Alonzo Foster: A Civil War Hero from Good Ground

October 15th was an important date for Alonzo Foster (1841–1913) of Good Ground (Hampton Bays): it was the day he was born in 1841, the day he married Georgianna Squires in 1865, and the day he volunteered for the Union Army in 1861.

When Alonzo reported for duty, he was assigned to Company F of the 6th New York Cavalry, then forming on Staten Island. He fought with the 6th New York in some of the most significant battles in Virginia and Maryland. Alonzo's cap was shot off his head, and his best friend was killed in action at Trevilian Station in Virginia. Just a month later, Alonzo was badly wounded at Deep Bottom, nearly losing his left hand, on July 26, 1864. 

Alonzo Foster's Civil War cap (Southampton History Museum Collection).

The Southampton History Museum is proud to preserve Alonzo's remarkable Civil War cap in our collection. We recently shared a video of our staff carefully cleaning the cap. Soon after, we were thrilled to hear from his great-grandson, Drake Foster, who contacted the Museum and provided this amazing photograph of Alonzo Foster (on the right) in his uniform!

Alonzo Foster and colleagues (Photo courtesy Drake Foster).

The picture was probably taken in the summer of 1862 while Company F was based near Williamsburg, Virginia. Alonzo is seen with two other soldiers, one of whom is only partially visible. That soldier is probably Charles Jackson, also from Good Ground, who volunteered to join the Union Army with Alonzo. Charles fell ill at the end of the war, and he returned home to Good Ground severely weakened. He died shortly after on October 4, 1866.

A remarkable photograph taken in 1913 of Confederate and Federal veterans clasping hands in fraternal affection across the stone wall that marks the boundaries of the famous "Bloody Angle" at Gettysburg (Library of Congress).

On October 15, 1890, Alonzo and his wife Georgianna embarked on a journey south to revisit the battlefields where he had fought. While traveling in Virginia, they visited the tomb of unknown Union soldiers at Arlington Cemetery, where Alonzo gathered acorns to bring home as a memento. At nearby Manassas, they visited the memorial to unknown Confederate soldiers, where he gathered some seeds from a nearby shrub. Alonzo brought the acorn and seeds home and planted them together in his yard.

Although the emotional wound of his lost friends and the physical wound to his hand never healed, Alonzo earnestly answered Abraham Lincoln’s call to “…bind up the nation’s wounds...” He later wrote that the seeds “…shall grow side by side and equal care shall be bestowed on both.” Alonzo died on September 11, 1913, just shy of his 72nd birthday.

The Southampton History Museum is deepely grateful to Drake Foster for sharing his wonderful photograph of his great-grandfather, Alonzo Foster, one of Southampton's Civil War heroes.