Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

of a whole Rebel garrison laying down their arms, and departing on parole; and he was de- tailed with his company to escort the paroled prisoners without the Federal lines. Although he took part in many battles and skirmishes, he bore a charmed life, and throughout his three years of constant and active service at the front he was never wounded. Only two of the en- gagements in which he took a conspicuous part will be mentioned here. In the autumn of 1863, the Rebels under General Chalmers made an at- tack on Colliersville, a station on the railroad between Memphis and Corinth. The place was garrisoned by a small force of infantry, and the 7th Illinois Cavalry. The pickets were driven in, and Lieutenant Porter was sent with about forty men to reconnoitre and send back information, and, if possible, keep back the enemy until rein- forcements could arrive from an adjoining sta- tion. He proceeded but two or three miles be- fore meeting the enemy. Deploying his men as skirmishers, with a dozen or so in reserve, he di- rected them to keep well under cover of the woods, and every man to give out orders at the top of his voice, as if there was a large army, and then to fire at everything that looked like a Rebel. This caused the Rebel column to halt; they were afraid to advance until they, too, had thrown out a skirmish line, and their column had de- ployed in line of support, as they were obliged to cross an open field. Then Lieutenant Porter ordered his men back across another open field, and General Chalmers followed cautiously. These tactics delayed the enemy an hour and a half. The line fell back until the tiring could be heard at the railroad station where the infantry were stationed. They supposed that the com- pany under Lieutenant Porter was having a hot time of it. In the meantime he had sent in couriers with advices as to the progress of the enemy, and for supplies of ammunition. "Send out and tell Lieutenant Porter to come in," said the surgeon, " we shall not have any of the fun here if he dtJes not return." The enemy were preparing for a general charge, and it was so re- ported to the commandant at the stockade. By this time the 2d Iowa Cavalry had arrived, and taken position behind the embankment of the railroad. The Colonel sent orders for Lieuten- ant Porter to retire to the rear of the stockade. The Rebels followed with a yell, only to be met by a volley from the stockade, and from the re- inforcements behind the railroad track. Still on they came, and General George, now senator from Mississippi, who led the Rebel left, was captured with his hands almost on the field piece mounted in front of the 2d Iowa Cavalry. The enemy were badly repulsed; the delay of the Rebel column by the tactics of Lieutenant Por- ter with his forty men against more than fifteen hundred had in all probability saved the place. In the unfortunate raid upon Guntown, made by General Sturgis, Lieutenant Porter was in com- mand of the non-veterans of the regiment, and his command was ordered to act as rear guard in the first day of retreat. The National Tribune has obtained from Lieutenant Porter a series of articles, and we quote from the issue of June 24, 1894; About this time we were sent on a raid under General Sturgis to Guntown, Miss. It was the most disastrous expe- dition in which I ever participated. The force consisted of cavalry, artillery, and two brigades of infantry. A train of 200 supply wagons "accompanied us. We were out \'l days. My command turned out 100 men. Sometimes we were as- signed to the advance, sometimes to act as rear-guard, some- times we were sent out miles on the flank. While in the ad- vance, our command made several brilliant little dashes. Near Danville we drove out the enemy and secured the bridge before the enemy had a chance to destroy it. On an- other occasion our videts signalled " Come on!" The com- mand came to their support in a full run, and captured eight horsemen before they had time to regain their steeds. They were in a farm house talking to some ladies. Ah, dear ladies, who can balance the great ledger account that stands charged and credited to the allurements of your smiles! We give you credit for this success. On the morning of the fight we were sent off on the right flank, then recalled, then re- mained in line waiting, while one command after another moved to the front and then to the rear. Our army was whipped out piecemeal. The cavalry opened the attack early in the morning. The infantry were hurried up, but were exhausted before they came to the support. The cav- alry had also spent the best of their energies before the in- fantry arrived. The enemy meantime were receiving rein- forcements by the railroad. Their shells began to screech frightfully near. Twice I moved the command a short dis- tance to get them out of range. It is the niost trying place that one can be put, to be placed under fire and have no chance to fire back — to be set up as a target. The regiments came back one alter another. Then came our first orders to take real part in the action. "You must hold the enemy in check and cover the retreat of the infantry." It was a great undertaking for 100 men to hold in check a force that had driven S.OOO from the held. But we would show our good will. I ordered the men to dismount, and the led horses were sent to the rear in charge of a reliable sergeant. We lay down under cover of some piles of fence-rails and awaited their on-coming. " It is no use," said the in- fantry, as they retreated past us. The retreat was, as yet, with deliberation and in order. We had not long to wait. The enemy came on with triumphant yells. Our men awaited in silence. We opened upon them with our car- bines. They were breech-loaders and could be fired rap- idly; but the men fired with deliberation. The enemy halted and took shelter behind the trees. It was impossible for them to advance in the face of such a murderous fire. Serg. John R. Sperling was wounded and arose to go. Lieutenant La Grange (never a braver officer), the next in command, thinking the men were about to break, cried, " Are you cow- ards? Stand your ground!" The Lieutenant had taken no pains to shelter himself from the fire. The Sergeant, brave and cool as his superior, was sent to the rear. From ten to twenty rounds were fired. We held them at bay in front of us, but they were lapping around us on both aides and gain- ing our rear. After consulting Lieutenant La Grange, I gave the order to fall back to the led horses. The officer in charge had held them safe for our coming. We mounted COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 69 under fire, and retreated to the cover of the woods. Here we formed in two lines, firing and retreating ahernately as the enemy charged upon us. The retreat had become a rout. Some of the wagons stucit in the mud. The horses were cut out and the wagons abandoned. The artillery was in rear of the wagons, and could not be drawn past them. It, too, was abandoned. One hundred and forty-one wagons and sixteen pieces of artillery went to swell the spoils of the enemy. This was the famous Chicago Battery, afterward re- captured from General Hood by our regiment at Nashville. We were driven back upon the straggling infantry. Many of them were utterly exhausted in the broiling sun while hastening to the fight. They threw away their knap- sacks, tlieir guns, everything that could im[)ede them, for they knew that if captured the horrors of AndersonviUe awaited them. They ran with their tongues lolling nut of their mouths. They caught hold of the stirrups of the cav- alrymen and of the tails of their horses to help them along. We were Obliged to fire over their heads at their appr(jach- ing captors. Some scattered from the line of march and were hunted down by the enemy's flankers, or, escaping, came straggling into Memphis a week afterward. It was nightfall before, in answer to repeated applications for assistance, we were relieved. The pursuit continued through all the next day. One thousand, six hundred and eighteen prisoners went to crowd the death-pen at AndersonviUe. Three hun- dren thousand rounds of small-arm cartridges, besides a large amount of other ordnance stores and provisions, fell into the enemy's hands. The march out occupied ten days; the return was made in a little more than two. Such was the inglorious result of this undertaking. Troops that never knew fear before, though tried in many a conflict, had been defeated, and fled panic-strciken and demoralized before one- half their number, simply because they had been improperly commanded. * * * The veterans had come back from furlough during our absence, and greeted our return to camp. They brought lit- tle mementoes with pleasant messages from home that made us half forget for the time the disasters we had just suffered. Our anticipation of going home increased as our term of service diminished. A mother's kiss was awaiting us; a sis- ter, whose untiring devotion had nursed away our sickness, would meet us with outstretched arms; our brothers would make ready the fatted calf; our old neighbors and friends would join in giving us greeting. And that special friend, our hearts beat faster as we thought of her. What blissful anticipation! Comrades, I cannot paint the picture half' bright enough, even with the dark back-ground of our recent catastrophe to give it the contrast. After his term of enlistment had expired, Mr. Porter returned to Illinois, remaining there three or four years, during one of which he taught school. He then returned to the East, and located at Deerfield, Mass., and for four years took charge of the Meadow Mills — saw and grist mills; his next change was his removal to Bridge- port, and here for a year he had control of, and was partnep in, the Slate Marble Mantel factory, of the Slate Marble Mantel Company; he then accepted a position as principal of one of the Bridgeport schools, and here for a quarter of a century he has led the youthful minds through the grammar grades.