PORTER, FITZ Joux, b. N. H. 1822; graduated at the U. S. military academy, West Point, 1845, when he entered the army as brevet second lieut. of artillery. He was engaged in the war with Mexico from the beginning; was wounded in the attack on the city of Mexico, Sept. 13, 1847; and was promoted to brevet capt. and maj. for distinguished gallantry in the battle of Molino del Rey and the storming of Chapultepec. After the war he was sent to West Point, where he was adj. of the post, and acted as instructor of artillery and cavalry. In 1856 he was transferred to the adj.gen.'s department, and was assistant adj.gen. of the Utah expedition under Albert Sidney Johnston in 1857. On May 14, 1861, he received the appointment of col. of the 15th infantry; was made brig.gen. of volunteers on the 17th; and served as chief of staff with gen. Banks and gen. 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 campaign on the peninsula, and was then given the command of the 5th army corps, which fought the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines's Mill, and bore the brunt of the fight at Malvern hill. During a part of the second battle of Bull Run this corps was heavily engaged, and was badly cut up; it was also in the fight at Antietam. In Nov., 1S62, gen. Porter was tried by court-martial for alleged disobedi ence of the orders of ,gen. John Pope, at Manassas, on Aug. 28-29, 1862; and on Aug. 21, 1863, was cashiered and from holding any position under the U. S. gov ernment. In June, 1878, a board of officers was convened at West Point, by order of the president of the United States, to examine the evidence and to consider the findings of the court-martial in the case of gen. Porter, and to report to the secretary of war what
action, in their judgment, justice required should be taken by the president in reference to that case. This board, after a full examination of the case, including evidence before inaccessible, and other evidence before misunderstood, 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 maj.gen. Fitz John Porter, and to restore him to the position at 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 maj.gen. J. M. Schofield, brig.gen. Alfred IL Terry, and brevet maj.gen. Geo. W. Setty. The report was laid before the house committee on military affairs, and a majority of this committee, in Jau., 1$31, :zported a bill restoring him to his rank of maj.gen. in the U. S. army; and requiring the secretary of the treasury to pay to gen. Porter the sum of $75,000, "as a measure of award in acknowledgment of the wrong done to and suffered by him through his dismissal from the army and deprivation from the rights of citizen ship, upon charges now established to be unfounded." At the present time( April, 1881) congress has not completed its action in regard to this male.