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{{Short description|United States Army Medal of Honor recipient and Union Army general (1837–1921)}}{{for|the Canadian politician|Horace A. Porter}}

factoids

| birth_place = Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, US1921294|15}}| death_place = Manhattan, New York, US| resting_place = West Long Branch, New Jersey, US| education = Lawrenceville SchoolHarvard UniversityUnited States Military Academy>West PointDavid R. Porter>David Rittenhouse PorterJosephine McDermottSophie King McHarg1903|reason=her death}}| children = 4Andrew Porter (Civil War general)>Andrew Porter (cousin)Andrew Porter (Revolutionary War officer) (grandfather)George Bryan Porter (uncle)James Madison Porter>James M. Porter (uncle)| occupation = Soldier, author, President of the Union League Club of New YorkUnion (American Civil War)>Union| branch = United States ArmyUnion Army| serviceyears = 1860–187335px) Colonel (United States)(File:Union Army brigadier general rank insignia.svg>35px) Brevet (military) Brigadier general (United States)>Brigadier General| unit =| commands =| battles = American Civil War:{{*}}Battle of Chickamauga{{*}}Battle of Fort Pulaski{{*}}Battle of the Wilderness{{*}}Second Battle of Ream's StationMedal of HonorLégion d'honneur>Legion of Honor}}Horace C. PorterWEB,weblink Lieutenant Colonel Horace C. Porter: Eyewitness to the Surrender at Appomattox, June 12, 2006, historynet.com, Mark H., Dunkelman, March 4, 2024, (April 15, 1837{{spaced ndash}}May 29, 1921) was an American soldier and diplomat who served as a lieutenant colonel, ordnance officer and staff officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, personal secretary to General and President Ulysses S. Grant. He also was secretary to General William T. Sherman, vice president of the Pullman Palace Car Company and U.S. Ambassador to France from 1897 to 1905.

Early life

(File:Horace Porter West Point.jpg|left|thumb|Porter as a cadet at West Point)Porter was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1837,Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}. pp. 435–436 the son of David Rittenhouse Porter (1788–1867), an ironmaster who later served as Governor of Pennsylvania, and Josephine McDermott.His paternal grandfather was Andrew Porter, the Revolutionary War officer and his paternal uncles included George Bryan Porter, the Territorial Governor of Michigan, and James Madison Porter, the Secretary of War. Among his first cousins was Andrew Porter, a Mexican–American War veteran and Union Army brigadier general. His aunt, Elizabeth Porter, was the grandmother of Mary Todd Lincoln.BOOK, Evans, W. A., Mrs. Abraham Lincoln: A Study of Her Personality and Her Influence on Lincoln, 2010, SIU Press, 9780809385607,weblink 23 August 2017, en, Porter was educated at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (class of 1856)Eicher, 2001, p. 435 identifies this as the Lawrence Scientific School. and Harvard University.NEWS, GEN. PORTER RECALLS SCHOOL DAYS OF '54; Lawrenceville Alumni Honor Him at Waldorf Banquet. BIG CHANGE IN FIFTY YEARS No Broken Heads Then in Football and Baseball Was "Towball" -- Woodrow Wilson on Athletics.,weblink 23 August 2017, The New York Times, 25 March 1906, He graduated from West Point July 1, 1860.

Career

Porter was commissioned a second lieutenant on April 22, 1861, and a first lieutenant on June 7, 1861. During the American Civil War, Porter served in the Union Army, reaching the grade of lieutenant colonel by the end of the war.During the war, he served as chief of ordnance in the Army of the Potomac, Department of the Ohio and the Army of the Cumberland. He was distinguished in the Battle of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, at the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of the Wilderness and the Second Battle of Ream's Station (New Market Heights). On June 26, 1902, or July 8, 1902,The uncertainty as to the date is expressed in the source, Eicher, 2001, p. 435 Porter received the Medal of Honor for the Battle of Chickamauga as detailed in the citation noted below. In the last year of the war, he served on the staff of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, later writing a lively memoir of the experience, Campaigning With Grant (1897).From April 4, 1864, to July 25, 1866, Porter was aide-de-camp to General Ulysses S. Grant with the grade of lieutenant colonel in the regular army. On July 17, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Porter for appointment as brevet brigadier general, to rank from March 13, 1866, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on July 23, 1866.Eicher, 2001, p. 736 From July 25, 1866, to March 4, 1869, Porter was aide-de-camp to General Ulysses S. Grant with the grade of colonel in the regular army.

Grant administration

(File:Pullman's Palace Car Co. Stock 1884.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Pullman's Palace Car Co. stock certificate signed by Porter in 1884.)From 1869 to 1872, Porter served as President Grant's personal secretary in the White House. At the same time, he held the grade of colonel and an appointment as aide-de-camp to General William T. Sherman.Porter had refused to take a $500,000 vested interest bribe from Jay Gould, a Wall Street financier, in the Black Friday gold market scam. He told Grant about Gould's attempted bribery, thus warning Grant about Gould's intention of cornering the gold market. However, during the Whiskey Ring trials in 1876, Treasury Solicitor Bluford Wilson claimed that Porter was involved with the scandal.Jean Edward Smith, Grant, pp. 481-490, Simon & Schuster, 2001.McFeely 1981, p. 409 Porter testified before the committee investigating the scandal and was never formally charged with wrongdoing.New York Times, Western Whisky Frauds: Gen. Horace Porter's Testimony, August 13, 1876 Porter resigned from the U.S. Army on December 31, 1873.

Later life

After resigning from the Army, Porter became vice president of the Pullman Palace Car Company, and later, president of the West Shore Railroad. He was U.S. Ambassador to France from 1897 to 1905, paying for the recovery of the body of John Paul Jones and sending it to the United States for re-burial. He received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1904. In addition to Campaigning with Grant, he also wrote West Point Life (1866).Porter was president of the Union League Club of New York from 1893 to 1897. In that capacity, he was a major force in the construction of Grant's Tomb.He was elected an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati in 1902. He was also a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Sons of the American Revolution and a Hereditary Companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars by right of his descent from Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Porter who served in the American Revolution.In 1891 he joined the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, where he served as President General from 1892 through 1896. He was assigned national membership number 4069 and state membership number 69.WEB, Sons of the American Revolution website, Presidents General of the SAR and Annual Congress Sites, 2014-03-18,weblink 2015-02-19, He died in Manhattan, New York and is interred at the Old First Methodist Church Cemetery in West Long Branch, New Jersey.Long Branch in the Golden Age

Personal life

In 1863, Porter was married to Sophie King McHarg (1840–1903),WEB, McHarg Family Papers: Part 2,weblink findingaids.library.georgetown.edu, Georgetown University Archival Resources {{!, Georgetown University Manuscripts|access-date=23 August 2017}} the daughter of John McHarg (1813–1884) and Martha Whipple Patch.NEWS, MRS, HORACE PORTER DEAD; Wife of American Ambassador to France Expires Suddenly. A Chill Develops Into Congestion of the Lungs--Gen. Porter Prostrated--American Colony in Paris Shocked.,weblink 23 August 2017, The New York Times, 7 April 1903, Together, they were the parents of:

• Horace Porter Jr., who died at the age of 23 of typhoid fever.
• Clarence Porter, who died after the first World War.
• Elsie Porter, who married Edwin Mende of Berne, Switzerland.
• William Porter, who died in infancy.

After a period of suffering,NEWS, GEN. HORACE PORTER NEAR DEATH AT HOME; Ex-Ambassador to France, 84 Years Old, Is Suffering From a General Breakdown.,weblink 23 August 2017, The New York Times, 27 May 1921, Porter died at New York, New York, May 29, 1921.NEWS, HORACE PORTER.,weblink 23 August 2017, The New York Times, 30 May 1921, He was buried in West Long Branch Cemetery, West Long Branch, New Jersey.NEWS, NOTED MEN AT BIER OF GENERAL PORTER; Hear 'Taps' Soundsd Over Veteran at Simple Services in 5thAv. Presbyterian Church.DEEDS PRAISED IN PRAYER Rev. Dr. John Kelman Gives Thanksfor "One of the Great Gentlemen of the Olden Days.",weblink 23 August 2017, The New York Times, 3 June 1921, In his will, he left the Grant Association $10,000 and the flag that flew at General Grant's field headquarters during the Civil War.NEWS, MANY PORTER HEIRS GET LARGE ESTATE; Battle Flag of Grant, Now in Tomb, Left to Upkeep Association With $10,000 Bequest.,weblink 23 August 2017, The New York Times, 10 June 1921,

Medal of Honor citation

(File:medal of honor old.jpg|80px|thumb|upright|right)Rank and Organization: Citation:

See also

• (List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: M–PP|List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: M–P)
• List of American Civil War brevet generals (Union)

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Notes

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References

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}.
• McFeely, William S. Grant: A Biography (1981).
• WEB

,

Further reading

{{Wikisource author}}{{Commons category|Horace Porter}}{{Gutenberg|no=18422|name=Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z}}, contains a number of speeches by Porter.

• BOOK, An American Soldier and Diplomat, Horace Porter,weblink registration, Mende, Elsie Porter, Henry Greenleaf Pearson, 1927, Frederick A. Stokes Company,
• BOOK, Biography of General and Ambassador Horace Porter, 1837-1921: Vigilance and Virtue, Owens, Richard Henry, 2002, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, New York, 0-7734-7242-8,
• Porter, Horace. Campaigning With Grant. New York: The Century Co., 1897. Time-Life Books reprint 1981. {{ISBN|0-8094-4202-7}}. (deluxe)

External links

• {{Librivox author |id=13042}}

{{US Ambassadors to France}}{{Authority control}}