PORTER, (1822-1901), American soldier, was born at Portsmouth (N.H.) on Aug. 31, 1822. He was the son of a naval officer, and nephew of David Porter of the frigate "Essex." He graduated at the U.S. Military academy in 1845 ; in the Mexican War he won two brevets for gallantry. He served at West Point as instructor and adjutant (1849-55), and at the out break of the Civil War in 1861 he was employed on staff duties in the eastern States. He became colonel of a new regiment of regu lars on May 14, and soon afterwards brig.-general of volunteers. Under McClellan he commanded a division of infantry in the Peninsular campaign, directed the Union siege operations against Yorktown, and was soon afterwards placed in command of the V. Army Corps. When the Seven Days' battle (q.v.) began Porter's corps had to sustain alone the full weight of the Confederate at tack, and though defeated in the desperately fought battle of Gaines's Mill (June 27, 1862) the steadiness of his defense was so conspicuous that he was immediately promoted maj.-general of volunteers and brevet brig.-general. His corps, moreover, had the greatest share in the successful battles of Glendale and Malvern Hill. Soon afterwards, the V. Corps was sent to reinforce Pope in central Virginia. Its inaction on the first day of the disastrous second battle of Bull Run (q.v.) led to the general's subsequent disgrace ; but it made a splendid fight on the second day to save the army from complete rout, and shared in the Antietam cam paign.
On the same day on which McClellan was relieved from his command, Porter, his friend and supporter, was suspended and tried by court-martial on charges brought against him by Pope. On Jan. 21, 1863, he was sentenced to be cashiered "and for ever disqualified from holding any office of trust under the Govern ment of the United States." In 1878 Porter's friends succeeded in procuring a revision of the case by a board of distinguished gen eral officers. General Grant had now taken Porter's part, and wrote an article in vol. 135 of the North American Review entitled "An Undeserved Stigma." Against much opposition, a relief bill finally passed Congress, and Porter was on Aug. 5, 1886, restored to the United States army as colonel and placed on the retired list, without compensation. After the Civil War he was engaged in business in New York, and held successively many important municipal offices. In 1869 he declined the offer made by the khe dive of the chief command of the Egyptian Army. He died on May 21, 1901, at Morristown (N.J.).
See, besides General Grant's art., Cox, The Second Battle of Bull Run as connected with the Porter Case (Cincinnati, 1882) ; Lord, A Summary of the Case of F. J. Porter (1883), and papers in vol. ii. of the pub. of the Military Hist. Soc. of Mass.