P-Q: Paine through Potts

Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography

PAINE, HALBERT ELEAZER (February 4, 182~April 14, 1905), lawyer, Union soldier, congressman, and commissioner of patents, was the son of Eleazer and Caroline (Hoyt) Paine. He was descended from a long line of Puritan ancestry running back to Stephen Paine who migrated to New England in 1638. He was born at Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio, was educated in the schools of that community, and completed his academic training at Western Reserve College, from which he graduated in 1845. After graduation he removed to Mississippi, where he taught school for a time, but soon returned to Ohio and took up the study of law. In 1848 he was admitted to the bar and began practice at Cleveland. On September 10, 1850, he was married to Elizabeth Leaworthy Brigham of Windham, Ohio. Removing to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1857, he opened a law office there, and soon formed a partnership with Carl Schurz [q. v.]. The latter was so constantly engaged in politics, however, that the work of the office fell almost completely upon Paine. Both were idealists and in considerable measure crusaders. When the Civil War broke out, Paine turned the key in his office and joined the army." He was commissioned colonel of the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry, July 2, 1861, and brigadier-general of volunteers, March 13, 1863. At Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, his regiment was offered a stock train for transportation, which he indignantly refused, and, arming his men with pick-handles, he seized the next suitable train that passed through. He refused to return fugitives and also declined to obey General Butler's order to burn Baton Rouge. His military service was distinguished. He lost a leg in the attack upon Port Hudson, Louisiana, and thereafter served on a military commission, as commander of forts in the defense of Washington, and finally as commander of the military district of Illinois. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, for conspicuous gallantry on several occasions, especially at Port Hudson. On May 15, 1865, he resigned from the army.

In the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first congresses, to which Paine was elected as a representative from Wisconsin, he supported the Radical faction. His two speeches on reconstruction subscribe to the "State Suicide Theory" (Congressional Globe, 40 Congress, 2 Session, App., pp. 272-75, 314-16). In the Fortieth Congress, he was chairman of the committee on militia and in the Forty-first, he served as chairman of the committee on elections, of which he had been a member during his first term in Congress. The position was extremely important, because of the question of seating representatives from the Southern states. As a practical politician, from his position as chairman of the committee on contested elections, he was sometimes forced to answer Thaddeus Stevens' question, "Which is our rascal?" His reports to the House were brief, direct, and conclusive.

Declining to stand for reelection in 1870, he took up the practice of law in Washington. His former law partner, Carl Schurz, pressed him to become the assistant secretary in the Department of the Interior. He declined for financial reasons, but later accepted the post of commissioner of patents. During his eighteen months in this office (November 1878-May 1880), he instituted important changes in the bureau. The most important of these were the substitution of scale drawings for models; the provision that errors of the patent office could be rectified without changing the date of the origin of the patentees' rights; the dating of claims for grants from the time of receipt of the application instead of at some time within three months thereafter; and the introduction of the use of typewriters.

After his resignation Paine resumed law practice, which he followed to the end of his life. In 1888 he published A Treatise on the Law of Elections to Public Offices, which remains the authoritative work upon the subject. It exhibits the rules and principles applicable to contests before judicial tribunals and parliamentary bodies, and is based upon American, English, Scotch, Irish, and Canadian authorities. It consists of 900 pages of. heavily annotated text and a comprehensive list of cases (to 1888) which constitute the precedents from which the rules and principles are derived. Systematically presenting all the aspects of the law upon elections, it stands as a monument to the industry, comprehension, and thoroughness which were dominant attributes of the author's character.

[Milwaukee Journal., and Milwaukee Sentinel, April 17, 1905; S. B. Ladd, "Halbert Eleazer Paine," in Journal. of the Patent Office Society, November 1920; Who's Who in America, 1903-05; Paine Family Records, January 1882, The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, volumes II (1907), III (1908); F. B. Heitman, History Register and Dictionary  U. S. Army (1903), volume I; War of the Rebellion, Official Records (Army); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928).)

J.  L. S.



PALMER, INNIS NEWTON (March 30, 1824-September 9, 1900), soldier, was born at Buffalo, New York, the son of Innis Bromley and Susan (Candee) Palmer, and a descendant of Lieutenant "William Palmer who came to America on the Fortune in 1621. He received a common-school education and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1846 as a brevet second lieutenant. His extended service in the Mexican War included the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, and the assault and capture of the city of Mexico. He was wounded at Chapultepec and was made a brevet captain for gallant conduct during that battle. Following the Mexican War, he served in various western posts almost without a break until the Civil War. His activities included the march to Oregon in 1849 and service in Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Indian Territory, with both the Mounted Rifles and the 2nd Cavalry. During this period he rose to be a major of cavalry (April 25, 1861). In 1853 he married Catharine Jones, daughter of Colonel Llewellyn Jones, of the United States Army, and by this marriage there were three daughters and a son.

In the first few months of the Civil War he served in the defenses of Washington, and as the Confederate armies approached the city in June he was placed in command of the Regular cavalry in the Manassas campaign. He was made a brevet lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at the battle of Bull Run, and was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers on September 23, 1861. He remained on duty in the defenses of Washington until March 1862, when he was given command of a brigade in the IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, and participated in the Virginia Peninsular campaign, taking part in the siege of Yorktown and the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Glendale, and Malvern Hill. In the fall of 1862 he organized New Jersey and Delaware volunteers and superintended camps of drafted men at Philadelphia. The remainder of his war service was in North Carolina, where he served from December 1862 until July 1865. In this period he held various department and district commands, and a portion of the time commanded a division in the XVIII Corps. On March 13, 1865, he was made brevet colonel, 2nd Cavalry, and major-general of volunteers, the latter for long and meritorious service. The following January he was mustered out of the volunteer service and as brevet colonel took command of the 2nd Cavalry, which he had joined in 1855 as a captain.

After the war, promotion was very slow, and he did not become a full colonel until June 1868. For the most part the remainder of his service was in command of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry in the expanding West. He performed important duties, frequently commanding important frontier posts as well as his regiment. On March 20, 1879, he retired as a colonel, after more than thirty years' service. He died at Chevy Chase, Maryland

[Army and Navy Journal, September 15, 1900; Army and Navy Register, September 15, 1900; G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed.  1891); Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), September 10, 1900; information as to certain facts from a son-in-law, Major-General Eben Swift.]

D. Y.



PALMER, JOHN MCAULEY (September 13, 1817-September 25, 1900), governor of Illinois, senator, was born in Scott County, Kentucky, the son of Louis D. and Ann Hansford (Tutt) Palmer, and the great-grandson of Thomas Palmer who emigrated to Virginia from England early in the eighteenth century. His father was a farmer and a Jacksonian Democrat with decided antislavery tendencies that led him to leave Kentucky for Illinois in 1831. He settled near Alton, and in 1834 the boy entered Shurtleff College at Upper Alton, Illinois, where he stayed for two years, financing himself by doing odd jobs around the college and town. Then he peddled clocks and taught in a country school before moving to Carlinville in 1839, where he began reading law in the office of John S. Greathouse. In December of that year he was admitted to the bar. His political career started in 1840, when he gave ardent support to Van Buren. On December 20, 1842, he was married to Malinda Ann, the daughter of James Neely of Carlinville, who died in 1885. They had ten children. In 1847 he was elected as a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention and was later elected county judge under the new constitution. He was elected to the state Senate in 1851 and in 1854 opposed Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Bill. When a resolution was offered to indorse the bill, he offered a substitute resolution condemning the bill and favoring the Missouri Compromise and the compromise measures of 1850. Although his resolution was rejected, he ran for state senator as an independent Democrat on a platform of opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and was elected.

He played an important part in the formation of the Republican party in Illinois, serving as president of the Bloomington convention in May 1856 and as delegate to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia in June. In 1859 he was defeated as a Republican candidate for representative to Congress; in 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention that nominated Lincoln; and in 1861 he was a delegate to the peace convention at Washington. He began his military career in May 1861 as colonel of the 14th Illinois Infantry. He served in Missouri and at the engagements of New Madrid, Point Pleasant, and Island No. 10, and he received the rank of brigadier-general in December 1861. In 1862 he was made commander of the 1st Division in the Army of the Mississippi, fought gallantly at Stone River and Chickamauga, and was rewarded by the rank of major-general. In August 1864 he asked to be relieved of his command, owing to an altercation with General Sherman concerning his refusal to take orders from General Schofield, who, he claimed, was his junior in rank. The request was granted. Later he was given command of the Department of Kentucky but was relieved by request in 1866. The summer of 1867 found him in Springfield practising law with Milton Hay. He reentered public life, however, in 1868, when he was elected governor of Illinois on the Republican ticket. In his inaugural address he alienated many Republicans and pleased most Democrats by taking a definite stand for state rights, deprecating the extension of power by the federal government. His administration was a difficult one. Monopolists, lobbyists, and various "rings" all sought special legislation. He did all he could to check hasty and unscrupulous legislation by the use of his veto power, but his efforts were largely unavailing. In all, some 1700 bills were passed. When the people of Chicago were left destitute by the disastrous fire of 1871, he quickly sent money and supplies. However, when Mayor Mason asked for federal troops to maintain order in the city, and Grant provided them, Palmer displayed his state-rights position by protesting that state troops could handle the situation and that the use of federal troops was unconstitutional. He was later sustained by the legislature.

In 1872, disgusted with the corruption of the Grant regime, he joined the Liberal Republicans in support of Greeley and soon thereafter rejoined the Democratic party. In 1884 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention that nominated Cleveland for president, and in 1888 he was defeated as Democratic candidate for governor. On April 4 of that year he was married to Hannah (Lamb) Kimball, the daughter of James Lamb and the widow of L. R. Kimball. Three years later he entered the United States Senate as a Democrat. As senator he served on the committees of military affairs, pensions, and railroads. He advocated a constitutional amendment to provide for the popular election of senators and urged the repeal of the Sherman Act of 1890. In 1896 he was the presidential candidate of the National or Gold Democrats on a platform denouncing protection and the free coinage of silver. He polled only 130,000 votes. He returned to his profession in 1897 but spent most of his time in editing The Bench and Bar of Illinois (2 volumes, 1899) and in writing his memoirs, Personal Recollections of John M. Palmer: The Story of an Earnest Life (1901). He died in Springfield, Illinois

[Autobiography, ante; The Biographical Encyclopedia of Illinois (1875); Joseph Wallace, Past and Present of the City of Springfield (1904), volume I; John Moses, Illinois, History and Statistical, volume II (1892); A. C. Cole, The Era of the Civil War (1919); E. L. Bogart, The Industrial State (1920); Illinois State Register (Springfield), September 26, 1900.]

E. B.



PARKE, JOHN GRUBB (September 22, 1827- December 16, 1900), soldier, son of Francis and Sarah (Gardner) Parke, was born near Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania. In 1835 his family moved to Philadelphia, where he attended Samuel Crawford's preparatory academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He entered West Point in 1845 and graduated in 1849, second in a class of forty-three. Brevetted second lieutenant, corps of topographical engineers, he was sent to determine the boundary between Iowa and Minnesota. In 1852-53 he was secretary of the board for improvement of lake harbors, and Western rivers and surveyed for the Pacific Railroad route. On April 18, 1854, he was promoted second lieutenant, and on July 1, 1856, first lieutenant. In 1857-61 he was chief astronomer and surveyor for the determination of the northwest boundary between the United States and Canada. The outbreak of the Civil War interrupted this work.

Parke was promoted captain of engineers, September 9, 1861, and moved from the Pacific Coast to Washington early in October. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, November 23, 1861, and assigned to command the 3rd Brigade in Burnside's North Carolina expedition, which sailed from Annapolis on January 9, 1862. Roanoke Island and Fort Forest were captured, February 8, and Parke's brigade next helped to capture New Bern, North Carolina. It then invested Fort Macon, which, by skilful use of his batteries, Parke forced to surrender. For this achievement he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, United States Army, April 26, 1862, and major-general of volunteers, July 18, 1862. When the order came from Burnside to join McClellan in Virginia, Parke became Burnside's chief of staff. He fought at South Mountain, at Antietam, at Fredericksburg, and, when Burnside took command of the Ohio Department, March 25, 1863, Parke became commander of the IX Corps at Cincinnati. Early in June he went to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg, his corps holding the extreme right flank until Vicksburg surrendered. The corps next participated in Sherman's capture of Jackson City with its subsequent railway destruction. For meritorious conduct, Parke was brevetted colonel in the Regular Army.

Ill health now incapacitated him until September 15, when the IX Corps marched to reinforce Burnside at Knoxville and operated against General Longstreet until December 4. The Confederates withdrew northward and Parke's command, IX and XXIII Corps, followed. Longstreet turned and forced Parke back to Blain's Crossroads, whereupon both sides went into winter quarters. On January 26, 1864, Parke again took station at Knoxville and was ordered, March 16, 1864, to report to Burnside, who was reorganizing and recruiting the IX Corps at Annapolis. The corps was ordered, April 23, in support of the Army of the Potomac, being constituted a separate unit responsible to Grant until May 24, when it was assigned to Meade. As chief of staff of the IX Corps, Parke fought in the battle of the Wilderness, in battles around Spotsylvania, in the James River campaign, and in the advance against Petersburg. On June 17, 1864, he was promoted major in the engineer corps. From July 4 to August 13, he was prostrated by malaria. Rejoining his command, he engaged in all subsequent operations against Petersburg, fought at Peeble's Farm, October 2, 1864, Hatcher's Run, October 27, 1864, and Fort Steadman, March 25, 1865. For this latter action he was brevetted brigadier-general, United States Army. The IX Corps fought and won its last action at Fort Sedgwick, April 2, 1865, Parke receiving his brevet as major-general. When Meade was absent, Parke commanded the Army of the Potomac.

After hostilities, he commanded the District of Alexandria and, in July 1865, the Southern District of New York. He was mustered out of the volunteers, January 15, 1866, and resumed his duties as major in the engineer corps. From September 28, 1866, to October 1869, he was again with the Northwest Boundary Commission. In the meantime, June 5, 1867, he married Ellen Blight of Philadelphia; they had one child, a daughter. On June 1, 1868, he was detailed as assistant chief of engineers, serving until his appointment as superintendent of the United States Military Academy in August 1887. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the engineer corps March 4, 1879, and colonel, March 17, 1884. Having served forty years, he was retired at his own request on July 2, 1889. Thereafter he engaged in business in Washington, D. C., as director of the Washington & Georgetown Street Railway Company, and of the National Safe Deposit Company. He was secretary of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, manager of the Columbia Hospital, and president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac. He wrote several valuable reports and compilations, of which Laws of the United States Relating to the Construction of Bridges over Navigable Waters of the United States, from March 2, 1805, to March 3, 1887 (1887), and "Report of Explorations ... Near the 32d Parallel of Latitude, Lying Between Dona Ana, on the Rio Grande, and Pimas Villages, on the Gila" (House Executive Document 129, 33 Congress, 1 Session, 1855) are the most important. Parke died at Washington, and was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.

[F. B. Heitman, History Register and Dictionary  U. S. Army (1903); T. H. S. Hamersly, Complete Regular Army Register of the U. S. (1880); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U.S. Military Academy (1891); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Thirty-Third Annual Reunion. Association Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1902); Washington Post, December 18, 1900.]

C. C. B.



PARSONS, LEWIS BALDWIN (April 5, 1818-March 16, 1907), lawyer, railroad president, Union soldier, was descended from Joseph Parsons, an emigrant from England, who settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1636, and later moved to Northampton. Lewis was born in Perry, Genesee County, New York, the son of Lewis Baldwin and Lucina (Hoar) Parsons. Christened simply Lewis, he later assumed the full name of his father at the latter's request. His early boyhood was spent in Homer, New York. At the age of ten, he moved with his family to St. Lawrence County, New York. He attended local schools, at sixteen began to teach country school, and two years later entered Yale College. After his graduation in 1840, he took charge of a classical school in Noxubee County, Mississippi, remaining some two years, then returned to the North and began the study of law in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Receiving the degree of LL.B. from the Harvard Law School in 1844, he went West and began to practise at Alton, Illinois, first in partnership with Newton D. Strong and then with Henry W. Billings. From 1846 to 1849 he was city attorney of Alton. On September 21, 1847, in St. Louis, Missouri, he married Sarah Green Edwards, a niece of Ninian Edwards [q.v.], former governor of Illinois. She died May 28, 1850, leaving two children, both of whom died before their father. On July 5, 1852, Parsons married her younger sister, Julia Maria Edwards, who died June 9, 1857. There were two children by this marriage, both of whom survived their parents.

Moving to St. Louis in 1854, Parsons was persuaded by clients who had acquired a controlling interest in the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad to devote himself to its affairs. After a temporary sojourn in Cincinnati, first as attorney and financial agent and subsequently as treasurer, director, and president, he returned to St. Louis and in 1860 retired from active connection with the railroad. In May 1861 he served as volunteer aid to Francis Preston Blair [q.v.] at the capture of Camp Jackson. Recognizing the inevitability of war, he wrote to his personal friend, General McClellan, and offered his services. He went to Washington, was commissioned captain and assigned to duty in the quartermaster's department. Despite his ardent desire to join the fighting forces in the field, he was kept throughout the war in non-combatant positions in which because of his previous experience he was able to render exceptional service. He was ordered back to St. Louis and in December 1861 was given charge of all transportation by river and rail pertaining to the Department of the Mississippi, including a territory which extended from the Yellowstone to Pittsburgh and New Orleans. For the first time in history, railroad transportation was a major factor in the prosecution of a great war. Parsons brought a semblance of order out of the existing chaos, drafting a set of regulations for rail transportation that became the basis of the general rules for army transportation adopted later, then turned his attention to systematizing river transportation. Promoted colonel of volunteers in February 1862, he was assigned as aide to General Halleck in April; and continued in charge of transportation in the Department until August 1864, when he was ordered to Washington and given charge of all rail and river transportation of the armies of the United States. In 1865, he was promoted to brigadier-general. One of his most striking achievements as chief of transportation of the armies was the moving of General Schofield's army and all its equipment from Mississippi to the Potomac within a period of seventeen days.

After Lee's surrender, Parsons was retained in charge of the transportation of discharged soldiers. He was made a brevet major-general and mustered out on April 30, 1866. He spent two years abroad in an effort to regain his health, broken down by overwork, then returned to St. Louis in 1869, and on December 28 of that year married Elizabeth Darrah of New York City, who died in 1887, without issue. In 1875, Parsons settled on a farm in Flora, Illinois, which was his home for the rest of his life. He served as director of several railroads and other corporations and for a time was president of a St. Louis bank. In 1880 he was candidate for lieutenant-governor of Illinois on the unsuccessful Democratic ticket. He was active in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church and a trustee and patron of Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa, the establishment of which had been made possible by a bequest of $37,000 from his father. In 1900 he published Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons (Second); Parsons-Hoar. He died in Flora, Illinois, and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis.

[In Memoriam General Lewis Baldwin Parsons (privately printed, 1908); H. M. Burt and A. R. Parsons, Cornet Joseph Parsons (1901); Henry Parsons, Parsons Family (1912), volume I; War Department records; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary  U.S. Army (1903), volume I; Obit. Record Graduates Yale Univ., 1907; Who's Who in America, 1906-07; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 17, 1907.)

R. c. C-n.



PATRICK, MARSENA RUDOLPH (March 11, 1811-July 27, 1888), soldier and agriculturist, was born near Watertown, in Jefferson County, New York, of Scotch-Irish and English colonial and revolutionary stock, the tenth and youngest child of John and Miriam (White) Patrick. His father's family, originally Kilpatrick, had dropped the prefix soon after reaching New England early in the eighteenth century. Running away from home, where his mother's excessive Puritanism dominated, Patrick became a driver on the Erie Canal, taught school, and in 1831 was studying medicine. Entering West Point the same year, as the protege of General Stephen van Rensselaer [q.v.], he graduated in 1835, forty-eighth in a class of fifty-one, and was brevetted second lieutenant of infantry. In 1836, while stationed at Fort Mackinac, he married Mary Madeline McGulpin, niece of an agent employed in the Astor for trade. The Seminole War, staff duty, General Wool's Mexican expedition, and military routine occupied his life from 1837 to 1850, when (though a captain and brevet major) he resigned and engaged in scientific agriculture at Geneva, New York.

In 1859 he became president of the New York State Agricultural College, at Ovid. An antecedent of Cornell University, the institution was chartered in 1853, and the cornerstone of its first building was laid in 1859. The following year, with one wing of the building completed and with a faculty of five, the college opened. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Patrick resigned. Preferring service with volunteers, he declined reappointment in the regular army but was persuaded by Governor Morgan to become inspector general of New York volunteers in May 1861. In March 1862, at McClellan's request, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. As a part of King's Division, McDowell's Corps (recalled to protect Washington), Patrick's brigade saw no service on the Peninsula but participated in the second Manassas and Antietam campaigns, during which the volunteers learned the value of his stern discipline. His tactical skill was recognized by officers of both armies but, to his regret, staff duty again took him from the line, his capacity for great combat leadership untested. With the Army of the Potomac disorganized by battle and change of leaders, McClellan, in October 1862, appointed him provost marshal-general. Although charged with a host of duties-from maintaining order to securing military information-he was conscientious, vigorous, and capable. Successive commanders in turn found him almost indispensable. In 1864 Grant designated him provost marshal-general of all the armies operating against Richmond, and on March 13, 1865, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers for "faithful and meritorious service," a tardy recognition. The rank and file respected and loved him; the Sanitary and Christian Commissions found him a faithful supporter; while the Southern citizenry counted him a friend albeit a conquering invader. Following Appomattox, he commanded the district of Henrico (including Richmond), but in June 1865 Grant suggested to Halleck that Patrick be relieved lest his kindheartedness "interfere with the proper government of the city." Relieved shortly afterward, at his own request, he resigned from the army, June 12, 1865, and went home. Disgust for Republican policies now led him momentarily into politics as the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for state treasurer. A few years later, as president of the New York State Agricultural Society (1867-68), he pioneered for conservation and reforestation; to check the migration from country to city, he advocated a cottage system for farm workers. His last years, following his wife's death in 1880, were spent in Ohio as governor of the Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Dayton. Ever the disciplinarian, he was denounced as a tyrant but, swayed neither by politics nor expediency, gradually gained the respect and love of veterans and townspeople alike. Of commanding presence, with patriarchal beard and thunderous voice, a self-disciplined Presbyterian fearing God only, he had the air of an Old Testament prophet with a dash of the Pharisee.

[Copy of General Patrick's private journal, 1862-(is, together with fragments for other years and genealogical and biographical notes by his son, I. N. Patrick, in the writer's possession; G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates, U. S. Military Academy (1891); Diedrich Willers, The New York State Agricultural College, at Ovid (1907); J. H. Mills, Chronicles of the Twenty-first Regiment, New York State Volunteers (1887); W. P. Maxson, Campfires of the Twenty-third (1863); Lemuel Moss, Annals of the U. S. Christian Commission (1868); C. W. Bardeen, A Little Fifer's War Diary (1910); D. B. Parker, A Chatauqua Boy in '61 and Afterward (1912); M. R. Patrick, Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the New York State Agricultural Society, Albany, February 12, 1868 (1868); Twentieth Annual Reunion, Association Graduates U.S. Military Academy (1889); New York Times, July 28, 1888.]

T. S. C.



PECK, JOHN JAMES (January 4, 1821-April 21, 1878), soldier and man of affairs, was born at Manlius, New York, the son of John Wells and Phoebe (Raynor) Peck. He received liberal schooling and graduated from the United States Military Academy in the same class as Grant in 1843. He was commissioned brevet 2nd lieutenant of the 2nd Artillery and performed garrison duty until the outbreak of the war with Mexico, serving, with distinction, in every battle save one. He engaged in frontier duty in the West and was present at the skirmish with the Navajo Indians at Tuni Cha, New Mexico, on August 31, 1849, afterward being assigned to recruiting and garrison duty. He resigned from the army on March 31, 1853, bearing the high commendation of his superior officers. Peck married Robie Harris Loomis of Syracuse, New York, on November 20, 1850, and six children, three boys and three girls, were born to them. Following his resignation he entered upon a very busy and successful life in Syracuse. He was treasurer of the New York, Newburgh & Syracuse Rail Road Company during this period, as well as cashier and manager of the Burnet Bank. From 1859 to 1861 he was president of the Board of Education and for some years was vice-president of the Franklin Institute of Syracuse. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1856 and of 1860, was twice nominated for Congress, and once refused a foreign mission.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his services to the Federal government and refused to aid his friends who were endeavoring to secure for him a high command in the state forces. By virtue of his past services, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers August 9, 1861, and served in the defenses of Washington until March 1862. He accompanied McClellan in the Peninsular campaign, serving with such distinction that he was commissioned a major-general of volunteers July 4, 1862. Until September he was in command of all the Federal troops in Virginia south of the James. He rendered his most distinguished military service in the spring of 1863 when he beat off Longstreet's attack at Suffolk, Virginia. His skill in the disposition of his forces and his personal courage were such that he outwitted Longstreet's attempts to outflank him, beat off his assaults, raised the siege of Suffolk, and ended the campaign by personally leading a small force to capture at Hill's Point five heavy guns which the gunboats of a light flotilla had not been able to silence. For his actions in this area he was highly commended by Dix and Meade. He was seriously injured, however, and was given leave of absence until August 1863, when he assumed command in North Carolina until the end of April 1864. During the following winter he was engaged only in small skirmishes, but his health suffered to such an extent that he was ordered to Washington in the spring and placed on duty in the Department of the East. On November 5 he was given command on the Canadian frontier, remaining at this port until he was mustered out of service on August 24, 1865.

After the war he resumed his civilian interests at Syracuse. He organized the New York State Life Insurance Company in 1867 and acted as president of that organization until his death.



[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register ... U.S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891); Annual Reunion, Association Graduates U. S. Military Academy, 1901; Elias Loomis, Descendants of Joseph Loomis in America (1909), revised by Elisha S. Loomis; New York Tribune, April 23, 1878.]

D. Y.



PENNYPACKER, GALUSHA (June r, 1844-October 1, 1916), soldier, was born in Schuylkill Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph J. and Tamson Amelia (Workizer) Pennypacker and the nephew of Elijah Funk Pennypacker [q. v.]. His first American ancestor was Heinrich (or Hendrick) Pannebacker who emigrated to Pennsylvania before 1699. His grandfather had fought in the Revolution, and his father was an officer in the War with Mexico. When Galusha was still in his fourth year, his mother, a French Canadian, died, and his father went to California leaving the boy in care of his grandmother, Elizabeth Funk Pennypacker. He was educated in the private schools of Phoenixville and Schuylkill Township. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted for three months in the 9th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers serving as quartermaster-sergeant. On the expiration of his term of enlistment, he returned home and recruited Company A, 97th Pennsylvania Volunteer s, of which he was elected captain on August 22, 1861. He was promoted rapidly and attained the rank of colonel by August 15, 1864. On February 18, 1865, he was appointed brigadier-general of Volunteers, the youngest officer of that rank in the war, and less than a month later was made major-general. He served with distinction at Fort Wagner, Drewry's Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Green Plains, and Fort Fisher, being wounded seven times in eight months. At Fort Fisher, on January 15, 1865, he led his brigade in a charge across a traverse of the work and planted the colors of one of his regiments on the parapet where he fell seriously wounded. For this act of gallantry he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1891.

He resigned from the service on April 30, 1866, but the following July he was appointed colonel in the regular army and assigned to the 34th Infantry. He was again brevetted brigadier and major-general for his conduct at Fort Fisher and for his services during the war, and on March 15, 1869, he was transferred to the 16th Infantry which he commanded until his retirement in 1883. From 1869 to 1877 his regiment was established in the South with headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee, and was engaged in assisting the civil authorities in carrying out the Reconstruction Act of Congress. Pennypacker exercised endless patience and tact in executing this very delicate mission and, without departing from his duty, he won the respect and affection of the Southern people and did much to reconcile them to the Federal government. After 1877 he did frontier duty in the Indian country of the West. He was finally retired for disability as the result of his wounds. Urged to be a candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in 1872 he declined on the ground that he had no taste for politics. He never married but spent the last years of his life in lonely retirement at his home in Philadelphia. He died on October 1, 1916, and was buried with the simple rites of the Society of Friends in the Philadelphia National Cemetery.

[Who' s Who in America, 1914-15; F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary  of the U. S. Army (1903); Hamilton H. Gilkyson, "The Life and Services of General Galusha Pennypacker," in G. M. Philips, An Account of Twenty-One Citizens of West Chester, Penn. (1919), volume I; J. S. Futhey and G. Cope, History of Chester County, Penn. (1881); Press (Phila.), October 2, 1916.]

C.E. T.L.



PHELPS, JOHN SMITH (December 22, 1814- November 20, 1886), congressman, governor of Missouri, was born at Simsbury, Connecticut, the son of Lucy (Smith) and Elisha Phelps, a member of Congress from 1819 to 1821 and from 1825 to 1829. He was the descendant of William Phelps who emigrated from England about 1630 and the cousin of Guy Rowland Phelps [q. v.]. He attended common school at Simsbury and then entered Washington College at Hartford, now Trinity College. He left before graduating on account of his refusal to take the part assigned to him on the Commencement program. In 1859 he was given the degree of A.B. as of the class of 1832. He studied law under his father and was admitted to the bar in 1835. On April 30, 1837, he married Mary Whitney of Portland, Maine. Later in the same year the bride and groom settled at Springfield, Missouri, where their five children were born. In the small frontier town he prospered and quickly became a leading lawyer of southwest Missouri. He was elected to the state legislature in 1840.

Four years later he was elected to Congress as a Democrat and served in that body continuously for eighteen years thereafter. Within a short time he won distinction as an able and influential debater. Among the leading policies and projects that he advocated were the allotment of adequate bounties to soldiers, government aid for railroads, the establishment of an overland mail service to California, and cheaper postage. After a long fight the postage on ordinary letters was reduced to three cents. He was a leading advocate of the early admission of Oregon and California to the Union. For ten years he was a member of the committee on ways and means and from 1858 to 1860 was its chairman. Although he was not counted as extraordinarily brilliant, nevertheless, his contemporaries appreciated his faithfulness and his efficiency as well as his friendliness. During the last six or seven years of his service in Congress his ability as well as his position of seniority made him the logical candidate for the speakership, but his Northern birth and his Union political convictions caused him to be defeated for the place. When the Civil War broke out he went home, organized the Phelps Regiment, and led it in some of the hardest fighting at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. In July 1862 he was appointed by Lincoln military governor of Arkansas, but he soon resigned the position on account of the failure of his health. In his wife he had an able helpmate. During the war her home was turned into a hospital, and she took care of the body of General Nathaniel Lyon [q.v.] after the battle of Wilson's Creek. For such services Congress voted her the sum of $20,000, which she used to establish an orphans' home at Springfield for the children ot both Union and Confederate soldiers. In 1864 he resumed his law practice in Springfield.

He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Missouri in 1868, but owing to the wholesale disfranchisements of the Drake constitution he was defeated. Under the more liberal constitution of 1875 he became an ideal candidate because he could unify the Northern and Southern factions in Missouri Democracy. In 1876 he was easily elected, and he served the full four-year term. During his administration there was much agitation over strikes, chiefly of railway employees, and over the Greenback movement. He suppressed the strikes with vigor. The movement for currency reform, thanks to the steady economic recovery from the panic of 1873, produced no acute problem for him to solve. He was in hearty accord with the strong contemporary movement looking toward a more liberal support of the public schools of the state. Upon his retirement from office the St. Louis Globe Democrat said that "it will hardly be disputed that Missouri never had a better governor than John S. Phelps" (January 12, 1881).

[Walter Williams and F. C. Shoemaker, Missouri (1930), volumes I, II; The Bench and Bar of St. Louis ... and other ... Cities (1884); W. B. Stevens, Centennial History of Missouri (1921), volume II; H. L. Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri (1901), volume V; F. C. Shoemaker, A History of Missouri (1922); O. S. Phelps and A. T. Servin, The Phelps Family (1899), volume I; Booneville Weekly Advertiser, November 26, 1886; minutes of trustees of Trinity College through the courtesy of Professor Arthur Adams.]

H. E. N.



PLEASONTON, ALFRED (June 7, 1824- February 17, 1897), soldier, son of Stephen and Mary (Hopkins) Pleasanton, was born in Washington, D. C. He was educated in the Washington schools until he entered the United States Military Academy in 1840. He graduated in 1844, seventh m a class of twenty-five; was commissioned second lieutenant, 2nd Dragoons, November 3, 1845. He served throughout the Mexican War and for gallant and meritorious conduct at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma was brevetted first lieutenant, May 9, 1846. Following the Mexican War, he did frontier duty and was promoted first lieutenant, September 30, 1849. He was General W. S. Harney's acting assistant adjutant-general during the Sioux expedition, receiving his captaincy March 3, 1855. From 1856 to 1860 he served as Harney's adjutant-general in Florida against the Seminoles and in campaigns in Kansas, Oregon, and Washington Territory. He commanded the 2nd Cavalry on its march, September to October 1861, from Utah to Washington, D. C., where he was assigned to the defenses of the capital.

He was commissioned major, 2nd Cavalry, February 15, 1862, served brilliantly throughout the Peninsular campaign, and was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, July 16, 1862. In the Army of the Potomac, he commanded the cavalry division that pursued Lee's invading army into Maryland, September 8-November 18, 1862. He fought at South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, being brevetted lieutenant-colonel September 17, 1862. He was engaged in the Rappahannock campaign from December 1862 to June 1863. At Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, he helped to check the decisive advance of "Stonewall" Jackson's corps against Hooker's right flank. Pleasanton ordered the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry to charge and thus checked Jackson long enough for all available Union artillery to get into position. Loading the guns with grape and canister, he depressed their muzzles so that the shot would strike midway between the guns and the woods  and, when the Confederates emerged from the woods, poured death into their ranks. His prompt and energetic action saved the Federals from complete disaster. Later he wrote "The Successes and Failures of Chancellorsville,'' published in the third volume of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1888). Pleasonton was promoted major-general of volunteers, June 22, 1863, and participated in all the operations leading up to Gettysburg, where he was in command of all Union cavalry and won the brevet of colonel. He was engaged in battles at Culpeper Courthouse and Brandy Station, Virginia, and was then transferred to Missouri, March 23, 1864. Campaigning against General Sterling Price, he defended Jefferson City, October 8, 1864, and later routed Price near Marais des Cygnes River, Kansas, October 25, 1864. For his services against Price he was brevetted brigadier-general, March 13, 1865, and on the same date brevetted major-general for meritorious services in the field during the war.

Upon the reorganization of the army, Pleasonton was required to serve under officers he had commanded in battle. Embittered, he resigned his commission, January 1, 1868. His petition for a pension was refused, and from April 1869 to March 1870 he served as collector of internal revenue for the fourth district, New York, and from March to December 1870 of the thirty-second district. On December 16, 1870, his appointment as commissioner of internal revenue was confirmed. A conflict over authority arose between Pleasonton and Secretary of the Treasury Boutwell, which resulted in the former's being asked to resign. He declined and was suspended (Rogers, post). From 1872 to 1874 he was president of the Cincinnati & Terre Haute Railway. Congress tardily recognized Pleasonton's splendid war service by commissioning him major on the retired list, October 19, 1888. This commission he reluctantly accepted. During the last twenty years of his life he lived in the Greason House, Washington, D. C., where he slept by day and at night, with his old comrades, fought again the battles of the past. He was a most agreeable gentleman and, when not hindered by a chronic throat disorder, a brilliant and entertaining conversationalist. Afflicted with a painful fistula for eight years, he isolated himself in his hotel, never leaving his room and seldom his bed. In accordance with his wish, he was buried without military ceremony, in the Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D. C. He lived and died a bachelor, the last of a family of several children.

[Twenty-Eighth Annual Reunion Association Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1897); F. B. Heitman Historical Register and Dictionary  U.S. Army (1903), volume I; G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U.S. Military Academy (1891), volume II; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volumes II-IV (1887-88); "Report of the Secretary of War," Senate Executive Documents 2, 36 Congress, 1 Session; A. C. Rogers, Sketches of Representative Men, North and South (1871); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Evening Star (Washington), February 17, 1897.]

C. C. B.



POE, ORLANDO METCALFE (March 7, 1832-October 2, 1895), soldier and engineer, was born at Navarre, Stark County, Ohio, the son of Charles and Susanna (Warner) Poe and fifth in descent from George Jacob Poe, who came from Germany before 1742 and settled in western Maryland. One of the sons of the latter, Adam Poe, great-grandfather of Orlando, followed the frontier to Ohio. Orlando entered the United States Military Academy in 1852, was graduated sixth in his class in 1856, and was appointed brevet second lieutenant of Topographical Engineers. He served as assistant topographical engineer on the survey of the northern lakes from 1856 to 1861, attaining the grade of first lieutenant in July 1860. He was married at Detroit, Michigan, June 17, 1861, to Eleanor Carroll Brent, daughter of Captain Thomas Lee Brent, United States Army; she, with one of their four children, survived him.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Poe assisted in organizing Ohio volunteers. Later he served as topographical engineer in the operations in West Virginia and, as a member of McClellan's staff, assisted in organizing the defenses of Washington. Appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Volunteers, September 16, 1861, he commanded that regiment during the Peninsular campaign. At the battles of Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, he was conspicuous for skilful leadership and personal gallantry. He commanded a brigade at Manassas and during the Maryland campaign was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, November 29, 1862, and commanded a brigade of the IX Army Corps during the Fredericksburg campaign, and a division of that corps during its subsequent movement to Ohio. His volunteer commission expired March 4, 1863; the senate failed to confirm his reappointment, and he reverted to his regular army rank of captain of engineers. He served as chief engineer of the XXIII Army Corps in the march on Knoxville and after the occupation of that place became chief engineer of the Army of the Ohio. In this capacity he planned and constructed the fortifications of Knoxville, and directed with skill the defensive organization during the siege by Longstreet's army, some months later (July 6, 1864) receiving for his gallant services the brevet rank of major. Years after the war he read before the Michigan Commandery of the Loyal Legion a paper on "Personal Recollections of the Occupation of East Tennessee and the Defenses of Knoxville" which was published in part in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (volume III, 1889). In December 1863 he was assigned to duty as assistant engineer of the Military Division of the Mississippi. His zeal and versatility soon won the favor of General Sherman who, in April 1864, selected him as his chief engineer. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel and colonel for gallant services in the capture of Atlanta and Savannah, respectively, and brigadier-general, United States Army, for gallant and meritorious services in the campaign terminating with the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston.

Brilliant as was his career as a soldier, it was over shadowed by his accomplishments as an engineer. After the war, Poe served as engineer secretary of the Lighthouse Board, 1865-70, being commissioned major, Corps of Engineers, in 1867. In 1870 he became engineer of the Upper Lakes Lighthouse District and superintendent of river and harbor work in the lake region. During this service he built the Spectacle Reef Light, Lake Huron. On January 1, 1873, he was appointed colonel and aide-de-camp to General Sherman, which status he retained until Sherman's retirement in 1884. His duties during this period were concerned with the work of the army in protecting the transcontinental railways under construction at that time, and with varied engineering problems connected with the improvement of communication between the West and the East. He published in 1884, Ordnance Notes-No. 345 . . . Report on Transcontinental Railways, 1883. Poe was promoted lieutenant-colonel, Corps of Engineers, in 1882, and colonel in 1888. Becoming, in 1883, superintending engineer of improvement of rivers and harbors on Lakes Superior and Huron and of St. Mary's Falls Canal, he had charge of the improvement of the St. Mary's and Detroit rivers; the ship channel between Chicago, Duluth, and Buffalo; the construction of the dry dock, St. Mary's Falls Canal; and the design and construction of the locks - one of which bears his name--at Sault Sainte Marie. He died in Detroit, of erysipelas contracted as the result of an injury received while inspecting his work at Sault Sainte Marie, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

[Records of the War Department, 1856-95; G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891), volume II; G. O. Seilhamer, in Kittochtinny Magazine, April 1905; Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U. S., Commandery of the State of Michigan, Circular No. 14, Series of 1895 (1895); Twenty-seventh Annual Reunion, Association Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1896); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volumes III, IV (1888); War of the Rebellion, Official Records (Army); Detroit Free Press, October 3, 1895.]

T. F. M.



POPE, JOHN (March 16, 1822-September 23, 1892), soldier, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Nathaniel Pope [q.v.] and Lucretia (Backus) Pope. He was appointed a cadet at the Military Academy in 1838, and graduated in 1842, No. 17 in his class. Assigned as brevet second lieutenant to the topographical engineers, he was engaged in survey work for the next four years, first in Florida and later on the northeastern boundary line. Promoted second lieutenant May 9, 1846, he was ordered to General Taylor's army in Texas, and served throughout the latter's Mexican campaign. He received the brevet rank of first lieutenant, September 23, 1846, for his services at Monterey, and of captain, February 23, 1847, for Buena Vista. After the war he came north for a short time, on survey duty in Minnesota. Returning to the Southwest in 1851, he served at headquarters of the Department of New Mexico as chief topographical engineer until 1853; then for six years he was in the field, surveying a route for a Pacific railway, and experimenting with artesian wells as a water supply for the Llano Estacada. From 1859 until the opening of the Civil War he was again in the North, on lighthouse duty. He became first lieutenant March 3, 1853, and captain July 1, 1856.

From April 15 to July 29, 1861, he was mustering officer at Chicago. Then, appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, with rank from May 17, he was ordered to General Fremont's force in Missouri. In March and April 1862, he commanded the Army of the Mississippi in Halleck's operations for the opening of that river. While Grant moved up the Tennessee River to break up the Confederate field force, Pope moved directly against the defenses of the Mississippi at New Madrid, Missouri, and at Island No. 10. A flotilla of gunboats under Commodore Andrew H. Foote DJ. [q.v.] cooperated with him. First taking New Madrid by siege, he cut a canal which enabled him to bring transport boats down to that point, avoiding the batteries at Island No. 10. The gun boats ran the batteries, and rejoined him. Under the protection of the gunboats, and of his own shore batteries, he brought his troops across to the east bank, cutting the communications of the defenses of Island No. 10 and forcing their surrender. This opened the river nearly down to Memphis. During these operations he was made major-general of volunteers (March 21, 1862). He now prepared to continue his advance down the river, but in April his army was recalled to join Grant's and Buell's forces (the Armies of the Tennessee and of the Ohio) on the Tennessee River for an advance upon Corinth, Mississippi, under Halleck's personal command. Throughout the month of May his army formed Halleck's left wing in the advance to and siege of Corinth, and in the subsequent pursuit.

The reputation which he won in this theatre of operations caused his selection for higher independent command. He was handsome, dashing, soldierly, and a fine horseman; his personal appearance and manner combined with his military successes to bring about his advancement. Under orders issued June 26, he organized and concentrated all the separate forces in the region of the Rappahannock and the Shenandoah into the Army of Virginia, which was expected to protect Washington, and to relieve the pressure upon McClellan in the Peninsula. During this concentration, on July 14, he was appointed brigadier-general in the regular service, continuing to serve, however, under his commission as major-general of volunteers. In the middle of July, McClellan's Peninsular Campaign was regarded as having definitely failed. His troops were withdrawn to the vicinity of Washington, and transferred as they arrived to Pope's Army of Virginia. The Confederate army, relieved from anxiety for Richmond, moved toward Pope, whose operations, originally conceived as secondary, now became of primary importance.

He assumed his new command with misgivings. Possibly in an effort to overcome or conceal these, he spoke, wrote, and acted in an unduly optimistic and confident manner. All his new corps commanders were originally his seniors; one, Fremont, had been his immediate commander in Missouri, and resented his arrival so keenly that he asked to be relieved of his command. Many of the reinforcing troops from the Army of the Potomac, intensely loyal to McClellan, deeply regretted his eclipse and their own transfer. Pope showed little appreciation of the delicate situation, and, instead of handling his command tactfully and turning this loyalty to himself, issued orders contrasting the eastern troops unfavorably with the western armies that he had just left.

Jackson's corps was the first to come against him from Richmond, and on August 9 it defeated Banks's corps at Cedar Mountain, but failed to prevent Pope's concentration at Culpeper. The remainder of Lee's army now arrived, and Pope withdrew behind the Rappahannock. Lee now began a wide turning movement, sending Jackson's corps around Pope's right, through Thoroughfare Gap, and following with Longstreet a day later. Pope somewhat tardily appreciated this separation of the Confederate army, and attempted to take advantage of it by concentrating against Jackson. But his movements were groping and ineffective, and Longstreet was nearer than he had supposed, so that the Confederate corps effected their junction in time. In the ensuing Second Battle of Manassas (August 27-30) Pope was decisively defeated, and fell back to the defenses of Washington. On September 5 he was relieved of his command, and the troops were reassigned to McClellan's Army of the Potomac.

Throughout the campaign, Pope was poorly informed of the Confederate movements, and he misjudged the entire situation. As a result, his orders were vague, and his dispositions never appropriate. Pope insisted that his failure was due to the disloyalty and disobedience of subordinate commanders, notably General Fitz-John Porter [q.v.] whose corps (V) remained inactive on August 29. According to Pope's conception of the situation, and under his orders, this corps should have struck Jackson's right flank, cutting him off from Longstreet and insuring his defeat. Porter's contention was that Longstreet had already arrived and prolonged Jackson's line, and that the moves ordered had become impossible. Porter was tried and dismissed from the Army for his conduct, but immediately began a campaign for reinstatement, which he finally won many years after. The controversy lasted throughout the lives of both generals; in fact, it may be said to continue even to this day. Pope was not again employed in field operations. He was sent to the Department of the Northwest, where he served with credit in Indian troubles. In January 1865, he assumed command of the Division (later Department) of the Missouri.

Near the close of the war (March 13, 1865) Pope received the brevet rank of major-general in the regular army; for his conduct of the expedition against Island No. 10. He commanded the 3rd Military District (Georgia, Alabama, and Florida) in 1867; the Department of the Lakes, 1868-70; the Department of the Missouri, 1870-83; and the Department of California and Division of the Pacific, from 1883 to March 16, 1886, when he was retired for age. On October 26, 1882, he was promoted major-general. The Department of the Missouri was a particularly important command at this time, since the region of Kansas City and Leavenworth was the starting point for emigration both to the Northwest and to the Southwest, and the base for military operations in both directions. Pope's name is closely identified with this country, and especially with the post of Fort Leavenworth, where he long maintained his headquarters. After the war, he wrote rather extensively concerning operations in which he took part. His narrative of his explorations in the Southwest is published in House Executive Document No. 129, 33 Congress, 1 Session

He was married on September 15, 1859, to Clara Pomeroy Horton, a daughter of Valentine B. Horton [q.v.] of Pomeroy, Ohio, who predeceased him. They had two sons and two daughters. He died of nervous prostration at Sandusky, Ohio, at the quarters of his wife's brother-in-law, General Manning F. Force, governor of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home.



[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy …(1891), volume II; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); J. C. Ropes, The Army under Pope (1881); The Virginia Campaign of General Pope in I862. Papers Read before the Military History Society of Massachusetts, volume II (1886); sketch by M. F. Force, in Twenty-fourth Annual Reunion of the Association of the Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy ... 1893 (1893); Genealogy of Major General John Pope, U.S. Army (1875); obituaries in Louisville Courier-Journal, September 24, 1892, and Army and Navy Journal, October 1, 1892.)

O. L. S., Jr.



PORTER, DAVID DIXON (June 8, 1813- February 13, 1891), naval officer, was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, the third of the ten children of David Porter [q.v.], and Evelina (Anderson) Porter. His formal education was limited, not extending beyond the elementary studies. At the age of ten he made a cruise with his father in the West Indies and three years later accompanied him to Mexico city where, after a brief period in school, he entered the Mexican navy as a midshipman. He saw his first active service as an officer on board the Esmeralda, commanded by his cousin, David H. Porter, cruising off Key West and the Cuban coast in search of Spanish vessels. Later he participated in the desperate encounter between the Mexican ship Guerrero and the Spanish frigate Lealtad and was taken prisoner. After suffering confinement at Havana he returned home and on February 2, 1829, was appointed midshipman in the American navy, sailing in the same year on board the Constellation for the Mediterranean station. This service of two years was followed by a period of leave, and this by two more years in the Mediterranean, one of the most enjoyable cruises of his life. He was attached to the United States, the flagship of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson [q.v.] who was accompanied by his daughter, George Ann. The companionship between the two young people which began at this time culminated in marriage on March 10, 1839, a happy union that lasted more than half a century.

He was warranted passed midshipman in 1835 and in the following year was sent to the Coast Survey where he was employed for six years, either on the Atlantic Coast making hydrographic surveys or in Washington compiling field notes. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant on February 27, 1841, he was ordered to the Congress in 1842, serving first in the Mediterranean and later on the coast of Brazil. His next duties on shore, similar to those of the Coast Survey, were performed at the Hydrographic Office in Washington. In 1846 these were interrupted for four months while he visited the Dominican Republic and acquired information respecting political, social, and economic conditions, then desired by the State Department. In July 1846, he applied for active service in the Mexican War and was given a mediocre appointment at New Orleans as recruiting officer. He arrived at Vera Cruz with a detachment of recruits in February 1847, and was assigned to the steamer Spitfire as first lieutenant. In that capacity, he participated in the fruitless attack on the city with the Mosquito Division under the command of Josiah Tattnall [q.v.]. Later, at Tabasco, he commanded a landing party of seventy seamen, and in a spirited charge captured the fort. In recognition of this service he was made commander of the Spitfire, his first naval command. When he was ordered home in July, Matthew Calbraith Perry [q.v.], his commander, commended him as a "brave and zealous officer" (Soley, post, p. 76).

After a few months at the Naval Observatory in Washington, he was once more ordered to the Coast Survey and was placed in command of the surveying vessel Petrel. As the navy offered little prospect for active service, he obtained command of the merchant steamer Panama in 1849 and made a voyage through the Straits of Magellan to the Pacific. On returning home he commanded the privately owned mail steamer Georgia and for two years made regular trips between New York and Havana and Chagres. He then entered the service of the Australian Steamship Company as captain of the Golden Age, which was one of the fastest steamers of her day and which plied between Melbourne and Sydney. In 1855 he returned to the Navy as commander of the steamship Supply and made two voyages to the Mediterranean for camels which the army desired to use for pack animals in the Southwest. On his first voyage he found occasion to visit the Crimea and see something of the war in progress there. From 1857 to 1860 he was first lieutenant of the Portsmouth navy yard, having charge of various trivial improvements. Disgusted with his prospects in the navy, he decided to take employment with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company: and, as a preliminary step, sought and obtained an assignment to duty on the Pacific Coast with the Coast Survey. He was in Washington in March 1861, preparing for this service. More than thirty-two years had elapsed since he had entered the navy, and more than twenty years since he had reached the rank of lieutenant. He was now in the forty-eighth year of his age, spare and muscular, a little below the middle height, obviously a man of action, restless, energetic, high-spirited, buoyant, and frank. He was generous to his subordinates, but critical of his superiors. Keenly intelligent in matters relating to a profession in which he was a natural leader, he was an amateur outside of it.

On April 1, a few hours before he planned to leave for California, he was chosen by Secretary of State Seward to command the Powhatan in a joint expedition which the Secretary was secretly preparing for the relief of Fort Pickens, Florida. Porter wrote his own orders and also an order to Secretary of the Navy Welles, notifying him that Samuel Barron [q.v.] was appointed chief of the Bureau of Detail, an office of great responsibility. Barron was a Virginian and Porter's intimate friend. He entered the Confederate navy five days before the date of Porter's order put him in charge of the personnel of the federal navy. To the suspicious Secretary of the Navy, Porter at this time was wavering in his loyalty to the Union (Diary, post, p. 20). It seems that Porter, flattered by the attention of his superiors, and eager to grasp an opportunity for active service, sought to place in power a responsive friend, and at the same time to gratify an itch to assert himself in the management of the navy. When the President learned from Welles the character of the papers that he had signed, he canceled the order respecting Barron and directed Seward to order Porter to give up the Powhatan. When Porter received Seward's telegram he was off Staten Island. He at once put to sea, as in his opinion the orders signed by the President took precedence over Seward's telegram. He arrived off Pensacola with the intention of entering the harbor and recovering the city at any cost. Disregarding signals, he proceeded to carry out his intention, when a vessel bearing the orders of the commanding officer of the army to desist therefrom was put across the course of the Powhatan. He remained at Pensacola for six weeks performing reconnoissance, guard and blockade duty. He then proceeded to Mobile where he instituted a blockade, and later to similar duties at the southwest pass of the Mississippi. In August he left the pass to cruise in the West Indies and off the South American coast in a fruitless search for the commerce destroyer Sumter. In August he was promoted to the rank of commander to date from April 22.

Porter had a prominent part in the preliminary planning of the New Orleans expedition, and if his rank had permitted, he probably would have been chosen to command the expedition. He warmly recommended Farragut for the command and was chosen as the intermediary of the department in sounding out the future admiral. His idea that the main fleet should be accompanied by a mortar flotilla was not favored by Farragut, but since the plan was already well advanced, Farragut offered no further objection and Porter was chosen to command it. From April 18 to April 23, 1862, the flotilla kept up an almost continuous bombardment of the forts, St. Philip and Jackson, below New Orleans, firing with great accuracy and doing much damage, but giving convincing proof that they could not thus be reduced. On the 24th when Farragut ran past the forts, the flotilla effectively supported the movement by engaging the water batteries and Fort Jackson. On the 25th, Porter, who now commanded the fleet below the forts, demanded their surrender and was refused. Fearing that the Confederate fleet might attack his vessels, he moved them to points of safety and assumed the defensive (Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War, p. 185). On the 27th he again demanded the surrender of the forts offering very favorable terms, and on the following day they were accepted. The capitulation was drawn up and signed on board his flag ship, the Harriet Lane. In June when Farragut's fleet ran past the batteries at Vicksburg, the mortar flotilla covered the movement and once more proved its value in such operations. Its commander, after receiving the commendation of Farragut, was detached from the squadron in July.

On October 9, 1862, Porter was chosen to succeed Charles Henry Davis [q.v.] as commander of the Mississippi Squadron, with the rank of acting rear admiral. More than eighty officers commanders, captains, and commodores-had superior claims to the appointment on grounds of seniority. In the selection of Porter, Professor Soley thinks he sees the hand of the President (Admiral Porter, post, p. 235). It is not to be overlooked that Porter's intimate friend Gustavus Vasa Fox [q.v.] was assistant secretary of the navy (Diary, post, II, 147). Secretary Welles credits himself with the appointment, stating that the appointee possessed "stirring and positive qualities," fertility in resources, great energy, bravery, vim, and dash, but noting also that he was boastful, excessively ambitious, and "given to cliquism" (Diary, I, 157-58). On October 15, Porter relieved Davis at Cairo, Illinois, where he remained two months organizing his squadron. The principal waters under his command consisted of the upper Mississippi north of the region of Vicksburg and the tributaries thereof, notably the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Arkansas rivers. His tasks included keeping these waters open to transports carrying troops and to steamers carrying supplies for the army, and cooperating with the army in the reduction of Vicksburg. In January 1863, he joined with the army in the capture of Arkansas Post, himself receiving the surrender of the fort, and for the bravery and skill displayed in making this capture as well as for his successful operations on the Mississippi, he was thanked by Congress. Several of his vessels passed the defenses at Vicksburg and gave a good account of themselves below that city. In the battle of Grand Gulf, fought in May 1863, they lost seventy-five men.

In the same month Porter cooperated with Grant in his assault upon Vicksburg and during the siege that followed frequently engaged the Confederate batteries. After the surrender both Grant and Sherman expressed their appreciation of his services and he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral from July 4, the date of the surrender. He never held the rank of captain or commodore. On August 1, 1863, he took charge of the lower Mississippi as far down as New Orleans. He now divided his long line of waterways, more than three thousand miles in length, into eight districts and appointed a commander for each district. With a building yard at Cairo, Illinois, in addition to a fleet of more than eighty vessels, it is apparent that his administrative tasks were of no mean order. In the spring of 1864 he commanded the naval force that cooperated with the army in the Red River expedition and when the movement failed he made an extraordinarily successful retreat down the river under circumstances that tested his reputation for energy, ingenuity, and courage. While his services were in no way spectacular nor comparable in popular appeal with those of Farragut, they had demanded great energy and unusual organizing and administrative abilities.

He was recalled from the West to take command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and to reduce Fort Fisher, the chief defense of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the most important still remaining in the hands of the Confederates. He organized his squadron, consisting of 120 vessels, into four divisions, corresponding to the four divisions of the waters under his command, extending northward from the North Carolina-South Carolina line to the region of the Rappahannock River, and including the sounds of North Carolina and the York and James rivers. Late in December he bombarded Fort Fisher, but failed to capture it, not receiving, as he thought, proper support from the army. In January a second and stronger expedition was sent against the fort. The fleet consisted of more than sixty vessels, then the largest ever assembled under the flag of the United States. The army was commanded by General Alfred Howe Terry [q.v.]. After three days of terrific bombardment the fort was taken by the assaulting troops and within a few days thereafter he captured the remaining defenses guarding Wilmington. He again received a message of appreciation from Congress for his victory, the only naval commander of the war to receive three times the thanks of his government. He passed the last weeks of the war in the James River where he received President Lincoln on board the Malvern, his flagship.

During the war Porter had expressed a desire to command the Naval Academy and "get the right set of officers into the Navy" (Thompson and Wainwright, post, p. 95). He realized his ambition in August 1865, when he was chosen superintendent. His term of four years was epoch-making. By reason of his national fame he was able to obtain increased appropriations and to enlarge the physical plant of the academy. Determined to make the spirit, government, and instruction of the school predominantly "naval," he substituted line for staff officers and gave himself three votes as a member of the Academic Board. Practical and professional work was emphasized, and new drills, physical exercises, and amusements were introduced. For obedience he depended upon the personal honor of the midshipmen and established friendly relations with them. In 1866-67 his work at the academy was interrupted by an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to Santo Domingo, the object of which was to secure the cession or lease of Samana Bay. When Farragut was advanced to the grade of admiral in 1866, Porter was made vice-admiral from July 25.

In March 1869, President Grant installed Porter in the navy department as the "adviser" of the secretary, Adolph Edward Borie [q.v.], and for more than a year Porter virtually ran the department. Long dissatisfied with the way in which the navy had been administered, he instituted a policy of reform and issued numerous general orders covering a wide range of subjects, some of which were rather "fanciful," some "ill-timed.'' and some "distinctly harmful" (Soley, post, p. 460). He organized boards to inspect the fleets and the navy yards and began the repair of numerous vessels, insisting that the steamers should be equipped with auxiliary sail power, one of his favorite notions. His exercise of authority aroused much opposition, especially among the staff officers who fared badly under him, and on the coming of a new secretary, his power and influence waned rapidly. On the death of Farragut, Porter succeeded him as admiral from August 15, 1870. During the Virginius affair of 1873 the government once more sought Porter's active services and chose him to command the fleet assembled at Key West. Fortunately the difficulty was peacefully settled. From 1877 until his death he was the head of the Board of Inspection.

For the last twenty years of his life his chief naval duties, the inspection of ships and navy yards, were relatively unimportant. He made annual reports to the secretary of the navy, in which he discussed freely and fully the lamentable condition of the fleet and vigorously insisted on the construction of a new navy. His position was anomalous and highly unsatisfactory to him. Holding the highest rank, he was subordinate to navy bureau chiefs in the councils of the navy. For years he seldom entered the department. He occupied his leisure with literary efforts which achieved results that he alone greatly admired. His best historical writing is his Memoir of Commodore David Porter (1875). Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885) is a gossipy and amusing book. His Naval History of the Civil War (1886) is said by his biographer to be inaccurate in many particulars. His fiction like all his writings is verbose and amateurish. One of his novels, Allan Dare and Robert le Diable (2 volumes, 1885), was dramatized and presented in a New York City theatre. He never lost his zest for living and for many years his home in Washington, at 1718 H Street, was noted for its generous hospitality. He died in Washington and was buried in Arlington Cemetery. His biography, written at his request by his naval friend, Professor James Russell Soley, is not always judicious (Nation, November 5, 1903, 365). Porter had eight children. One of his four sons entered the navy, and another, the marine corps. General Fitz-John Porter [q.v.] was a first cousin.

[Collection of Porter papers, 1851-1891, in the Library of Congress; Record of Offs., Bureau of Navigation, 1825- 93; J. R. Soley, Admiral Porter (1903); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Navy), 1 series, vols. X-XII, XVII-XVIII, XXV-XXVII; A. T. Mahan, The Gulf and Inland Waters (1883); Daniel Ammen, The Atlantic Coast (1883); Diary of Gideon Welles (3. volumes, 1911); R. M. Thompson and R. Wainwright, Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox (1919), volume II; B. F. Butler, Statement of Facts in Relation to Admiral D. D. Porter's Claim (1889r; D. D. Porter, An Answer to Misrepresentations (1872); Park Benjamin, The U.S. Naval Academy (1900); Gideon Welles, "Admiral Farragut and New Orleans," Galaxy, November and December 1871; Washington Post, February 14, 1891.]

C.O.P.



PORTER, FITZ-JOHN (August 31, 1822-May 21, 1901), soldier, was born at Portsmouth, N. H. He was a son of Captain John Porter of the Navy, and so a nephew of Commodore David Porter and cousin of Admiral David Dixon Porter [qq.v.]. His early education was at Phillips Exeter Academy. In 1841 he was appointed a cadet at the Military Academy, and graduated in 1845, No. 8 in his class, as brevet second lieutenant in the 4th Artillery with station at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Promoted second lieutenant June 18, 1846, he joined General Taylor's army in Texas, served under him in his campaign in northern Mexico, and the next year under General Scott in his entire campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico city. In the capture of the city he was wounded, at Belen Gate. During this campaign (May 29, 1847) he was promoted first lieutenant, and received the brevets of captain (September 8, 1847) and major (September 13, 1847) for gallantry at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec.

After the war he returned to West Point, where he served from 1849 to 1855, as assistant instructor in artillery, as adjutant, and as instructor in artillery and cavalry. On June 27, 1856, while serving at Fort Brady, Michigan, he was transferred to the Adjutant General's Department with rank of captain, and took station at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1857, while on temporary duty in the East, he was married to Harriet Pierson Cook, daughter of John and Hannah (Sanford) Cook of New York. From 1857 to 1860 he was with Colonel Albert S. Johnston's Utah expedition as assistant adjutant-general; then came east to headquarters of the Army. During the latter months of 1860 and the early part of 1861 he was charged with various special missions-inspection of the defenses of Charleston harbor, withdrawal of troops from Texas after secession, and restoration and protection of rail communication between Washington and the North.

Upon the increase of the regular army, May 14, 1861, he was made colonel of the newly organized 15th Infantry; on May 17 he became brigadier-general of volunteers, and served under Patterson and Banks in the Shenandoah.· In McClellan's Peninsular campaign he commanded first a division in Heintzelman's III Corps; later he was given command of the V Corps. In June 1862, the army stood close to Richmond, astride the Chickahominy; Porter's corps, isolated on the north bank, was heavily attacked at Mechanicsville and Gaines's Mill. Porter's defense was obstinate, and with some reinforcement from the south bank he succeeded in withdrawing his corps. McClellan then began his movement across the Peninsula to the James River; Porter's corps went ahead, protected the wagon trains, and occupied the position at Malvern Hill upon which the rest of the army fell back.

McClellan's troops were withdrawn by water to the region of Washington, and assigned as they arrived to Pope's new Army of Virginia. Porter's corps came by way of the Rappahannock River and Falmouth. After some preliminary operations, Pope took position behind the Rappahannock. Lee made a wide turning movement, sending Jackson's corps around Pope's right, west of the Bull Run Mountains, and out again by Thoroughfare Gap. The rest of the army followed a day behind. Pope somewhat tardily appreciated the situation, and moved to crush Jackson while isolated. Porter's corps was intended to play a leading part in this maneuver, striking Jackson's right flank on August 29, cutting him off from Longstreet and insuring his defeat, but failed to do so. On the 30th it was energetically and usefully engaged. Pope was decisively defeated (Second Manassas or Bull Run), and fell back to Washington, where his army was broken up and his troops transferred again to McClellan's Army of the Potomac. In the ensuing Antietam campaign Porter's corps took part, but was not seriously engaged.

In November Porter was relieved of his command and ordered to trial by court martial on charges growing out of his action on August 29. Pope urged that the failure of his campaign was chiefly due to disobedience, disloyalty, and misconduct in the face of the enemy on the part of Porter. Porter insisted that Pope's orders were vague and conflicting; that Longstreet had already arrived, prolonging Jackson's line, and that the moves ordered had become impossible. The trial continued throughout December and part of January; Porter was found guilty and cashiered on January 21, 1863. He at once began efforts to clear his record. In 1879 he secured a review of his case by a board of general officers, which reported in his favor. In 1882 the President remitted that part of his sentence which forever disqualified him from holding office under the United States; and finally, August 5, 1886, he was reappointed as colonel of infantry in the army, to rank from May 14, 1861, without back pay, and placed on the retired list August 7.

After his trial he went first to Colorado, where he was employed as a mining superintendent. From 1865 to 1871 he was engaged in mercantile business in New York City. In 1869 he declined the Khedive's offer of chief command in the Egyptian army, an appointment later accepted by his friend General C. P. Stone. Later he was superintendent of construction for the New Jersey State Asylum at Morristown; assistant receiver for the Central Railroad of New Jersey; commissioner of public works, police commissioner, and fire commissioner of New York City, and cashier of the New York post-office. He died at Morristown, New Jersey, leaving a widow and four children, two sons and two daughters.

[There is abundant information about Porter's official career in G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy (1891), volume II; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); and in the voluminous controversial literature dealing with his trial and campaign for reinstatement. Official documents are Proceedings of a General Court Martial, for the Trial of Major General Fitz John Porter, U. S. Volunteers (1862); Proceedings and Report of the Board of Army Officers in the Case of Fitz-John Porter (2 volumes, 1879). The best summary of the case in his favor is U. S. Grant, "An Undeserved Stigma," North American Review, December 1882. J.C. Ropes, The Army under Pope (1881), is a good defense. For the case against him, see J. D. Cox, The Second Battle of Bull Run (1882), and the speech by J. A. Logan in the Senate, December 29, 1882, January 2, 3, 1883, in Congress Record, 47 Congress, 2 Session See also sketch by J. G. Wilson, in Thirty-Second Annual Reunion of the Association of the Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy ... 1901 (1901; Who's Who in America, 1899-1900; obituary in New York Daily Tribune, May 22, 1901. The name is most often written Fitz-John, though Fitz John also appears in signatures.]

O.L. S., Jr.



POTTER, ROBERT BROWN (July 16, 1829-Feruary 19, 1887), Union soldier, was the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter [q.v.] and his wife, Sarah Maria Nott, daughter of Eliphalet Nott [q.v.]. He was a descendant of Robert Potter of Coventry, England, who came to America in 1634. He was born in Schenectady, New York, and entered Union College in that city but did not graduate. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in New York City. On April 14, 1857, he married Frances Paine Tileston who died a year later, leaving an infant daughter. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted as a private in the New York Rifles. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and was commissioned major on October 14, 1861, in the Scott Rifles, a unit which later became part of the 51st New York Volunteers. Potter became a lieutenant-colonel on November 1, 1861. His command was attached to Reno's Brigade in Burnside's North Carolina expedition which sailed from Annapolis, Maryland, on January 9, 1862, In the victorious assault at Roanoke Island, February 8, he was the first field officer over the enemy's works. At New Bern, March 14, he was severely wounded but continued in battle until victory had been won. His command moved north with Burnside's army, and fought at Slaughter or Cedar Mountain, Manassas Junction, Greenville, and at Chantilly (Ox Hill). On September 10, 1862, he was promoted colonel. At South Mountain on September 14, 18621 his regiment fought gallantly, and at Antietam, September 17, made the brilliant and valiant charge across the bridge which saved the day for the Union army. Potter crossed in advance of his troops and incited them to heroic action by his own personal courage. He also commanded the 51st Regiment in the fighting at Fredericksburg, December 11-15, 1862.

Potter was made brigadier-general of volunteers on March 3, 1863, several weeks before he joined Burnside at Cincinnati. On June 3, the 2nd Division under his command accompanied Burnside's X Corps to Nicholasville, Kentucky. He participated in the capture of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and two of his, brigades were first to enter into Jackson, Mississippi; on July 16, 1863. In the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the autumn of 1863, Potter prevented Longstreet from getting supplies through to the besieged. During 1864, his division fought at Spotswood Tavern, Spotsylvania, Ox Ford on the North Anna River, Bethesda Church on the Totopotomy, and at Petersburg. It was a unit of his command that mined the Confederate position at Petersburg, and he was the only division commander present in the crater or connecting lines when the mine was exploded on July 30, 1864. He was severely wounded, April 2, 1865, in the final assault on Petersburg. Upon recovery, he was given command of the Connecticut and Rhode Island District of the Department of the East. He was brevetted to Major-general of volunteers in August 1864, and was promoted major-general on September 29, 1865, on which date he married Abby Austin Stevens. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on January 15, 1866, and from 1866 to 1869, was receiver for the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. He then went to England to recuperate his health. While abroad he lived the life of a country gentleman; entertaining frequently, and riding to hounds with his English friends. He returned to the United States in 1873 and settled down to a life of leisure on his estate, "The Rocks," at Newport, Rhode Island. During his later years, he was harassed by serious physical ailments which he suffered until his death.

[C. E. Potter, ed., Genealogy of the Potter Families and Their Descendants in America (1888); Seldon Ancestry (1931); F. B. Heitman, History Register and Dictionary  of the U.S. Army (1903); Frederick Phisterer, New York in the War of the Rebellion (5 volumes, 3rd ed., 1912); Lloyds Battle History of the Great Rebellion (1865); G. J. Fiebeger, Campaigns of the American Civil War (1914); Augustus Woodbury, Major General A. E. Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps (1867); New York Tribune, February 22, 1887.

J C. C. B.



POTTS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (January 29, 1836-June 17, 1887), Union soldier, territorial governor of Montana, was born in Carroll County, Ohio, the son of James and Jane (Maple) Potts. He grew up on a farm and attended a neighboring public school. He worked in a store for a year and in 1854 entered Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, but his finances were so limited that he could stay there only a year. For the next two years he taught school in Ohio and studied law. From 1857 to 1859 he read law with E. R. Eckley in Carrollton, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar. He began practice in Carroll County, soon became active in politics, and in 1860 was a delegate to the Democratic conventions at Charlestown and at Baltimore, where he vigorously supported Douglas. On May 28, 1861, he was married to Angeline Jackson of Carrollton. In August 1861 he became captain of Company F of the 32nd Ohio Volunteers in the Union Army. He became lieutenant-colonel in 1862 and was promoted to the rank of colonel later in the same year. He served with his regiment under Grant at Memphis and at the siege of Vicksburg. In 1864 he was given command of a brigade in Sherman's army. He distinguished himself in battles around Atlanta and Savannah, but, not until January 1865 was he officially promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. When the war was ended Sherman recommended him for a colonelcy in the regular army, but the appointment was not made.

Potts resumed the practice of law in Ohio and reentered politics as a Republican. He was elected to the state Senate, and in 1870 Grant appointed him governor of Montana to succeed James M. Ashley [q.v.]. He went to Montana still young, and his appearance impressed the people of the territory. He was more than six feet tall, with a huge body and great energy. Although he did not have the national reputation that distinguished his predecessors in Montana, his tact and good judgment won him respect. His reports (Report of the Governor of Montana ... to the Secretary of the Interior ... 1878- 1889, 10 volumes in 1, 1878-89) were sympathetic with the problems of the territory. He was tolerant of opposing views, and he generally managed to work in harmony with the Democratic majority in the legislature. He favored economy, and during the twelve years of his administration the territorial debt was almost paid off. He was eager to bring railways to Montana but was cautious about granting them subsidies. Largely through his recommendations the legislature modernized the civil and criminal laws and procedure. Throughout his administration he advocated more appropriations for public education. He gave much attention to Indian affairs and urged upon the government more stringent control of the Indian tribes. When the flight of Joseph [q. v.] across Montana aroused alarm throughout the territory, he took prompt measures to protect the people. His administration was ushered in by hard times, and the panic of 1873 hurt Montana severely. The people were demanding free silver and cheap transportation. He interpreted their demands without offense to Grant and Hayes, both of whom disliked western radicalism. Arthur finally came to distrust him and in January 1883 removed him from office. Potts had long since identified himself with Montana, and at the next election he was elected to the territorial legislature. Soon after this he and Russell B. Harrison established a large stock farm near Helena, in which for the remaining years of his life he was chiefly interested.

[Progressive Men of the State of Montana (1900); Whitelaw Reid, Ohio in the War (1868), volume I; History of the Thirty-Second Regiment, ed. by E. Z. Hays (1896); History Colls. Relating to the Potts Family, comp. by T. M. Potts (1901); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series, XII, part 2, XIX, part 1, XXIV, parts 1-3, XXXII, parts 1-3, XXXVIII, parts 3, 5, XLIV; "The Nez Perce War ... Letters to Governor B. F. Potts," Frontier, November 1929; Daily Rocky Mountain Gazette (Helena), September 10, 1870, Helena Daily Herald, July 15, September 26, 1870, November 25, 1871, May 7, 9, 29, 1873; Helena Weekly Herald, June 23, 1887.]

P.C.P.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes VII-VIII, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.