Chapter Two
“You look so Nice such a long way off!”
(from “Happy Thoughts,” Punch, September 1, 1866)
U.S. M. A. West Point N.Y.[i]
Jan. 3rd, 1873
My dear dear Miss Nannie
You said you would be lonely when you returned to Washington and so I am going to write you a long, long letter to try and cheer you up it will at least give you something to occupy yourself with for a few minutes. I would do anything I could to keep my darling Miss Nannie from having a moment of sadness or loneliness. How it cheers my loneliness to be thus with her no one knows but myself. So that is a great blessing to be with you so soon again, for you notice I am commencing a day earlier than usual to write my letter and I have taken this paper because it has a good large envelope and I hope then to spend many happy moments with you between now and Sunday night. After searching diligently, I at last found today a prayer book or rather St. John’s something or other, any way it had a table from which I found that Easter Sunday comes on the 13th of April. That’s a very, very long time and the plain that is now so white will be soft and green! If you come up then and stay any length of time you will see riding whether it will be of the circus description I can’t say, but won’t you let it tempt you into delaying your departure?
Why do you dislike Miss Burris so? (if it’s not impertinent) The most attractive feature to me about her was that she would talk so kindly and adoringly of you. But only meeting her for one short evening what could I tell concerning her. Who are not your friends are not my friends. I only wish to know why you dislike her because you seem to me so good and gentle that I am curious to know why you dislike anybody who apparently is fond of you.
No you never told me that you came near being adopted by Dr. Alan Smith.[ii] I should like to hear about all that concerns you. I suppose you love all your uncles so much that it is hard to tell which one you do love the best for you told me once that your Uncle Foster was your favorite and now you say you love your Uncle Alan the most. Well it’s a very pretty blunder any way and one that ought to make both uncles happy. I should so like to see you in your bridesmaid dress when you stand up dutifully to see that your uncle is properly married by the little mischief maker Cupid. I have not the slightest doubt but that you will look lovely; my only sorrow being that I cannot see you.
Is Mrs. Gibbon reconciled to the idea yet? I hope so sincerely for your and Gen. Foster’s sake. By the way dear Miss Nannie in what way has Miss Fannie changed? I don’t think I understand you; for wishing to be a nun would not afflict her mother to tears would it?[iii] And do you mean when you write that she is “so sorry I can’t be one” that she refers to herself or do you refer to yourself? Because if she is sorry you can’t be one I can’t say that I participate in the sorrow, for if you were to take it into that wise little head of yours “not to be” and were to retire from God’s (wicked) world what on earth would become of me? That’s not of much importance to any one else but it is to me I assure you.
I am afraid I must begin to think of leaving you my darling Miss Nannie. You know it is not Saturday night. I was so lonely that I could not help coming to you for just a little while and then I thought of your own loneliness, dear, dear Miss Nannie how I wish I could be with you.
Good night and good bye until tomorrow.
Many pleasant and happy dreams and again – Good night my own darling Miss Nannie. Believe me
Ever yours lovingly
C,E,S, Wood.
A Fashionable Wedding
Nannie was no stranger to drama and uproar, and her theatrical talents proved valuable even within her family relationships. The “much-talked-of marriage of Miss Annie J. Davis and General J.G. Foster” was a Washington newspaper headline but an understatement to the commotion that swelled within the Moale family as the impending nuptials came to light. Widower John Foster[iv] had been living in Dr. Lincoln’s household for a few months when Nannie introduced her 49-year old uncle to one of her schoolmates, Annie Davis. Like sisters, the girls made their society debut together in early 1872, but Nannie disregarded the age difference (over 30 years) between her girlfriend and her beloved uncle as inconsequential. The young ladies knew it would be great fun to plan a military wedding and Nannie would soon have a girlfriend for an aunt. She would have yet another home to visit and best of all, the hostess would be a new relative as well as a socialite friend.
Nannie’s aunt, Mary L. Moale, Foster’s wife of twenty years, died on June 6, 1871. Wasting little time, his engagement to Miss Annie Davis was announced the following autumn and a wedding date set for January 9, 1872. Foster’s married daughter, Annie Moale who shared the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter with cousin Nannie in 1861, was married now and stationed in the West with her husband, Lieutenant Henry Seton and could not attend the wedding nor could she influence her father’s plans.
The Moale family was so disturbed by their former brother-in-law’s sudden choice for a second wife – and the acts of Cupidity performed by Nannie to promote it – that they threatened to sever ties. Nannie’s Aunt Gussie suggested a convent “would be very beneficial”[v] for her niece where she might learn to be “less selfish” and more self-controlled.
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[i] Wood File, Box 1, Folder 1-8, Lewis & Clark College.
[ii] Dr. Alan P. Smith, Nan’s paternal uncle, succeeded his father, Dr. Nathan Ryno Smith, in his private practice and was considered “one of the most prominent American surgeons” in 1877, according to The New England Journal of Medicine, August 16, 1877. http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM187708160970710
[iv] John Gray Foster (1823-1874) was born in Whitefield, NH, and attended schools in Nashua, NH. He graduated with U.S. Grant from West Point in 1846, fourth in his class of 59 cadets, and he served as an engineer throughout his military career, becoming a postbellum expert in underwater demolition. Foster was severely wounded while serving with Gen. Winfield Scott at Molino del Ray during the War with Mexico and received two brevet promotions for bravery. He returned to the Military Academy as an instructor and in 1858, while serving on engineering duty in Charleston Harbor, Foster assisted in the final construction elements of Fort Sumter. He was in command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie when the Civil War erupted. Transferring his small force to Fort Sumter, he became second-in-command to Major Robert Anderson during the ensuing Battle of Fort Sumter. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in October 1861, commanding the 1st Brigade in Major General Ambrose Burnside’s North Carolina Expedition. Following the fall of Fort Bartow in the Battle of Roanoke, the Confederate fort was renamed Fort Foster in honor of the General.
Foster assumed command of the Department of North Carolina from Burnside and rose to major general in 1862. In 1863, Foster assumed command of the Department of the Ohio in Tennessee but was there but a short time before he was badly injured in a fall from his horse. Recovering, Foster took command of the Department of the South, but his wounds soon forced him to relinquish command to Major General Quincy A. Gilmore. He then assumed command of the Department of Florida with the rank of major general in the volunteer service and brevet major general in the regular army.
Foster remained in the army in the postbellum period and was promoted to lieutenant colonel of engineers in 1867. His specialty and work in military and underwater surveying and as an expert in underwater demolition led to his publication of a definitive manual on the subject in 1869. From 1871 to 1874, Foster was assistant to the Chief of Engineers in Washington, D.C., serving his final post as superintendent of the Harbor of Refuge on Lake Erie.
Foster died at his home in Nashua, NH on September 2, 1874 with his young wife at his bedside. The future of Annie Davis Foster following his death is unknown. (Researched at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Foster, History of Nashua, N.H. www.nashua.lib.nh.us/ParkerHistory.htm, and Scrapbook accounts already cited.)
[v] Huntington Collection Nan to CES Wood August 13th – a letter in which Nan discusses the idea of attending a convent for the winter season to be closer to cousin Fannie Gibbon and perhaps to remove her rom family turmoil. Nannie remarked “I think it would make a better change in me for I could learn to depend on myself & be a little less selfish than I am now.”
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