Joseph B. Foraker

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Joseph B. Foraker : biography

July 5, 1846 – May 10, 1917

Later in September 1862, the 89th was sent to Western Virginia (today West Virginia) to reinforce Union forces there, and joined in their advance for a month. The regiment settled into winter quarters, but was called out for transport to Tennessee, where it helped relieve Fort Donelson in February 1863. Before this action, Foraker had seen little fighting, and the bloody scenes there were a shock to him; he wrote his parents, "To know how dreadful war is you must see it yourself." The 89th remained at Donelson only a few days before being sent to join the Army of the Cumberland under the command of Major General William Rosecrans near Carthage; there, Foraker was promoted to second lieutenant. In June, Foraker led an advance guard that clashed with the Confederate rear in what developed into the Battle of Hoover’s Gap, and the Union forces slowly advanced across Tennessee, reaching Chattanooga in September. From Chattanooga, Foraker and two other officers were sent home to collect new soldiers who were expected to be drafted, but the plan to draft recruits was abandoned due to political opposition. In November he returned to Chattanooga, where the 89th was now part of the Army of the Tennessee under Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman, in time to fight in the Battle of Missionary Ridge.

In May 1864, Sherman began his Atlanta Campaign. Foraker fought in a number of fierce battles in that campaign, including Resaca, New Hope Church, and Kennesaw Mountain. Atlanta, or at least what was left of it after devastating fires, fell on September 2. Foraker was detailed to the Signal Corps school that had been set up by the army at Atlanta, and spent a month there. He was then assigned to Major General Henry W. Slocum’s division, and remained with that division as it participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea, leaving a swath of destruction behind. In late December 1864, the army reached Savannah, and Foraker, despite a storm, was able to communicate with US Navy ships offshore to alert them to the presence of Sherman’s army. After a month, the army marched north into South Carolina, determined to bring even more devastation to the state that had first seceded. Foraker was in charge of maintaining signals between the wings of the army, and was stationed on a gunboat as it moved up the Savannah River. He saw more active duty as a courier between Sherman’s main army and Slocum’s forces in March 1865 as they met Confederate forces in North Carolina in the Battle of Bentonville. On the day of the battle, March 19, 1865, Foraker was promoted to brevet captain, and was soon thereafter made aide-de-camp to General Slocum. In April, as Sherman’s army moved slowly northward, word came of the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his forces at Appomattox, Virginia, effectively ending the war. In early May, Sherman’s Army of Georgia journeyed north towards Washington, passing in review on May 23 before the new president, Andrew Johnson, sworn in after Lincoln’s assassination the previous month. Foraker soon thereafter returned to Ohio, and was mustered out.

Education and early career

Foraker had been anxious to become a lawyer while a clerk for his uncle; with peace restored he enrolled for a year at Salem Academy and then in 1866 Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He found the students who had not served in the army to be immature. He took the usual course, mostly of classics, with a few classes in the sciences, and registered as a clerk for a local attorney. Foraker courted Julia Bundy, daughter of Congressman Hezekiah S. Bundy and a student at nearby Ohio Wesleyan Female College; the two would marry in 1870. In 1868, he learned that newly founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, was offering entrance by examination to students willing to transfer. Along with fellow Ohio Wesleyan students Morris Lyon Buchwalter and John Andrew Rea, Foraker enrolled at Cornell; the three founded the first New York State chapter of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, and in 1869 graduated as part of Cornell’s inaugural class of eight students. Foraker, in later years, served as a trustee of Cornell, elected by his fellow alumni.