Andrew Porter | |
---|---|
Born |
Lancaster, Pennsylvania |
July 10, 1820
Died | January 3, 1872 Paris, France |
(aged 51)
Place of burial | Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan |
Allegiance |
United States of America Union |
Service/ |
United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1846–1864 |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Commands held | Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac |
Battles/wars |
Mexican War American Civil War: • First Battle of Bull Run • Peninsula Campaign |
Spouse(s) | Margaretta Falconer Biddle |
Andrew Porter (July 10, 1820 – January 3, 1872) was an American army officer who was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was an important staff officer under George B. McClellan during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, serving as the Provost Marshal of the Army of the Potomac.
Porter was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on July 10, 1820. He was the son of Sarah Humes and George Bryan Porter (1791–1834), a Governor of the Michigan Territory.
He was a grandson of Revolutionary War officer Andrew Porter and a second cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln. His younger first cousin, Horace Porter (1837–1921), also served as a Union general and later as the U.S. Ambassador to France. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, for six months in 1836 and 1837.
He served in the Mexican-American War as a first lieutenant in the 1st Mounted Rifles. Within a year, he was promoted to captain and cited for gallantry, being brevetted two grades to lieutenant colonel. Porter spent the next fourteen years serving at various posts and forts on the frontier. He fought a duel in Texas with future Confederate general James J. Archer, whose second was Thomas J. Jackson, later "Stonewall" Jackson.