Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-05-30
HORACE PORTER
PASSES AWAY IN
HIS Both YEAR
Was the Last Survivor OF
Gen. Grants Military
Staff; Served As u. S.
Ambassador to France.


New York, May 29--Gcn. Horace
Porter, last survivor of General
Grants military staff and former
ambassador to France, died early
this morning in his eighty-fifth
year,
Brig, Gen Horace Porter Of the
union army in the civil war. was
the last survivor among the mem
bers Of General Grants military
staff. He accompanied Grant to
! Appomatox and was with his chief
when Grant and Lee discussed the
terms of the latterS surrender.
After the war. when Grant served
as secretary Of war. General Porter
acted as his assistant. When Grant
became president, General Porter
accompanied him to the White
| House as executive secretary, and
remained during the first term of
office. When Grant died 1t was
General Porter who organized the
popular subscription that yielded
$500 600 and built Grants tomb in
New York city,
Altogether General Porter spent
thirty years in public service as a
soldier, diplomat, scholar and pa
triot. A congressional medal OF
honor was awarded him for dis
tinguished services in the civil war.
The grand cross of the Legion of
Honor from France testified to his
services as ambassad dor at PARIS.
He received the degree of LII. u.
from Harvard, Princeton, Union
and Williams. ....r
Born at Huntington, Pa. April
Is. 1897, the son of a governor of
Pennsylvania, he studied at Har-
ward and at West Point and gradu-
ated into the regular army, lie
1 fought, in turn, with the union
! armies of the Ohio, the Cumber-
! land and the Potomac. He won
six brevets for bravery on many
battlefields. At Chattanooga his
bravery attracted the attention of
General Grant. who selected him
as a member of his staff and kept
him by his side during the re-
mainder of the war.
General Porter was by profession
! a railroad man. At $50 years of
age he resigned from the army and
became vice president of the Pull
man company. Later he was pres
ident of the New York. West Shore
& Buffalo. and the st, Louis & San
| Francisco railroads. During his
business career OF twenty-four
years he was a director in fourteen
railroad companies and financial
| institutions.
General Porter again entered
public life at the age of 60. Presl-
dent Mckinley appointed him am
| bassador to France in 1897 and he
remained at that post for eight
wears He became one of the most
distinguished of the diplomatic
corps in Paris, serving his country
| during the period of war with
| Spain. His term also embraced the
assembling of the peace commits
sion which signed a second treaty
| OF Paris on the same table upon
| which Franklin and his colleagues
after the revolution signed the first
| treaty of Paris.
The long search through Paris
for the. remains of John Paul
Jones, the American admiral. was
conducted by Ambassador Porter
He spent six years and more than
$35, 900 of his personal fortune IN
this search, and when he found the
body he gracefully refused REM
| burecment from congress.
Diplomacy" said General Por-
ter at one time, lis not the science
Of representing the broadcast false
hood with the straightest face, nor
| should the word carry with 1t the
demeaning idea of craftiness' as
many of our dictionaries define II.
The profession has risen to high
er plane" .o.
General Porter closed his career
as an earnest advocate of universal
peace. At the age of 10 he repre-