Mom's Two Uncles who died in the Civil War

Our 'Grandma Roe' was Sally Foster. Her father, Andrew Boyd Foster, was detailed in an earlier post. Andrew had two brothers who died in the Civil War. In 'Family Sketches', written by their father, Thomas Boyd Foster, the service records of 5 of his sons are detailed. In this post, I will summarize what he says about his two oldest sons, William Mason Foster, and Samuel Cowan Foster - our Uncles.

First I want to comment on the names. 'Family Sketches' is the only source for their full names, but it is obviously a very reliable, written by their father. Samuel was given the first and last name of his maternal grandfather, Samuel Cowan. William was given the first name of his paternal grandfather, William Foster. He did not have an ancestor with the name Mason, but the Mason family was very close to the Foster family. I have found several cases where middle names were adopted out of respect for a close friend or close family, so this is probably the source of this middle name.

William was the first son of Thomas Boyd Foster and Eleanor Cowan. He was born on March 15, 1838 in Bolivar, Jackson County, Alabama. He entered the Confederate States Army early in the war. His father says that he had broken his thigh as a boy, was lame due to the injury, and could have avoided service because of it. He saw his younger brothers going, and thought he might be of some help to them, so his generosity carried him into battle. The story goes "When killed he was talking to a friend. A bullet struck a tree and glanced and struck him in the breast, and killed him instantly". This was in June 1864 near New Hope Church, Georgia. His Masonic emblems, his watch and his razor were sent home. Almost 30 years later his father wrote "I still have them and as long as I live, will shave with that razor".

Samuel was the second son of Mr. and Mrs. Foster. He was born on August 11, 1839. His father wrote that he loved books. He goes on to say he "carried his books in camps, studied while fighting for his rights; professed religion as a boy, and died happy". One day before his brother (William) was killed, the two young men had been in battle together. Samuel received a minor wound, as a bullet passed through the tendon just below his knee, but not breaking any bones. It disabled him enough that he was carried to the hospital. From the description, it seems that the wound must have gotten infected, as his leg was amputated, and he died. Samuel was cared for in the hospital camp by a young woman, a distant relative, who is described only as "the daughter of John Swope". The words of Thomas seem to breath appreciation toward this young lady.

In 'Family Sketches', Thomas describes many troubles caused by the Civil War, the loss of these two oldest sons must have overshadowed all other trials.

A visit to Caperton Cemetery

I am excited to now use several posts to tell of my Mothers ancestry, much of which had been lost to our family during the 1900s.

I recently visited my son and his wife in Tennessee. As part of this visit, I was able to visit Caperton Cemetery in Jackson County, Alabama. This is the burial site of our ancestors Samuel and Susan (Caperton) Cowan and Thomas Boyd Foster.

Thomas married Eleanor Cowan, the daughter of Samuel and Susan. Eleanor became our g..grandmother. It seems likely that she was also buried in this spot, but there is no stone, so it is possible that she was buried in some other family plot, as she did die a few years before her parents. After Eleanor died while giving birth to her 11th child, Thomas married Sarah "Sallie" Mason. She is also buried in this cemetery. From other sources, we believe that the Mason family had a close relationship with the Fosters. Sarah also died relatively young, after bearing three children.

As time has progressed, the stones of Samuel and Susan have been broken and are in the process of disintegration. The "SAMU" are the only letters or numbers that are ledgible on Samuel's stone. Susan's inscription is mostly clear, but will not be for long. The stone of Thomas Boyd Foster is very clear and is in the attatched picture.

This stone is of particular interest as it contains a motto of the Freemasons "In Hoc Signo Vinces". Translated "In This Sign Victory". Along with the words is a carving of a cross with a crown hanging over it. This symbol honors his leadership in the Freemasons, for which there are several historical records as verification. Thomas was born in 1810 and died in 1895. He was born in Virginia. His family moved to Tennessee when he was still a boy. After he was grown, he settle in Jackson County Alabama.

Other than spending time with my son and his lovely wife, the most exciting part of the trip was obtaining a copy of the short autobiography of Thomas Boyd Foster. I will share several sections of it over the next few posts.

Nicknames

I thought it might be nice to define the nicknames we use to refer to the past generation or two. This will cover the Bagley, Roe, Hoffman, and Stout lines.

Since we don't want to have to constantly refer to these folks by their full names, we will use the following nicknames:

Here are the folks we knew:
Grandpa Bagley = Horace Thurston Bagley, the father of Grandma Sally
Grandma Bagley = Pauline (Roe) Bagley, the mother of Grandma Sally
Grandpa Joe = Joseph Weldon Bailey Hoffman, the father of Grandpa Glenn
Nanny = Versie Mae (Stout) Hoffman, the mother of Grandpa Glenn

The next generation:
Granny Bagley = Myrtle Estacia Wood, the mother of Grandpa Bagley
Grandpa Stout = James Alexancder Stout, the father of Nanny
Grandma Stout = Nora Bell (Lemaster) Stout, the mother of Nanny

These were the folks who were known to my generation. There were 5 folks from this generation who were gone before 1960:
Lige Bagley = Elijah Benjamin Bagley, father of Grandpa Bagley
C. L. Roe = Charles L. Roe, the father of Grandma Bagley
Grandma Roe = Sally P. (Foster) Roe, the mother of Grandma Bagley
S. C. Hoffman = Sylvester Clinton Hoffman, the father of Grandpa Joe
Grandma Hoffman= Lillie (Beasley) Hoffman, the mother of Grandpa Joe

This all assumes you know Grandpa Glenn and Grandma Sally. If not, email me and I will fill you in. I hope this works!

Andrew Boyd Foster

Andrew was the grandfather of our Grandma Bagley:

Thomas Boyd Foster married Eleanor Cowan in 1837. Their first 5 children were sons: William, Samuel, Thomas, Andrew, and Hugh. All 5 of these boys fought in the Civil War. Our Andrew Boyd Foster is #4 on this list. The family's sacrifices for the Confederacy cannot be overstated. The two oldest sons died in the war. The third son was shot in the ankle, resulting in his foot being amputated, and living with a wooden extension for many years. Andrew and Hugh were both captured and in prisoner of war camps, and it certainly appears that these imprisonments were very tough on them.

As was a common custom, Andrew's middle name came from his Grandmother Sarah "Sally" Ann Boyd (could she have been the original 'Grandma Sally'?)

Here are the summarized Civil War records of Andrew Boyd Foster:

He enlisted at Caperton's Ferry, Alabama under Capt. George Cowan, probably his uncle, on June 12, 1862, just about a month before his 21st birthday. After this he is listed on the role cards until Feb 21, 1864 when he was able to take a short furlough. On his return to service he re-enlisted "for the war". In July of that year, he is "missing and presumed to have been captured", which in fact, he was. Later records show that he was captured near Marietta, Georgia on July 15, 1864. He then was held at Louisville, Kentucky and Camp Chase, Ohio before being transfered to City Point, Virginia in March of 1865 where he was held until the end of the war.

After the war he married Nancy Brewer in Jackson County Alabama, where they had three daughters before moving to Texas. The third of these was our Sally Pauline Foster, mentioned in the last post.[there is a published book which says that her name was Sally 'Brown' Foster, and unfortunately it has been widely quoted, but in the census records her middle initial is consistently listed as "P", so this matches our family memories]

The couple settled in Comanche County in west-cental Texas, near the town of Sipe Springs. Here they aquired land and livestock, and had 6 more children. The Comanche Newspaper had a section that told of "Sipe Springs Doings", and on June 10, 1882 it said:

"The sheep interest is getting to be quite an important one...Mr A.B.Foster and Bro own about a thousand..."

It is a mystery as to which brother this could be, although it seems most likely that is was Hugh, who did move to Sipe Springs in the early 1880s.

Andrew worked as Deputy Sheriff for two years and was then elected Sheriff in 1891 and 1893, for two years each time. Although we cannot know much about him at this distant time, we do know he had enough respect in the community to be elected Sheriff after serving as Deputy, and then re-elected for a second term - the office of Sheriff being one of the most important public positions in the late 19th century West. (just watch any 'Gunsmoke' episode if you don't believe me) For religion, he was raised in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and this denomination was very active in his home in Texas, to which he seems to have remained faithful.

Tombstone Tuesday: Andrew Boyd Foster

This is the start of a short series.  Our ancestors have very few gravestones of any significance, but there are a few, and this will be a good way to introduce some of these folks.  This is the first of a few posts on Tombstone Tuesday.

This picture is from the Sipe Springs Cemetery in Texas.  Andrew was the grandfather of our Grandma Bagley.  The family went like this:  Andrew Foster and his wife, Nance Brewer, had a daughter Sallie Pauline Foster.  She married Charles Roe, and they had Pauline Roe, our Grandma Bagley.  So you see that our Grandma Bagley, and Grandma Sally were both named after Andrew's daughter!

In family history we often find facts or stories of ancestors acting in ways that seem in conflict with our values.  This can be disturbing at times, but it can also open our minds.  Not necessarily to agree with them, but to understand why they may have acted in such a way.  You will see a Confederate flag next to his stone, commemorating his service for the South in the Civil War. Today we know how wrong slavery is, and it doesn't seem reasonable that good people could fight in support of such a cause, but both the North and the South felt that they were on the 'right' side at the time. There were certainly good men fighting on both sides. Andrew's family made amazing sacrifices in this fight. In the next post we will explore some of these as well as what else we know of Andrew Boyd Foster.