John G . Foster John Gray Foster ( May 27 , 1823 – September 2 , 1874 ) was a career military officer in the United States Army and a Union general during the American Civil War whose most distinguished services were in North and South Carolina . A postbellum expert in underwater demolition , he wrote the definitive treatise on the subject in 1869 . He continued with the Army after the war , using his expertise as assistant to the Chief Engineer in Washington , DC and at a post on Lake Erie . From 1862 to December 1863 Foster commanded the Department of North Carolina . After the Emancipation Proclamation , he appointed Horace James , a Congregational minister , to help freedmen prepare for independent life , and directed a former contraband camp to be developed as the Freedmen ' s Colony of Roanoke Island . By 1864 , 2200 freedmen were settled on household plots . Many worked for pay for the Army , which held the forts . Under President Andrew Johnson , after the war , the Army abandoned the colony . Most of the freedmen chose to return to the mainland for work . Early life . Foster was born in Whitefield , New Hampshire . When he was ten , his family moved to Nashua , where he attended the local schools before enrolling in the Hancock Academy . He graduated from West Point in 1846 , fourth in his class of 59 cadets . He first served as an engineer during the Mexican - American War , under Winfield Scott . Severely wounded at the Battle of Molino del Rey , he won two brevet promotions for bravery . After the war , Foster returned to West Point as an instructor . In 1858 he was on engineering duty in Charleston Harbor , where he helped in the construction of Fort Sumter . Civil War . Promoted to captain of U . S . engineers , Foster was in command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie when the Civil War began . He immediately transferred his small force to Fort Sumter and became second - in - command to Maj . Robert Anderson during the Battle of Fort Sumter . Foster was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on October 23 , 1861 , and commanded the 1st Brigade in Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside ' s North Carolina Expedition . He was conspicuous in action at the battles of Roanoke Island and New Bern . After the Battle of Roanoke Island , the Union renamed the Confederate Fort Bartow as Fort Foster in his honor . The US Army dismantled the three forts on the island in late 1865 after the end of the war . After General Burnside was transferred to Virginia , Foster assumed command of the Department of North Carolina . He was promoted to major general of volunteers on July 18 , 1862 , and led the . During Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet ' s Tidewater Campaign , upon hearing of a planned Confederate attack on Washington , North Carolina , Foster personally assumed command of its defenses . When D . H . Hill demanded the surrender of Washington , Foster defiantly replied , " If you want Washington , come and get it . " Hill ' s forces besieged the garrison and two Union relief expeditions were turned back . Foster escaped the besieged city in order to personally lead a relief column back . Hill withdrew his forces shortly afterward . Both Confederate and Union forces burned down much of the town . In December , Foster won a strategically important fight at the Battle of Goldsboro Bridge , resulting in the destruction of an important railroad bridge on a vital Confederate supply line . After President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in rebel territory , in April 1863 Foster appointed Horace James , an experienced Congregational chaplain , as ” Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the North Carolina District . ” To support the transition to freedom for former slaves , he was to develop a colony from the contraband camp that had developed on Roanoke Island . It became known as the Roanoke Island Freedmen ' s Colony ( 1863 - 1867 ) . James also managed other camps for freedmen in the state , such as one at Trent River near his base at New Bern . Foster directed James to settle the people , give them farming tools and prepare them for a " free and independent community . " By 1864 , 2200 freedmen lived on Roanoke Island , settled on individual household plots , and working for pay for the Army . James recruited teachers and founded several schools . A sawmill was built and a fisheries started . More than 150 freedmen from the island joined the nearly 4 , 000 from North Carolina who joined the United States Colored Troops . After the war , the Army dismantled the forts . Due to President Andrew Johnson ' s returning lands to Confederate landowners , the colony was abandoned . Most of the freedmen chose to be transported to the mainland , where they looked for work . By 1870 , only 300 remained on the island . In December 1863 , Foster was sent to Tennessee to assume command of the Department of the Ohio and its corresponding Army of the Ohio . He was in command for only a short time before he was badly injured in a fall from his horse . Upon his recovery , he took command of the Department of the South and aided in forcing the surrender of Savannah , Georgia . He was making preparations for the surrender of Charleston , but his wounds forced him to relinquish command to Maj . Gen . Quincy A . Gilmore . Foster was assigned to command of the Department of Florida at the end of the war , receiving a promotion to the rank of major general in the volunteer service and brevet major general in the regular army . Postbellum . After the war , Foster remained in the army , being promoted to lieutenant colonel of engineers in 1867 . Promoted to colonel of engineers in 1871 , he was involved in military and underwater surveying . He became an expert in underwater demolition , publishing a definitive manual on the subject in 1869 that became the acknowledged reference work . From 1871 until 1874 , he was assistant to the Chief of Engineers in Washington , D . C . His final post was as superintendent of the Harbor of Refuge on Lake Erie . Foster died in Nashua , New Hampshire , and was buried in Nashua Cemetery . The first official reunion of the New Hampshire Veterans Association , which took place in Manchester , New Hampshire in October 1875 , was named Camp J . G . Foster .