PORTER, IIoi;.vvE An American soldier and diplomat, son of David Rittenhouse Porter and grandson of Andrew Porter. He was horn at Huntingdon, Pa.: studied for a year at the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, then entered West Point, where he graduated in 1860, and a year later was commissioned first lieutenant and detailed for duty as ordnance offi cer of the Port Royal Expeditionary Corps. At the reduction of Fort Pulaski, Ga. (April 10-11, 1862), he was the chief of ordnance and artil lery, and by his gallantry earned the brevet rank of captain. In the attack on Seeessionville, S. C. (June 16, 1862), he was wounded, hut was able to act as chief of ordnance in the transfer of the Army of the Potomac from Harrison's Lauding, Va., to Maryland, after the Peninsular campaign of 1862. He was then assigned to duty in the West and participated in the Tennessee campaign (June 24-November 1, 1863), (hiring which he fought at the battle of Chickamauga and took part in the defense of Chattanooga. On April 4, 1864, he was promoted to he lieutenant-colonel and was assigned to the stair of General Grant, with whom he remained until duly 25, 1866, taking part in all the battles of the Richmond ea mpaign until the surrender at Appomattox Court Mouse. On March 13, 1865, lie received
the brevet rank of brigadier-general in the Regu lar Army. After the war, when General Grant was for a few months in 1867 Secretary of War, Porter became his assistant, and when Grant was elected to the Presidency Porter became his private secretary. In 1873 he resigned from the army to become vice-president of the Pullman Car Company, and during the following years he filled executive positions on several railroads. In 1897 President McKinley appointed him Am bassador to France. General Porter became well known as an orator and as an author. His writings include West Point Life (1866); Cam paigning with Grunt 11897); and the articles on "Five Forks and the Pursuit of Lee" and "The Surrender at Appomattox Court House," in Batt/es and Leaders of the Cirit War (1887).