantry.‡ The camps at the Columbia Fairgrounds and at Lightwood Knot Springs were combined at the latter location and named Camp Johnson.§ A camp of instruction was maintained there through much of the conflict.¶

In the early stages of the conflict, units were very locally organized, assumed unit names of their own choice, and elected their own officers. Prominent community leaders would typically recruit soldiers from pre-war militias and through other contacts, creating a company of a hundred men. Immediately after the First Secession Convention adjourned on January 3, 1861, B. B. Foster returned to Spartanburg and raised and drilled the Blackstock Company, serving as captain.** The company took its name from the 1780 Battle of Blackstocks, a Revolutionary War engagement in present-day Union County.

Foster returned to the Second Secession Convention convening on March 26 in Charleston to consider the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. Foster voted to ratify the Confederate constitution on April 3 and, on the 9th, he was excused from the convention for military duty. Three days later, on April 12, 1861, South Carolina opened fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War was underway.

Foster reported to Camp Ruffin in Columbia, bringing the Blackstock Company with him from Spartanburg. He was elected lieutenant colonel of the Third South Carolina Volunteer Regiment, and he commanded the regiment until Col. James H. Williams could report from his estates in Arkansas. The Blackstock Company became Company K of this regiment.* Leadership of this Company included Foster’s future son-in-law, Capt. Benjamin Kennedy, and Foster’s twenty-three-year-old son, Lt. Perrin Foster. They arrived in April 1861 to prepare for a fight that they were sure would never occur.

The letters from this period reflect the heady optimism of the self-proclaimed new republic. The authors expected there would be no fighting now that the Charleston Federal facilities at Castle Pinckney, Fort Moultrie, and Fort Sumter were in the control of the state of South Carolina. The secession leaders believed that a confident show of military preparation and force combined with a quick union with other secession states would intimidate Lincoln and the Federals into inaction. The young army settled immediately into the tasks of drilling, parading, and assigning satisfactory military positions for important people. Immediate problems of obtaining adequate uniforms and weapons were present and persistent throughout the conflict. Camp health quickly emerged as a critical issue; a great many of these hopeful young men died in the coming months and years, from typhus, pneumonia, and other camp diseases. Mercantile profiteering on the soldiers became a persistent complaint in future letters.

The authors of these letters maintained a willingness to fight with ferocity, courage, and abandon. The early brawling and drinking soon yielded to a military discipline; this discipline, combined with an attitude of frontier independence and a sense of religious purpose, characterized the fighting Confederate soldier.

B. B. FOSTER TO HIS WIFE

Head Quarters Columbia Camp Ruffin April 1861

I am here safely quartered in our camp at the fair grounds with about 1150 men in our Regiment. I suppose that we will go no farther for the present at least. Perrin† came down last night with his company. He is well and in fine spirits. I have concluded not to send for Dinah* although it would be a real comfort for Perrin to have her when he has leisure. I cannot say but am disposed to think from all that I can learn they we will be discharged before long. There seems to be not much prospect of a fight now. The harbor of Charleston is cleared and I think that will be the last of it there The boys are all well. No accident has happened in camp. We are all well. Uncle Dicky* is here. Tell John Harmon† he may do as he likes about planting the old field new ground in cotton I had as soon have it in corn tell John if Panuch cant get work he can work him at home I had much rather keep him hired out.* I have good quarters and if I stay here I will send up for you to come down and stay awhile with us. If it was not for my family I could not be better pleased than to be commander of this camp. I felt yesterday when I was marching the Regiment from the depot through broad street that it was about the proudest day of my life. I would be prouder still if Kenedys Company† & Fergusons‡ was uniformed. our people have not done their duty to those gallant men who had turned out to defend the homes and firesides of those left behind. They are doing the drudgery and rich men left at home. I do hope some one will take it in hand and have it done yet. Perrin has went down town and left his measure and will be uniformed. all the officers will uniform themselves. The western Battallion can give the company and ought to do it 2000.00 remember me to Sallie§ Anthony¶ and Jimy Harmon** and all the neighbors write soon direct to Lieut Col B. B. Foster Columbia SC. I hope to hear soon may god bless you all well in camp

Lt. Colonel Barham Bobo Foster, 3rd S.C. Volunteers circa 1861. From the editor’s collection.

Mary Ann Perrin Foster. From the editor’s collection.

Your affectionate husband B. B. Foster

L. P. FOSTER TO HIS SISTER, PROBABLY SALLIE

Glenn Springs [~April 18, 1861]††

My Dr Sister

Our first day of Camp life has passed and the 2nd began and I like it better than I expected. Our quarters are as comfortable as we could expect, much more than I thought they would be. Our men are in fine spirits and a very orderly crowd. We have but one thing which worrys us and that is the want of a uniform It is a shame that we could not bear to be here without a uniform and 14 of us have determined to buy the cloth on a credit and risk getting the money from our friends at home. We sent a man to Charleston this morning to buy the cloth and trimmings, and will send it up home as soon as we can get it here and have it cut. They will probably be at Lownsville Saturday evening. You must [use] all possible haste in making them and have them made by neat sewers. We do not know whether those at home intend to let us suffer that expense or not but one thing we do think and that is that it is hard for the soldier to pay for such things alone when those whom he left behind are more interested than we are but all we are and have is at the disposal of our government and if the men at home who we know are able to uniform us and not miss the money can consciously suffer us to pay it, why we will make the best of it. I wish you would show this to Maj Lancaster, Mr. Montgomery and as many of the prominent men in the settlement and request them to take up collections and raise the money as soon as possible. We will not probably get credit for longer than 60 days so if they do anything they must act fast. What I have said hastily in this letter is not intended for those men who have subscribed liberally already. One of my college friends found out that I was here yesterday and came round last night and brought me a cot 2 large quilts and a pillow so I am faring well. I have given the cot for the present [to] one of our camp who is a little unwell. Virg has passed a resolution of secession. There has been no demonstration made here yet in honor of her. We think she does not deserve. We have no orders as yet to march. Nothing more will be done until Lincoln has time to recruit his army. He can not begin to meet us with his present army. There are a good many of my old college friends here. Cass* and Ossian Simpson† are both here. Dr. Kilgore‡ joined us this morning.

My love to all

Write to me soon

Yr affec Brother L. P. Foster

L. P. FOSTER TO HIS SISTER, PROBABLY SALLIE

Camp Ruffin, Columbia April 21st 1861

My Dear Sister

My first Sunday in Camp has come and brings with it a novel scene been doing sentinel and guard duty on this day seems strange yet it is actually necessary that the camp should be under guard for there are many men here who if we were to let them go down street would get enough liquor to keep them drunk a week. Liquor is a contraband article here and if a man is caught with it he will be put under guard. The drinking men of our camp are doing well. Tom Zimmerman* looks much better than he did when he left home and I think that if he stays in camp long we can sober him. Our men will not let him have liquor at all. We have some very awkward and green men I have been putting some of them in the awkward squad.* They do not like it much but there is no other way to do. Several of our men have been sick since we came here but all have got well or nearly so. I have not been sick a minute and am as hearty as any body. I never had such an appetite since I can recollect. I relish this bakers bread and tough beef here more than good fare at home, however a box occasionally from our friends would not hurt us. Some of the other camps got theirs after Uncle Dick preached last night he had a large and attentive audience. He preached again to day at 11½ o clock. He has been appointed temporarily chaplain of the regiment. We sent Col. Allen to Charleston to buy our uniforms but he could not get enough cloth in the city to make it. We went down town yesterday and bought a piece of [ … ] and trimmings and have taylors now cutting it. Dr. King* will be up with it Tuesday or Wednesday. Make mine first and send it to me immediately. The news in the papers is encouraging. Williams† has not yet come and Father is still in command. Garlington‡ has not been here since I came here. Ashmores* or rather Sloans† regiment is here yet. We know nothing about our destination yet we training our men and getting them ready. Our labor is pretty heavy, but we do not much mind it. Is anybody getting any money for our uniforms? Our names are now pledged for the payment of the money and if they do nothing at home we must pay it. The decision is with them. Will soon remember me to the neighbors. The Woffords desire me to remember to their family.

Lewis Perrin Foster, 3rd S.C. Volunteers. On the back of this photo, his sister, Jennie wrote that he had brown eyes. Another inscription, believed to be by his sister, Eunice, identifies this as Lewis Perrin Foster. From the editor’s collection.

Lewis Perrin Foster. Identified on the back by his sister, Eunice Foster Kennedy. From the editor’s collection.

Sarah Agnes (Sallie) Foster as a young woman. From the editor’s collection.

Yr. Affec Brother L. P. Foster

Father received your letter and we were glad to hear from you.

In these letters, we continue to see very localized loyalties, to their companies in particular and to regiments recruited and formed from their neighborhoods and districts. In the letter below, these loyalties come into conflict with Governor Pickens’s thoroughly modern desire to cobble together a suitable command for a favored personage. Colonel Garlington was valiant officer, but these men had no interest in having their units broken up or their elected officers replaced to make room for him.

L. P. FOSTER TO HIS MOTHER

Camp Ruffin Columbia April 22nd 1861

My Dear Mother

Another day has come and I must write to you without anything of interest to write. The business of camp life, though it may be interesting to those engaged in it is yet too monotonous to be interesting to others.

Today the two regiments were thrown together to make a call for volunteers under Davis but they say it would be most an excellent failure and stopped it. We are all willing to fight for our country but not to be entrapped by breaking up our regiment to listing with any expected gentlemen. Our men and nearly every comp in the camp have come to the conclusion that Gov Pickens‡ is just trying to fix a place for Genl Garlington and those will not be their companies that will answer the call. We prefer to go in some other way and with our eyes open if we have to go at all. So you need not fear my volunteering for the present. Say nothing of this. Several of our men have been sick but I am well. So is Father. Our uniforms will be up in a few days. I am having mine made here. Our men are lively and in fine spirits. Those who have wives speak of home very often. We are faring pretty ruff. A few large boxes would be very acceptable. Some of the companies here are just fed by boxes from their friends at home. I know Miss Sallie* and Hannah† would send our mess a box. Our mess consists of Capt Kennedy, Hank West,‡ Henry Cunningham,§ James Henry Cunningham,* David Bray† and myself. I have not got a letter from home since I came here.

Captain Benjamin Kennedy, 3rd S.C. Volunteers, Company K. From the editor’s collection.

Write to me soon

Remember me to the family, John Harmon and inquiring neighbors.

All of our crowd are well except David Bray who has been a little sick but say nothing of it as it may cause his mother a great deal of uneasiness.

Yr affec Son L. P. Foster

L. P. FOSTER TO HIS SISTER, PROBABLY SALLIE

Camp Ruffin Columbia Apl 23rd /61

My Dear Sister

Since yesterday nothing of importance has transpired here. I have very little time to go into the city—yet my office requires less work than any other & I had rather have it than any. All our men are lively. Most of our men who when at home were drunkards give us no trouble here. Gabe Moore‡ has not been drunk since he came here and looks better than I ever saw him. Tom Zimmerman is doing well. One of our men went into the city yesterday & got drunk. We found it out last night about 9½ o clock and sent a corporals guard after him. They marched him up and lodged him in the guard house, where he is now, and will be until he gets all right. Uncle Dick exhorted and prayed last night. He preaches tonight. I don’t know what he will do when another chaplain is appointed for he is too lazy to drill. We have some men that I fear we never can drill. We keep them in the awkward squad most of the time. Mid§ was put in the guard house yesterday for a short time for fighting another negroe, but he was not in fault and Maj Baxter¶ had him released.

I have not yet seen