Papers all over this country on this date in 1903 published a pre-death announcement for Brevet-Major General Robert Sanford Foster. Foster, born in Vernon, Indiana, on 27 January 1834, enlisted in the Civil War as soon as the war began in 1861 as Captain of a company in the Eleventh Indiana Volunteers in the three months’ service. He then transferred to the 13th Indiana with the rank of major, was advanced to Lieutenant Colonel of that regiment and later to Colonel. He was made Brigadier General of Volunteers in 13 June 1863, and was continuously in command of a division in the Tenth or the Twenty-fourth Army Corps.
For several months he served as Chief of Staff to Major General Quincy A. Gillmore and on 13 March 1865 he was brevetted Major General of Volunteers for conspicuous services during the war. Most of his service was with the Army of the Potomac or with the Army of the James in their operations against Richmond, but he also served several months in South Carolina.
According to The Life and Military Services of Brevet-Major General Robert S. Foster by Charles W. Smith:
He had a tactical instinct and quick perception of the dangers to his command which might develop on the field of battle. In one of his earliest engagements, March 22, 1862, at the battle of Winchester, also known as Kernstown, while under a hot fire, he had three times to change the front of his extended line to avoid an enfilading fire from the Confederate artillery.
It was this superior instinct that led Foster to the final days of the Civil War in Petersburg and Appomattox. At the last of Petersburg, when both that city and Richmond were evacuated, the Army of the Potomac (except the Fifth Corps) under General Meade was to pursue Lee’s retreating forces and to force General Lee to halt and face about to give battle. This strategy was meant to detain the Confederate forces.
General Sheridan with the Fifth Corps cavalry and the provisional corps from the Army of the James, were to march on a line to the south and left in purpose to outmarch Lee’s line and to cut off all supplies that were intended for the Confederates. General Foster’s division was part of this command, which, passing to the south of the main line of Lee’s retreating army, was endeavoring to pass it and get across their front; and this meant hard marching by his troops to keep within supporting distance of the cavalry.
In the end, “General Foster’s division, together with Turner’s on his left and Birney’s on his right, were the last troops formed for action and engaged in battle before General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on Sunday 9 April 1865.”
Foster was promoted to major general of volunteers for his field services and resigned 25 September 1865. Following the war, Foster served in the trial of the Lincoln conspirators and declined a lieutenant colonelcy in the Regular Army in 1866. Foster settled in Indianapolis and served as city treasurer for five years. From 1881 to 1885, he was U. S. Marshal for Indiana and was president of the city board of trade for many years. Then, the following was reported by newspapers across the nation on 23 February 1903:
Major-General Robert S. Foster is dying at his home here. Physicians say he can live but a few hours.
He commanded the first division of the Twenty-fourth corps in the Civil War and aided in heading off General Lee’s retreat at Appomattox, causing his surrender. He was one of the founders of the G.A.R. and was first junior vice-commander. He was United States marshal for Indiana under Garfield and is now quartermaster general of Indiana.
The newspapers were a bit premature, as Foster did not die until 3 March 1903. He is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
“General Robert Foster Dying in Indianapolis,” The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana), 23 February 1903, pg. 1.
