REPORT OF MAJOR GENERAL J. G. FOSTER, TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF FLORIDA, November 2, 1865. HONORED SIR: Upon the receipt of your letter of the 22d May, 1865, requesting to be furnished with a reliable account of the military operations under my command since the beginning of the rebellion, and to reply in full to the written interrogatories of the committee, which were enclosed, I had the honor to reply at once that it would require considerable time for me to get together the requisite copies of orders, instructions, and reports from the records of the several department headquarters, where at different times I had commanded, and where, as was my invariable custom in active campaigns, I had left all the official documents of my operations while in command. I have now to report that I wrote to the headquarters of the department of North Carolina, Virginia, and of the Ohio, but have failed to obtain the requisite copies. Brigadier General I. N. Palmer replied from Newbern, North Carolina, that the records of the department of North Carolina had been removed by Major General B. F. Butler to Fort Monroe, Virginia, when he was in command; and upon application to the headquarters at Fort Monroe I was informed that the records could not be found. Application to the headquarters of the department of the Ohio also failed to obtain the papers that I required. The reports in the possession of the Adjutant General United States army were about being placed in the hands of the printer for publication. I am therefore unable to furnish copies of many of my reports, and of the written instructions received. Under ordinary circumstances I should have retained with my personal baggage copies of all official papers, but in the active operations in which I was constantly engaged this could not be done, and I was forced to leave them where I supposed they would be preserved. I will, however, furnish as complete a statement as possible, from my note-books and from memory, as follows: To the first interrogatory "Please state what positions you have held and what commands you have exercised since the commencement of the rebellion, giving the periods during which those respective commands have been exercised by you" I have to reply that at the outbreak of the rebellion I was on duty in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, as captain of engineers in charge of the construction and repairs of the forts in that harbor, together with the forts in North Carolina, (Fort Caswell, at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, and Fort Macon, in Beaufort harbor.) From August, 1860, to December of that year, I was actively employed with a large force in strengthening the defences of Fort Moultrie. In November and December of that year I also set at work a large force upon the completion of Fort Sumter, and a smaller force upon the repairs of Castle Pinckney. On the night of the 26th December, 1860, at the request of Major Robert Anderson, I managed, by means of the engineer enployés and boats, to transport, secretly, the entire command from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. From December 27, 1860, to April 14, 1861, I was on duty as senior engineer officer in Fort Sumter. Left Fort Sumter with the command of Major Anderson, which evacuated the fort April 14, 1861. Arrived in New York with Major Anderson's command on the 18th April, 1861. Received orders to report to the Chief Engineer in Washington, April 22, 1861. Remained on duty in the engineer office several days, when was ordered to return to New York and relieve Captain H. W. Benham of the charge of the construction of the fort at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Remained in charge of this work from May 10 to November 22, 1861. For several weeks before being relieved from this duty, performed the additional duty of engineer agent for the purchase of engineer supplies in New York city. Appointed brigadier general of volunteers, to date as such from November 16, 1861, with orders to report to Brigadier General A. E. Burnside, United States volunteers. Upon reporting received orders to proceed to Annapolis and assume command of the troops collecting there to form the Burnside expedition, and to organize and drill them. Remained in command at Annapolis from November 25, 1861, until General Burnside's arrival, December 20, 1861. Took command of the first brigade of the coast division of General Burnside, December 20, 1861; sailed with the Burnside expedition from Annaj olis January 9, 1862; the first brigade in advance, Reno's brigade second, Parke's brigade third. Expedition attacked Roanoke island February 7, 1862. The gunboats failing to silence the fire of the Pork Point battery, General Burnside ordered me to land with my brigade, in the evening of the same day. Generals Reno and Parke's brigades also landed. Attacked the enemy's position on the centre of the island, at daylight on 8th February, 1862, being in immediate command on the field. Defeated the enemy and captured the whole island. Remained in continued command of the first brigade until after the battle and capture of Newbern, and the surrender of Fort Macon, April 26, 1862, the crowning achievement of the Burnside. expedition. General Burnside's command was now created the 9th army corps of which I commanded the first division, as acting major general. Appointed" major general of volunteers," to date from April 26, 1862, the day of the surrender of Fort Macon. First appointment of major general of volunteers withdrawn by the Secretary of War, on account, as stated, of "inadvertence in fixing the date," and a new one substituted, dated July 18, 1862. General Burnside having moved to join General McClellan, on the Peninsula, with Generals Reno and Parke's divisions, about the 1st of July, 1862, I was left in command of the department of North Carolina, from July 1, 1862, to July 15, 1863. The force under my command was constituted the 18th army corps. On the 15th July, 1863, received orders to take command of the department of Virginia, and the 7th army corps, which was united to the department of North Carolina, under the title of the "department of Virginia and North Carolina." Remained in command of the "department of Virginia and North Carolina," from 15th July, 1863, to November 13, 1863, when I was relieved by Major General B. F. Butler, United States volunteers, and, in obedience to orders from the War Department, reported in person at the headquarters of the army in Washington. On the 13th November, 1863, received orders to proceed to East Tennessee and relieve Major General Burnside of the command of the "army and department of the Ohio." Arrived in Knoxville, East Tennessee, and relieved Major General A. E. Burnside of the command of the "army and department of the Ohio" on December 12, 1863. Remained in command of this department until the 9th February, 1864, when, having been seriously injured in my wounded leg by the fall of my horse, I was, upon application, relieved of my command by Major General Schofield, United States volunteers. Remained in Baltimore, Maryland, on sick-leave until May 5, 1864 About the 5th May, 1864, received orders (Par. 17, Sp. Or. No. 168, War Dept., 1864) to proceed to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and assume command of the " department of the south." Reached Hilton Head, and assumed command on the 26th May, 1864. Remained in command of the "department of the south" from the 26th May, 1864, to the 11th February, 1865, when I was relieved by Major General Q. A. Gillmore, United States volunteers, to enable me to take leave of absence to have a surgical operation performed on my wounded leg. Remained on sick-leave from 11th February, 1865, to July 13, 1865, when General Orders No. 118, of the War Department, (current series,) assigning me to the command of the "department of Florida" was received. sumed command of the "department of Florida" August 7th, 1865, and have remained in command since that date. To the 24 interrogatory, viz: As "Please state such particulars as you may deem necessary to a proper understanding of the several campaigns in which you have been engaged; setting forth the orders and instructions under which those campaigns were conducted, and the principal orders and instructions given by you, with such incidents and circumstances as you consider will be of interest to the public; appending to your statement copies of your reports and those of your principal subordinates, keeping the account of each campaign by itself as far as convenient"— I have to report as follows, commencing with the operations in Charleston harbor, at the opening of the war, which, although of small magnitude, possessed, at the time of their conclusion, interest from having ended in the first collision of arms: COMMENCEMENT OF THE REBELLION, IN CHARLESTON HARBOR, SOUTH CAROLINA. The threatening aspect of political affairs caused the officers on duty in Charleston harbor to call their attention, at an early day, to the nature and strength of its military defences. As the engineer officer in charge of the forts in Charleston harbor, I received the authority of the Engineer department to strengthen the defences of Fort Moultrie, where the garrison of the harbor, two companies of the first artillery, under command of Colonel Gardner, were stationed, and, notwithstanding the heat of the summer, commenced work with a large force in the month of August, 1860. The work was pushed vigorously under my personal supervision, so that by the end of December this fort was so much strengthened as to be unassailable except by an overpowering force well supplied with scaling ladders. The body of sand that had been drifted by the winds against the scarp wall of the fort was moved to the front and formed into a glacis. A ditch was formed around the fort, in the middle of which a small net ditch was excavated to the quicksand; new bastionettes to sweep with their fire the ditches were built and armed. A strong picket fence was built entirely around the fort, under close pistol-fire. The parapet towards the sand-hills on the west were raised and embrasures formed, and provided with rifle-proof shields, and the guard-house was loopholed and prepared to serve as a citadel. In the mean time a large engineer force had been set at work on Fort Sumter, under the direction of my assistant, Lieutenant George W. Snyder, United States engineers, to push forward the work, so as to place that fort in a defensible state. A third force was set to work repairing Castle Pinckney, under the direction of my second assistant, Lieutenant R. K. Meade, United States engi neers. I also wrote frequently, almost constantly, to the Engineer department at Washington, of the rapidly increasing hostile feeling in Charleston towards the government, and earnestly requested.that the War Department might be begged to send re-enforcements to the forts in Charleston harbor. This was done; but the Secretary of War declined to send re-enforcements. My engineer employés were tampered with, and plots formed by parties in the city to seize Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney. My assistants in charge of those forts asked for muskets, with which to arm a few of their trustiest men against the attempts of any mob to obtain possession of the forts. I obtained permission from the Ordnance department at Washington to get forty (40) muskets, for this purpose, from the Charleston arsenal; and having brought them from the city, armed twenty (20) men in Fort Sumter, and twenty (20) in Castle Pinckney. At two o'clock on the morning following the day on which this was done, about the 11th December, 1860, I was aroused from my sleep by an officer of the revenue cutter, who had been sent from the city to my quarters upon Sullivan's island, with the following despatch, which I give from memory: Captain John G. FOSTER, United States Engineer, Charleston, S. C.: It is reported that you have removed some arms from the Charleston arsenal to the forts under your charge. If you have received any arms, return them immediately. J. B. FLOYD, Although this would place my officers and Forts Sumter and Pinckney entirely at the mercy of any mob, I considered myself bound as an officer to obey the order, which I did, by the prompt return of the muskets by ten o'clock that morning. Major Robert Anderson had before this time arrived and taken command of the troops in Fort Moultrie. Late in November, or early in December, Major Buell, assistant adjutant general United States army arrived with confidential instructions from the Secretary of War for Major Anderson. These were understood to be, to maintain his position at Fort Moultrie as long as possible. But in the event of a pressing military necessity, he was authorized to remove the garrison to Fort Sumter. After the passage of the ordinance of secession by the Charleston convention, on the 20th of December, 1860, the spirit of the secessionists became so ardent as to threaten some aggressive movement, and the governor of South Carolina was reported to have sworn that by the 26th of December none other than the palmetto flag should float over Fort Moultrie. On the morning of the 26th December Major Anderson informed me that he intended to transfer his command to Fort Sumter on that night, and desired me to effect the removal by means of engineer employés and the boats and lighters at my disposal. The necessary arrangements were accordingly made, and in the evening the whole command, with the principal stores, were removed to Fort Sumter. This was effected with the greatest success and secrecy, although the rebel steam guaid-boats were at the time patrolling up and down the harbor, and one of them actually passed close to a boat-load of troops, which escaped observation by the men bending low and covering their arms. I remained at Fort Moultrie, in obedience to Major Anderson's orders, to fire on any vessel that attempted to interfere with the crossing of the boats loaded with troops. Five (5) guns were loaded for this purpose. I had with me Dr. S. E. Crawford, my slerk, Mr. Edward Moall, two sergeants, and three men, seven in all; with this orce we held the fort during the night, and towards morning spiked the guns. daylight, in accordance with the orders of Major Anderson, the flagstaff was |