Peter A. Porter

Peter Augustus Porter (July 14, 1827 – June 3, 1864) was a lawyer, politician, and member of the Breckinridge family and a Union Army colonel in the American Civil War. He died in the Battle of Cold Harbor.

Porter was born on July 14, 1827 in Black Rock, New York, the only son of Yale lawyer Peter Buell Porter (1773–1844), a military leader in the War of 1812 and United States Secretary of War from 1828 to 1829, and Letitia Breckinridge (1786–1831). Before his parents marriage, his mother was a widow as her first husband, whom she married in 1804, Alfred William Grayson, had died in 1810. Grayson, a graduate of Cambridge University, was the son of Senator William Grayson of Virginia. Through his mother's first marriage, Porter had a half-brother, John Breckinridge Grayson (1806–1862). His parents had one other child together, his sister, Elizabeth Lewis Porter (1828–1876).

Porter graduated from Harvard, studied at Heidelberg and Berlin, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1857. He also authored plays, poems, and essays.

Family

His maternal grandfather was John Breckinridge (1760–1806), a U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1801 to 1805, and Attorney General of the United States under Jefferson from 1805 to 1806. His maternal grandmother was Mary Hopkins Cabell, of the Cabell political family. His maternal uncles were Cabell Breckinridge (1788–1823), Rev. Dr. John Breckinridge (1797–1841), Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800–1871), and Rev. Dr. William Lewis Breckinridge (1803–1876). His first cousin was John C. Breckinridge (1821–1875), the youngest-ever Vice President of the United States, serving from 1857 until 1861, under President James Buchanan.

His paternal grandfather was Col. Joshua Porter, a Yale College graduate, who fought in the Revolutionary War. He was at the head of his regiment in October 1777 when John Burgoyne surrendered his 6,000 men after the Battles of Saratoga. After the war, his grandfather was elected to various official positions for forty-eight consecutive years.

In 1862, Porter was elected as a War Democrat, or Union, member of the New York State Assembly to represent Niagara Co.'s 2nd District, and served in 85th New York State Legislature.

Civil War

On October 21, 1861, his half-brother, John, then a Confederate brigadier general, died of pneumonia and tuberculosis, only three months after joining the Confederate Army.

On July 7, 1862, he offered his services to Gov. Edwin D. Morgan and was appointed Colonel, in the Union Army, of the 129th New York State Volunteers, which was renamed the 8th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment on December 19, 1862 due to need for defenses surrounding the capital. His regiment, under Brig. Gen. Robert O. Tyler, was of a unit that generally guarded the forts around Washington, D.C. and participated in parades used to increase morale in the city in the time of war. However, they were also trained to be used as infantry if necessary. His reason for enlisting was reported in his eulogy printed in The New York Times, where Porter was purported to have said:

In order to secure success, the gentlemen, the educated and influential men of the North must join the service, and discipline, educate and lead its armies; that it would not be wise to entrust their unprincipled lawyer, or that ignorant mechanic with a military command, subordinate or otherwise, merely because he possessed a degree of neighborhood notoriety and popularity; on the contrary that it would be cruel toward our soldiers and fatal to our cause to act thus.

On September 5, 1863, Porter was nominated for New York Secretary of State, but declined due to his dedication to the military campaign of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, saying that his neighbors had entrusted him with the lives of their sons and he could not leave them while the war lasted. In May 1864, Porter was ordered by Grant to go to Virginia to join the fighting in the south.

In May 1864, during a lull in the Battle of Spotsylvania, a rebel soldier fired several shots at Porter while disguised by a tree. His men saw faint white smoke from the tree and six men shot at the tree, shooting the soldier. The soldier turned out to be a Confederate Captain who had been a prisoner at Fort McHenry while Porter commanded it and few days earlier had paroled, but not exchanged. The soldier was badly wounded but stated that he had fired three times at Porter and hoped "to bring him down the next time," adding that "if I had killed him [Porter] I should die satisfied." Porter reportedly restrained his men from attacking the culprit with their bayonets.

Battle of Cold Harbor

On June 3, 1864, during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia, Brig. Gen. Tyler, who Porter's regiment reported to, was wounded. Tyler requested Porter take command of the division. Porter then led the charge, advancing a short distance, until he was shot through the neck. As reported in his eulogy, Porter "immediately rose and advanced again, but had moved only a few paces forward when he fell to rise no more". The following night, five of his men, Sgt. Leroy Williams, Galen S. Hicks, John Duff, Walter Harwood, Samuel Traviss and John Heany, brought Porter's body, with six bullets still in him, through a rain storm back to the Union side. For his participation in recovering Col. Porter's body, Sgt. Williams was later awarded the Medal of Honor. Porter was carried to Baltimore, Maryland, met by a military escort, and carried to the St. Peter's Episcopal Church, and there placed in the chancel draped in the flag of his country. Chaplain Gilbert De La Matyr accompanied Porter's body back to Niagara Falls.

In 1852, Porter married Mary Cabell Breckinridge, daughter of Rev. John Breckinridge (1797–1841), his mother's brother, which made Mary his first cousin. His father-in-law was a Presbyterian Minister who graduated from Princeton College in 1818 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1821 and served as Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mary's maternal great-grandfather was Samuel Stanhope Smith, president of Princeton University from 1795 to 1812. Together, Peter and Mary had one son:

• Peter Augustus Porter (1853–1925), a member of the United States House of Representatives

Porter's funeral was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, where he used to attend services when he lived in that city, led by Reverend Dr. Shelton, an Episcopal minister and the same that had given the same last rites to his father, his mother, and his wife. Following the funeral services at the church, his remains were carried to his final resting place in Oakwood Cemetery.