Southern Confederacy [Atlanta, Ga], August 14, 1861, p. 1, c. 1
From the Petersburg Express.
Charles H. Foster–To the Public.
Murfreesboro’, N. C.,
Messrs. Editors: As a woman true to the South whose heart beats in unison with those of our patriotic sons now struggling for our altars and our firesides, and as one whose sympathies and prayers are enlisted in behalf of a free people, now threatened with subjugation at the hands of corrupt functionaries, and mercenary outlaws, I am prompted to write the following lines, however embarrassing and unpleasant it may be to thus bring my name before the public. I am desirous that my indignation and contempt should be known for the course of Charles H. Foster, formerly of Orono, Maine, late of this place, and now of Washington city.
All persons know, who have been acquainted with Mr. Foster, for the last six months, that he left this place in the month of February last, for his desk in the Post Office Department at Washington–a position obtained under Mr. Buchanan’s administration, and remained there until the 3rd of May last, when he returned to this place. His presence to this town caused great excitement immediately upon the fact of his arrival being known, as his conduct in a great measure, I am frank to confess, reasonably justified. He was accused of being untrue to the South–a Black Republican–and some went so far as to believe him a spy, sent out directly from under the roof of the White House. To all of these accusations he plead not guilty, and went so far as to say to me that he intended to return to Washington and prove himself a Southern man.
Mr. Foster finally did return, and to my great surprise, I have found that man upon whom I had centered my whole affections, and who had won the confidence of my heart, has proved himself recreant to his pledges, false to his vows, and indifferent as to the life or death of his own wife and child.
From the Sunday Morning Chronicle, published in Washington, I learn that on the occasion of a serenade given to Mr. Foster soon after his arrival, he said in addition to other odious things, that he intended to head a Brigade as soon as arrangements could be made, and come to North Carolina to relieve the oppressed friends of the Union living among us. The import of which language is that he would see my own people exterminated, our own homes outraged, desecrated and destroyed. Without reference to anything else that this man has said or done, which has proven him a traitor, to his adopted home, I conclude this card by saying, that as painful as a separation would be under other circumstances that I now declare every tie severed which has heretofore bound me to Charles H. Foster, and from this day I consider the relation formerly existing between us as husband and wife, virtually dissolved forever.
I shall no longer bear his name and will take advantage of the earliest opportunity offered by our laws of having it legally changed to what I now sign it.
Sue A. Carter.