Delta Kappa Epsilon - University of Alabama

8 Delta Kappa Epsilon from the historian William Lovelace Foster, Psi 1850 And The Siege of Vicksburg, 1863 (Continued from page 7) a continuous flash of firearms & every hill seems to be a burning, smoking volcano. The enemies solid columns reel & totter before this galling fire- like grass before the moving scythe they fall. For a while they pause & tremble before this deadly storm of death, & then in confusion & dismay they fall back, behind the hills. They rally again & make another attempt. As before our men reserve their fire. But when they reach the fatal line the same murderous fire is poured into their bosoms- The same deadly tempest hurls them back- defeated, scattered & in utter disorder…After the enemy retired & the smoke had been dissipated, an awful scene was spread before the eyes of our brave men. The hillside was strewn with the dead & dying. Some had fallen just in front of our works. Two stands of colors were lying in thirty steps of our ditches. There the colors lay while the brave standard bearer lies close by, cold in death. Bravely did the enemy charge & bravely they were repulsed. While this charge was being made no doubt many hearts were lifted to Almighty God that he would defend us & inspire our brave troops with unyielding courage. For three hours the musketry was incessant. Towards sunset it decreased until finally nothing could be heard but the regular sharpshooting. The sun set quietly in the Westtwilight spread its soft pensive light over the hills, & now the dark mantle of night covers the earth…. Thanks be to the Great Ruler of the Universe, Vicksburg is still safe…. The same quiet stars now look down from the serene skies. Alas! Many eyes that looked up to them are now darkened by death & shall never open again until the heavens be no more." Later, he describes philosophically the intense artillery barrage which followed the Yankees failed attempts to overcome the Rebel defenses by direct frontal assault: "A shell now explodes upon our right, & now close by on our left, now one just behind us- & then another in front. Now they burst above us. How awful the rushing, howling sound of those rifle shells, as they pass with the speed of lightning close to your head & then burst with thundering crash in your very ears. They come like howling demons of destruction, rejoicing in death & carnage. What is poor frail man when opposed to such missiles of war? Can his strength or courage avail him anything? Can he fight against the lightnings of heaven? Can he resist the swift thunderbolt when hurled from the hand of the Almighty? Where may he withstand the mighty missiles of war? What heart is that that quails not in the face of such danger? What face but turns pale in the presence of these bursting furies? Surely the demons of hell could not have invented a more terrible & frightful engine of destruction than these exploding bombs. If all the furies of the lower regions were turned loose upon earth to terrify & destroy the children of men, they could not with all their screams & howlings & fearful noises equal these terrible machines of death." It seems like this guy would have been quite a character to have around the DKE house, although I suspect he was a teetotaler. Can you imagine his written description of the Tide's victory over Notre Dame in the BCS? He was possessed of an eloquence probably unmatched by few Psi DKE's other than perhaps John Nielsen '83 (see Brother Nielsen's articles in this and other recent Sighs of Psi). Despite some of the bravado in his words and the exhilaration he conveys as being experienced by him in the heat of battle, Foster's letter doesn't gloss over the ugly, awful side of war, and he will not make you want to see combat or wish you could have been at the siege of Vicksburg. Here is war in all its horror. As a chaplain, Foster spent a lot of time ministering to the sick and wounded in field hospitals, with shells falling constantly and the possibility of death occurring at any moment. Here he describes a visit to one such hospital: "There is one with his whole underjaw torn off & his shoulder mutilated with a shell. He soon expires. Here is one with his arms and leg both amputated. What would life be to him if he could survive. There is one who has had a pair of screw drivers driven into his jaw and temples. He floods his bed with his blood…. One is pierced through the bowels & suffers a thousand agonies before death comes to his relief. Why should I proceed any further? Every part of the body is pierced. All conceivable wounds are inflicted…. The weather is excessively hot & the flies swarm around the wounded…. In a few days the wounds begin to be offensive and horrid! The vile insect finds its way into the wounded part & adds to the pain and terror of the poor sufferers…. Never before did I have such an idea of the cruelty & the barbarism of war. The heart sickens at the sight…." Such graphic descriptions, which are numerous, lead one to believe that, despite Foster's statement to his wife that his letter was "intended only for your eye," he was actually writing for posterity and recording his observations for the future. The surrender of Vicksburg on July 4th, 1863, the same day that General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia met disaster on the fields of Gettysburg, was a demoralizing blow to the people and the military forces of the Confederate States. After the surrender, Foster was paroled along with thousands of his fellow soldiers. He returned to active duty in the Confederate army in the summer of 1864, took part in the Atlanta campaign, and served faithfully and honorably until the end of the war in 1865. Returning home, he resumed the Baptist ministry, serving various Baptist congregations in Mississippi. In the fall of 1866, he became Professor of Mathematics at what is now Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He resigned that position after six months, however, to resume his calling to the ministry. In September of 1868, he became pastor of the Baptist Church of Ladonia, Texas, where he died less than a year later on August 5, 1869, at the age of thirty-nine. Unfortunately, space limitations do not allow me to do justice to Brother Foster's letter, which describes life in Vicksburg during this terrible ordeal from just about every possible angle: from the incessant rain and heat of the front lines, from the agony of the hospitals, from the city itself, from private homes, from the caves which gave some refuge from the non-stop bombardment. He writes of the thrill of combat, but also of extreme hunger, sadness, and a mind-numbing degree of pain and suffering, doing so at all times with an impressive degree of Christian fortitude and stoicism in the face of it all. Thus, I commend the modest little booklet containing his letter to anyone who may have an interest learning about the war experiences of one of our DKE brethren in his own words, or to anyone interested in the siege of Vicksburg, one of the momentous events of the "Late Unpleasantness," but who may not care to read a book-length treatment of the subject. The booklet contains a brief nine-page summary of the Vicksburg Campaign, which allows Foster's letter to be read in the context of the bigger picture. The text of the letter itself takes up 55 printed pages, so it can be read very quickly.

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