Porter (August 31, 1822 – May 21, 1901) was a career Army
officer who served during with the Union during the Civil War and is
best known for his performance at the Second Battle of Bull Run (aka
Second Manassas to Southerners) and his subsequent court martial.
His career was ruined by
his political rivals when they called for his court marshal and after
the war it took him 25 years to restore his reputation and get
restored. Major General Fitz John Porter was found guilty of
disobeying a lawful order and misconduct in front of the enemy and
removed from command.
Porter came from a family of famous naval officers, including his
cousin, David Farragut, the first United States admiral. He graduated
from West Point in 1845, eighth in his class, and served with great
distinction as an artillery officer in the Mexican War. After the
war, Porter served in various posts, including a stint as an
instructor of artillery at West Point, where he became good friends
with both George B. McClellan and post adjutant Robert E. Lee.
As tensions increased in 1860, Porter traveled to locations in
the South in order to prepare for the upcoming conflict, including
Charleston, South Carolina, where he advised Major Robert Anderson be
placed in charge of the defenses at Fort Sumter. When war broke out,
he served as a staff officer, but when his old friend McClellan was
asked to take charge of the Army of the Potomac he was transferred to
command a division at McMlelland's request. McClellan trusted old
friends more than the other corps commanders and wanted subordinates
he considered loyal. He relied, in particular, on Porter, who often
acted as his surrogate on the battlefield during McClellan's frequent
absences. One such instance, the Battle of Malvern Hill, especially
cemented Porter's reputation as a superb commander on the
battlefield.
After McClellan was relieved of command Porter's corps was
reassigned to Major General John Pope. Porter intensely disliked Pope
both personally and professionally.
Porter sent a number of
telegrams to Major General Ambrose Burnside complaining about Pope's
poor leadership and handling of the army and Burnside, who also had a
low opinion of Pope, forwarded the letters to McClellan,
General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and
President Abraham Lincoln. Halleck, Stanton, and Lincoln were upset
because Pope was there man when they dumped the uncooperative
McClellan. Lincoln was especially displeased because
Pope was a personal friend.
On August 27, part of the Army of Northern Virginia under
Stonewall Jackson seized Pope's supply depot at Manassas Junction.
Pope became panicked and sent a flurry of orders including a confused
telegram to Porter ordering him to join Pope by morning.
Porter consulted with his commanders about the feasibility of
marching that evening, but they were against it even though Pope
wanted to move. Finally, they were able to convince Porter that it
was too dark and they were unsure of the location of the Confederate
forces. As a result the orders to move out in the dark at 1:00am
were disregarded.
The next morning Pope got into battle with the Confederates under
General Stonewall Jackson. Pope and General Irwin McDowell's troops
joined forces and repulsed an attack by the Confederate cavalry
division under Major General J.E.B. Stuart. Porter and McDowell then
received another confusing order from Pope. In short, the order was
unclear about what Porter and McDowell were supposed to do. Pope did
not explicitly direct them to attack and he concluded the order with
"If any considerable advantages are to be gained from departing
from this order it will not be strictly carried out." The result
was confusion on the part of everybody involved and it resulted in
Porter's court martial.
At the court martial the prosecution obtained testimony from
officers under Pope that sought to clear their own names after the
disaster of Manassas. For example, McDowell was answering his own
court of inquiry regarding his actions at Manassas that led to his
banishment from the army. It didn't help that during the trial, Pope
supplied his own maps that substantiated his version of the story.
The defense argued that Pope was incompetent and that Porter's
actions had saved the army from an even greater defeat. General
Ambrose Burnside even left his command to testify on behalf of
Porter. In addition, it was testified that the majority of the Union
Army agreed with Porter about Pope's poor leadership. The defense
also pictured Porter as having been wronged by a petty, incompetent
former commander who happened to be friends with the President.
Porter was found guilty and ordered dismissed from the army and
he was forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or
profit under the Government of the United States.
Porter immediately set about attempting to overturn the
conviction. He set about surveying and mapping the battleground to
develop a map of every tree, bush and hill in the vicinity of his
corps. Then he recorded the testimony of anyone he could get to
cooperate in order to record exact positions during the battle. With
the help of his friends, especially the increasingly powerful
McClellan, he began petitioning famous figures to write letters on
his behalf. They used their influence to try to get state and local
lawmakers to pass resolutions condemning the government for
dismissing Porter.
He also tried to draw attention to the make-up of the court.
They were Republicans,as was the President, and had fixed a court to
rule against him in order to protect its own interests. The
government refused to re-investigate and officers who spoke out in
support of Porter were punished.
The newspapers were also controlled by Republicans and they said
that Porter was a traitor who had escaped the punishment he had
deserved. The New York Times even wrote that he ought to have been
executed.
When the war ended, Porter wrote to both Lee and General
Longstreet asking for their assistance. Both Lee and Longstreet
replied, Longstreet in great detail, and Porter used the evidence to
garner supporters to send petitions to President Andrew Johnson
asking for a new trial. He also had supporters in Ulysses S. Grant,
William T. Sherman, and George H. Thomas. President Johnson had no
power to hold a new trial and, despite his support for Porter, he was
unwilling to revisit the decision. Finally, in 1878, President
Rutherford B. Hayes commissioned a board to investigate.
On March 19, 1879, the commission issued a report recommending
that the court martial be set aside and Porter be restored. The
report found Porter guilty of no wrongdoing and credited him with
saving the Union Army from an even greater defeat.
No matter though. Political opposition still prevented Porter
from obtaining reinstatement because of Republican presidents.
Finally in May of 1863, a bill passed Congress to restore Porter to
his regular army rank of Colonel but with no back pay. Two days
later, vindicated, Porter retired from the army, but he would not
receive an official pardon until Grover Cleveland took office in
1885.
About his balloon trip...one early April morning in 1862 General
Porter hopped into a balloon basket and took off. The retaining
cable snapped and the observation flight, at the mercy of the wind,
floated over the Confederate lines. Porter, not knowing where he
might end up reckoned to be captured when he finally came down.
Fortunately for Porter, the wind shifted and the balloon was blown
back toward the Union lines and he pulled the valve and descended to
the ground.
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