Charles Warren Foster

Charles Warren Foster (March 31, 1830 – May 10, 1904) was an American soldier and military officer. He first served as an enlisted engineer and NCO in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and then as a commissioned officer in the American Civil War. In the latter he notably headed the Bureau of Colored Troops, managing the recruitment and organization of African-American units for the Union Army.

Biography Foster was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1830. In June 1846, shortly after the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, he enlisted in the United States Army as a private in the Corps of Engineers. With a company of engineers he deployed to Mexico as part of Winfield Scott's army, serving at Veracruz, Cerro Gordo and Puebla. Ending the war as a sergeant, originally having enlisted in the Regular Army for five years, he spent the rest of his term as part of the garrison of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Reenlisting for another term, he was put on surveying duty in Texas, returned to West Point, and then served at Key West, Florida. His second tour ended in August 1856.

After the Civil War had begun, he sought service in the Union Army, and in September 1861 he was commissioned captain in the United States Volunteers (USV). He was assigned to the staff of Brigadier General Horatio Wright as an assistant adjutant general. First he served as such at the Battle of Port Royal and in the campaigns in the Department of the South and then when Wright headed the Department of the Ohio. To centralize the various recruiting and organization efforts in the country, the Department of War established the Bureau of Colored Troops on May 22, 1863, with General Order No. 143. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Foster was chosen as Chief of the Bureau. Foster headed the bureau for the duration of the war and was promoted to major in August 1863, receiving brevets to lieutenant colonel and colonel in the USV in 1864. In 1865 he also received a Regular Army commission, being made captain in the Quartermaster Corps and receiving regular brevets to major, lieutenant colonel and colonel for his war service. He continued to lead the bureau during the early Reconstruction era, until it was disestablished in October 1867, at the same time mustering out of the USV. He was married to Anna Allen Currier Foster, and their son Pierce Currier Foster (born 1878) served in the army as well. A graduate of West Point, class of 1899, the 2nd lieutenant immediately went to serve in the Philippine–American War. However, he contracted typhoid fever and died in June of the same year. The whole family is interred in a small family mausoleum on West Point Cemetery.