Horace C. Porter (April 15, 1837May 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. 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.

Porter was educated at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (class of 1856) and Harvard University. He graduated from West Point July 1, 1860. 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 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. Porter testified before the committee investigating the scandal and was never formally charged with wrongdoing. Porter resigned from the U.S. Army on December 31, 1873.

He died in Manhattan, New York and is interred at the Old First Methodist Church Cemetery in West Long Branch, New Jersey.

Personal life

In 1863, Porter was married to Sophie King McHarg (1840–1903), the daughter of John McHarg (1813–1884) and Martha Whipple Patch. Together, they were the parents of: Porter died at New York, New York, May 29, 1921. He was buried in West Long Branch Cemetery, West Long Branch, New Jersey. 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.

Medal of Honor citation

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Rank and Organization:

:Captain, Ordnance Department, U.S. Army. Place and date: At Chickamauga, Ga., September 20, 1863. Entered service at: Harrisburgh, Pa. Born: April 15, 1837, Huntington, Pa. Date of issue: July 8, 1902.

Citation:

:While acting as a volunteer aide, at a critical moment when the lines were broken, rallied enough fugitives to hold the ground under heavy fire long enough to effect the escape of wagon trains and batteries.

See also

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

Notes

References

  • Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
  • McFeely, William S. Grant: A Biography (1981).

Further reading

, contains a number of speeches by Porter.

  • Porter, Horace. Campaigning With Grant. New York: The Century Co., 1897. Time-Life Books reprint 1981. . (deluxe)