Military officer; born in
Portsmouth, N. H., June 13, 1822; a cousin of
David Dixon Porter; graduated at
West Point in 1845, entering the artillery corps.
He was adjutant of that post in 1853-54, and assistant instructor of cavalry and artillery in 1854-55.
In 1856 he was made assistant adjutant-general.
In May, 1861, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers and chief of staff to
Generals Patterson and
Banks until August, when he was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, in
command of a division.
In May, 1862, he took command of the 5th Army Corps; directed the siege of
Yorktown, Va., and was one of
McClellan's most efficient commanders during the
Peninsular campaign ending with the battle of
Malvern Hill (q. v.). For services in that campaign he was promoted to major-general of volunteers.
Temporarily attached to the Army of Virginia (
Pope's), and formal charges having been made against him, he was deprived of his command.
At the request of
General McClellan, he was restored, and accompanied that general in the campaign in
Maryland.
In November he was ordered to
Washington for trial by court-martial, on charges preferred by
General Pope, and on Jan. 21, 1863, he was cashiered for violation of the 9th and 52d Articles of War. In 1870 he appealed to the
President for a reversal of this sentence, and in 1878 a commission of inquiry was instituted to determine whether there was new evidence in his favor sufficient to warrant ordering a new trial.
He was finally in 1886 restored to his rank of colonel and retired.
After leaving the army he was superintendent of the building of the
New Jersey Asylum for the Insane; commissioner of public works and police commissioner in New York City; and was offered, but declined, the command of the
Egyptian army.
He died in
Morristown, N. J., May 21, 1901.
See
Grant, Ulysses Simpson;
Logan, John Alexander;
Pope, John.
