page_title: Horace Porter
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Horace Porter / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Horace Porter (April 15, 1837 – May 29, 1921) U.S. soldier, private secretary to General and later president U.S. Grant. Later in life he was U.S. Ambassador to France from 1897 to 1905. This image pictures him a student at West Point c.1856
context_page_description: Horace Porter was an American soldier and diplomat who served as a lieutenant colonel, ordnance officer and staff officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, personal secretary to General and President Ulysses S. Grant. He also was secretary to General William T. Sherman, vice president of the Pullman Palace Car Company and U.S. Ambassador to France from 1897 to 1905.
context_section_description: Porter was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1837, the son of David Rittenhouse Porter (1788–1867), an ironmaster who later served as Governor of Pennsylvania, and Josephine McDermott.
  His paternal grandfather was Andrew Porter, the Revolutionary War officer and his paternal uncles included George Bryan Porter, the Territorial Governor of Michigan, and James Madison Porter, the Secretary of War.  Among his first cousins was Andrew Porter, a Mexican–American War veteran and Union Army brigadier general. His aunt, Elizabeth Porter, was the grandmother of Mary Todd Lincoln.
  Porter was educated at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (class of 1856) and Harvard University. He graduated from West Point July 1, 1860.
caption: Porter as a cadet at West Point
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