Horace Porter

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Horace Porter

Horace Porter (born April 15, 1837 in Huntingdon , Pennsylvania , † May 25, 1921 in New York City ) was an American brigadier general in the US Army and diplomat who was ambassador to France between 1897 and 1905 .

Life

Civil War and collaborator with Ulysses S. Grant

Porter was the youngest of six children of David Rittenhouse Porter , who was Governor of Pennsylvania from 1839 to 1845 , and his wife Josephine McDermett Porter, and a grandson of Andrew Porter, an officer in the American Revolutionary War and Inspector General of Pennsylvania from 1809 to 1813. He himself began after attending the Lawrenceville School in 1854 to study at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University , which he broke off in 1855. He then began officer training at the US Military Academy in West Point , which he completed in 1860 as the third-best in his class. During the Civil War he was artillery commander at the siege of Fort Pulaski in April 1862 and was promoted to captain because of his there . He was then an officer in the Army of the Potomac of the US Army before he was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 , where he participated in the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 and in November 1863 at the Battle of Chattanooga attended. In April 1864 he became aide-de-camp of General Ulysses S. Grant and remained in this capacity until March 1869. After the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864 he was majored and after the Battle of New Market Heights in September 1864 was he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, before his promotion to colonel and the award of the brevet rank as brigadier general followed on March 13, 1865 .

During General Grant between August 1867 and January 1868 Acting Minister of War , was acted Porter of assistive Minister of War (Assistant Secretary of War) . After Grant took office as US President on March 4, 1869, he was his private secretary until January 1873. In December 1873 he retired from active military service and was vice president of the railroad car construction company Pullman Company and later president of the railway company West Shore Railroad .

Ambassador to France and family relationships

On March 19, 1897, Porter was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France and handed over the letter of accreditation there on May 26, 1897 as the successor to James B. Eustis . He remained in this post until May 2, 1905, when Robert Sanderson McCormick became his successor. For his services during the Battle of Chickamauga he was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 8, 1902 . During this time he led the successful search for the body of the officer in the American Revolutionary War John Paul Jones , who is considered the "father" of the US Navy and died on July 18, 1792 in Paris . After the transfer of the body, he gave the speech at the reburial of Jones in 1905 in the cemetery of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis . For these services he received on May 9, 1906 a formal thank you from the US Congress .

His marriage to Sophie King Porter had four children, including the writer Elsie Porter Mende. His uncle George Bryan Porter was governor of the Territory of Michigan from 1831 to 1834 , while his uncle James Madison Porter was Secretary of War from 1843 to 1844. His cousin Andrew Porter was also a brigadier general during the Civil War. After his death he was buried in the Old First Methodist Churchyard in West Long Branch .

Publications

  • West Point Life , Memoir, 1866
  • Campaigning with Grant , 1897

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry on the homepage of the Medal of Honor holders
personal data
SURNAME Porter, Horace
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diplomat, brigadier general, and economic manager
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Huntingdon , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1921
Place of death New York City