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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Fitz John Porter Biography PORTER,
Fitz John (1822-1901). An American soldier. He was born at Portsmouth, N.
H., Aug. 31, 1822, graduated at West Point in 1845, and was assigned to the
artillery, in which he became second lieutenant the following year. He served in
the war with Mexico from the beginning, was wounded in the attack on the city of
Mexico, Sept. 13, 1847, and was brevetted captain and major for gallantry in the
battle of Molino del Rey and the storming of Chapultepec, respectively. After
the war he was sent to West Point, where he served as adjutant of the post and
as instructor of artillery and cavalry. In 1856 he was transferred to the
Adjutant General's Department, and was assistant adjutant general of the Utah
expedition under Albert Sidney Johnston in 1857. On May 14, 1861, he received
the appointment of colonel of the Fifteenth Infantry, was made brigadier general
of volunteers in the same month, and served as chief of staff with General Banks
and General Patterson until August, when he was put in command of a division in
the Army of the Potomac. He had charge of the siege operations against Yorktown
during the Peninsular campaign, acted as military governor of the place for a
time after its evacuation, and was then given the command of the Fifth Army
Corps, which fought the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines's Mill and bore the
brunt of the fight at Malvern Hill. He was appointed brevet brigadier general in
the regular army for gallantry at the battles of the Chickahominy, and on July
4, 1862, was commissioned major general
of volunteers. At the second battle of Bull Run his failure to move forward on
the first day of the engagement led to his trial by court-martial on the charge
of disobeying the orders of General Pope. He was found
guilty and was cashiered and disqualified from holding any position of trust or
profit under the United States government. The justice of the punishment was a
subject of much controversy, and numerous attempts were made to secure a
reversal of the verdict. In
June, 1878, a board of officers convened at West Point, by order of the
President, to examine the evidence and to consider the findings of the
court-martial. This board reported that, in the opinion of those forming it,
justice required at the hands of the President of the United States "such
action as may be necessary to annul and set aside the findings and sentence of
the court-martial in the case of Major General Fitz John Porter, and to restore
him to the position of which that sentence deprived him, such restoration to
take effect from the date of his dismissal from office." This report was
signed by the entire board, including Major General J. M. Schofield, Brigadier
General Alfred H. Terry, and Brevet Major General George W. Getty. The report
was laid before the House Committee on Military Affairs, and a majority of the
committee, in January, 1881, reported a bill restoring him to his rank of major
general in the United States army and requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to
pay to him the sum of $75,000. The bill for his relief failed to pass, but President
Arthur in 1882 remitted the disqualifying clause in his sentence. In 1886 a
bill for his restoration to the army with the rank of colonel, but without back
pay, was approved by the President, and soon afterward General Porter was
retired. After
his return from the army General Porter engaged in business in New York City,
where he afterward held several municipal offices, among them that of police
commissioner and commissioner of the fire department. Until his death, which
occurred May 21, 1901, at Morristown, N. J., he considered that he had been
deeply wronged. Consult for the case against Porter, Cox, The
Second Battle of Bull Run as Connected with the Fitz John Porter Case
(Cincinnati, 1882); for a brief statement of the case in his favor: an article
by Gen. U. S. Grant in North
American Review, vol. cxxxv (New York, 1882); also Lord, A
Summary of the Case of F. J. Porter (San Francisco, 1883). |