PORTER, Horace, American diplomat: b. Huntington, Pa., 15 April 1837. He studied at Harvard and was graduated from West Point in 1860; served for a short time as instructor there and at the outbreak of the Civil War was assigned to duty in the Department of the East. He commanded the siege batteries at Fort Pulaski and was brevetted captain for his gallantry. After the battle of Antietam he was transferred to the Army of the Ohio and later to that of the Cumberland. He was engaged at Chattanooga, Chickamauga, the battle of the Wilderness and New Market Heights, and as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Grant wit nessed the surrender at Appomattox. In 1865 he was brevetted brigadier-general for his serv ices throughout the war. He was assistant to Grant when that general was Secretary of War for a few months in 1867 and upon Grant's election to the Presidency Porter became his private secretary. In•1873 he resigned from the
army. After the close of Grant's second term as President, Porter entered upon a business career in which he was eminently successful, became noted as an author and lecturer, and through his efforts the Grant Monument was comrfieted. In 1897 he was appointed by Presi dent McKinley, United States Ambassador to France, which position he filled with tact and ability till 1905. He succeeded in finding the burial place of John Paul Jones, the American naval hero, and recovered the body, later send ing it to the United States for burial in Annapolis. He was awarded the thanks of Congress and the privilege of the floor of each House for life, and was a delegate to The Hague Peace Conference of 1907. He wrote Point Life) (1866) ; with Grant' (1897).