I returned with my command to Henderson and redistributed them at various exposed places in my district. But this proved the end of my military operations in Kentucky. General Burnside had been ordered from the East to assume command of the Department of the Ohio, and was preparing the concentration of his forces for a movement for the relief of the loyal people of East Tennessee, and I felt sure my regiment would be included. Hence I was not surprised to receive orders on the 7th of August, 1863, to move the Sixty-fifth Indiana Mounted Infantry to Glasgow, from which place Burnside's movement was to begin.
I was quite satisfied at this change. As early as February I had made a visit to Louisville to ask General Boyle if he could not give me a more active service. The guerrilla warfare which I was carrying on was of a very unsatisfactory and unprofitable kind. My troubles with the disloyal citizens and the civil duties as to officials and the elections were not to my taste. As a soldier I longed to be relieved from these unwelcome duties, and to bear my share in the real military campaigns of the war. During my year's service in the district I had received the warmest exhibitions of friendship from the Union citizens of Henderson and that region. Being stationed so near to my home, my wife often visited me, and these kind-hearted citizens always insisted on making her their guest. I received various testimonials of their esteem, among others a beautiful jeweled sword, sash, and belt. When it became known that my regiment was to be ordered away, an earnest petition was sent to General Boyle asking our retention, signed by all the Union citizens, headed by ex-Governor and ex-Senator Dixon.
Hon. Thomas E. Bramlette, Governor of the State of Kentucky, wrote President Lincoln, asking that I might "be retained in western Kentucky in charge of the defenses of that section. I have recently passed all through western Kentucky and find from personal observation the immense good which the vigilant and successful military guardianship of Colonel Foster has done for that section." General Boyle, in a letter to the Secretary of War, said: "I beg to say that Colonel J. W. Foster is one of the most vigilant, active, and useful officers in the volunteer army. He is a man of the first order of ability, with capacity to fill almost any place in the service, and no man known to me has done better service than Colonel Foster."
In an editorial notice of some length the "Evansville Journal," in noticing the departure of the Sixty-fifth Regiment, said:—
While we are glad the gallant boys of this excellent regiment are about to be afforded an opportunity to engage in more active service, and to see some of the excitement of war on its grander scale, yet we cannot help regretting their departure from our vicinity. For a year past the people along the border have felt that the Sixty-fifth was a wall of safety, a mountain of rocks between them and the guerrillas. Colonel Foster during his administration of affairs in the Green River region, has won not only the admiration of the friends, but also the respect of the enemies, of the Government.
VII
THE EAST TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN
No portion of the people of our country had shown more devotion to the Union or suffered greater hardships on account of their loyalty during the Civil War than the citizens of East Tennessee. Almost the entire population of military age had fled over the mountains into Kentucky and enlisted in the Federal army. And those who remained—the old men, the women and the children—endured many privations and much persecution. It had long been the desire of the Federal Government to occupy East Tennessee with troops and free the loyal people from their oppression, and President Lincoln in 1863 determined that this relief should no longer be delayed.
The army under General Burnside numbered approximately twenty thousand men, a force which it was thought was sufficient for the purpose in view of the fact that General Rosecrans with a much larger army was moving from middle Tennessee toward Chattanooga and northern Georgia. In a letter to my wife from Glasgow, dated the 18th of August, I say:—