Sacrifices of the Porters

By Randy Bishop

Sacrifices of the Porters examines the exploits and contributions of three brothers who volunteered to serve, and paid the ultimate price, in the War Between the States. Leaving their West Tennessee home and family, the Porter boys became members of three separate unitsthe Eleventh Mississippi, the Twenty-Ninth Mississippi, and the First Confederate Cavalry Regiment. In turn, these young men and their comrades saw action in some of the wars most intense battles. Sadly, each of the Porter brothers was killed in the course of the war, and their bodies were hastily placed into unmarked graves. Their plights and sacrifices are carefully recorded through the use of family letters, additional primary sources, and other historical documents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546250715

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Copyright © 2018 Randy Bishop. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/12/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5072-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5070-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-5071-5 (e)

Photo cover courtesy of Mary Snipes

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018908135

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 Births and early lives of the Porter boys

Chapter 2 War Begins for the Porter Family

Chapter 3 The Summer of 1861

Chapter 4 The younger Porter brothers join the Confederate effort

Chapter 5 May and June 1862

Chapter 6 July 1862

Chapter 7 August 1862

Chapter 8 September through December 1862

Chapter 9 The Previously Unpublished Writings of Elias R. Porter

Chapter 10 1863 and the year’s impact upon the Porter family

Chapter 11 The tragic events of 1864

Epilogue

Endnotes

Bibliography

Dedication

This manuscript is dedicated to the memory of the soldiers and civilians who passed away from the effects of the American Civil War. It is also devoted to Mary Snipes, as well as Charles Robert (Butch) and Penny Sue Edland Jones, who worked to make certain their ancestors were not forgotten.

Introduction

Based upon modern conservative estimates, the American Civil War cost the two conflicting nations, the Confederate States of America and the United States, a total of some six to seven hundred thousand lives. While the political, economic, industrial and additional specific costs were comparatively catastrophic, the horrendous death rate, unequaled for the North American continent in any previous or subsequent war, is the fact that typically stands out in discussions of the devastating effects of the four-year conflict. Few families were excluded from the loss of at least one member. A lower number of families escaped the knowledge that a family friend suffered some type of injury or a premature death.

Identified through the use of a literal cornucopia of additional names, the War Between the States is also noted as epitomizing the divisions that often occurred within family units that were previously close-knit. The resulting designation as a Brothers War can easily be seen in conducting a study of families of the era. Doing so reveals the number of such close-knit units that contained one or more members who joined the cause of the Confederate States of America, while a similar number of siblings served the United States.

This situation of family tragedy is clearly observed in scouring the archives of the State of Tennessee. With more American Civil War battlefields than any state other than Virginia, Tennessee had military personnel, as well as civilians, who regularly faced the horrors and effects of war. The Volunteer State provided more soldiers to the Confederacy than every state besides Virginia, and witnessed her sons serving in the United States military branches in numbers greater than five Northern states.

As heart-wrenching as these facts and figures are, another common tragic aspect of the American Civil War deserves to be mentioned as well. Families throughout the South, as well as the more northern section of their proclaimed adversaries, were regularly subjected to the loss of a male family member who was serving his country and/or a cause in which he believed. With companies typically raised at the local level, it is conceivable that heavy casualties within a close-knit group would easily lead to frequent failures of proper burial of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their respective nation. The surviving soldiers who could have possibly identified the corpses of their dead comrades, many of whom they had known since childhood, oftentimes became casualties themselves, further complicating the suitable acts of proper identification and internment. There was also the aspect of caring childhood friends, fearing for their own safety, being forced to abandon their dead, dying, or wounded compatriots.

An additional hardship that was oftentimes added to an individual or family mourning the death of a loved one was that the deceased individual would likely be buried in a mass grave or one lacking proper identification of the interred individual. Uncertainty surrounding the exact cause and/or location of one’s demise, or incomplete information regarding the same burial site, often resulted in an impacted family’s inability to properly mourn the loss of a loved one. There was also the common situation of fellow soldiers who survived battles and lamenting the death of fellow warriors, but also being unable to bury and/or identify the corpse due to the remains being disfigured, swollen, or beheaded. Each, as well as all of these in any combination, had to be an almost unbearable situation for the surviving family members and friends.

Alexander Texas, Elias Robinson, and Richard Baxter, the three Porter brothers who left the seemingly safe confines of rural Tennessee to join various Confederate units, were among the hundreds of thousands of victims from the tragic and controversial war. Likewise, the brothers’ remains were evidently placed into graves at or near the respective battlefield where each of the young Confederate heroes fell. For example, Alexander Texas Porter received a mortal wound at Second Manassas, and he was laid into a mass grave in the vicinity of the location where he passed away. Elias Porter yielded to his injury after sustaining a serious wound that he suffered at Murfreesboro, and he lies in an undetermined location. Lastly, during the Atlanta Campaign, the third brother, Richard Baxter Porter, was mortally wounded in action at Noonday Church or Noonday Creek. Richard Baxter Porter suffered from the serious effects of that injury for approximately a month before falling victim to its devastating effects. The exact location of the third Porter brother’s burial is also unknown. The Porter family suffered and endured the tragic losses of all three sons, but they also had to endure the uncertainty of the locations of the graves of the young men. Sadly, this was the case of a myriad of families across the North and South.

The following pages intend to chronicle the known exploits of these three siblings who provided the ultimate sacrifices for the service of their newly-formed government. Leaving their home and family in West Tennessee, the brave young men joined three different Confederate units. Two of the Porter brothers, Alexander Texas and Elias, enlisted in a duo of Mississippi’s infantry companies. Richard Baxter Porter joined the Confederate cavalry in Tennessee. Their separation from one another, as well as from the civilian members of their family, dictated the content and mindset of many of the letters from their times of Confederate military service.

The chronological examination of the life and death of each member from the trio of soldiers is conducted with the participation of each soldier’s respective unit discussed as fully as possible. In addition, the contributions of the brothers’ respective military unit, as well as the status of preservation of those sites for today’s interested visitors will be noted. As a matter of presenting the story of these three Southern heroes in an accurate manner, a point should be made in regard to the fact that some facets of their lives are unavailable and, therefore, unable to be accurately documented. Where information related to one of the brother’s final battle and/or death site lacks historical confirmation, the use of speculation and conjecture will be left to the discretion of the reader. Hopefully, this manuscript will provide a reasonable level of insight into the lives of three brothers whose stories are indicative of thousands of others who fought and died in the bloody conflict of the early 1860s.

Randy Bishop

Middleton, Tennessee

INTRO%20IMAGE.jpg

The Porter family spent many years in Savannah, Tennessee. The town is designated in the southwest corner of the state. Public Domain map.

Chapter 1

Births and early lives of the Porter boys

Savannah, Tennessee: 1836

Located in Hardin County, the Tennessee town of Savannah sat on the steep eastern banks of the Tennessee River. The major Southern waterway provided a means of financial success for a variety of vocations. The young couple of Elias Washington Porter, and his wife, Jeanette Robinson Porter sought to use that situation to their benefit.

Elias and Jeanette became parents on August 3, 1836. Typically known as Janetta, the twenty-four year-old bride gave birth to a son, the first of the couple’s five children. Jeanette and her twenty-five year-old husband named their first born Alexander Texas Porter. ¹

Approximately two years after Alexander Texas Porter’s birth, Elias Washington Porter and Jeanette welcomed a second child into the world. The baby, another son, was named Elias Robinson Porter. A third son, Richard Baxter Porter, arrived in 1844. Richard Baxter, Elias Robinson, and Alexander Texas Porter eventually formed a tight-knit trio that enabled the growing boys to support one another and provide assistance to their parents with a wide range of tasks associated with conducting a small business in the mid-Nineteenth Century. ³

The Porter family added their first daughter two years after the birth of Richard Baxter Porter. Mary Porter, the first female offspring of Elias and Janetta, was born on February 15, 1846. The 1850 Census indicated the young girl as being four years of age; the youngest son, Richard Baxter Porter, was listed as a six year-old. Likewise, Elias Robinson Porter was noted as eleven years old, Alex Texas Porter as thirteen, and their mother and father were recorded as holding the ages of thirty-seven and thirty-eight respectively. ⁴

Soon after the mid-century census was completed, the Porter family added another member with the birth of Malinda or Mallie. Mallie became the fifth and final child for Elias Washington and Janetta Robinson Porter when she was born in 1851. ⁵

Little information exists as to the exploits of the Porter family for the remainder of the 1850s. An exception to this situation is found in a letter written to Elias Robinson Porter, the second son of the family. Scripted on October 27, 1858, the letter was sent from Bethel College and was the product of the writing efforts of a male cousin of the Porter family. Interestingly, the location from where the letter was sent was indicated only with the letters Mc. While Bethel College would be moved to McKenzie, Tennessee in 1872, it was actually located in the town of McLemoresville, Tennessee at the time of the aforementioned letter’s composition. ⁶

A set of statements regarding the condition of Bethel College was written seven years earlier and accompanied a drawing of the institution’s main building, clearly seen as the Porter family’s cousin composed the note. The description of the institution stated in point, There are already four elegant recitation rooms…we have laid the cornerstone of another college edifice, to be one hundred and twelve feet long…containing a large recitation room and an apparatus room, and twelve dormitories, each large enough to accommodate four students; and also a handsome dome which is now used for an observatory. ⁷

The first of many letters that comprise the Porter family’s descendants’ collection, the October 1858 communication from a relative named William, reveals some of the Porter family information that would otherwise be left to conjecture.

The first paragraph of the document, penned at Bethel College and sent to Elias Robinson Porter, discussed the tendency of the Porter family’s second son to converse with William. The letter stated, I received yours of the 25th this month and was glad to hear from my old friend, associate, and companion. As to my being contented with this place, I think that an utter impossibility. I am like you in respect to news, none at all. I am getting along very well in my studies. I have been Opossum hunting once only—did not catch but one. No amusement here…Although students have got no business frolicking about, but the mind requires some rest as well as the body. I love to hear from you whenever [you] can write to me. ⁷

The second paragraph of the 1858 letter from William indicated the apparent high level of intelligence and academic initiative of the oldest Porter child, Alexander Texas. The note proclaimed, …I was surprised to hear that Texas was studying medicine. Dr. A. T. Porter sounds rather strange now…Does old Texas study hard! ⁸ The Elias Washington and Janetta Porter family obviously set a great value upon education and had succeeded in the merchant business to the degree that enabled at least one of their children to pursue a degree.

The communication from the Porters’ cousin concludes with lamentation, comparison, and evaluations in saying, Many times when I am lonesome, and thinking about home, I remember the many happy days we have spent together…wish I was there now. Students here are unsocial as they can be. This college is not carried on with the same regularity as LaGrange…I begin to feel more serious in regard to my soul’s salvation than formerly…write soon and remember that I always remain your devoted friend and cousin…Give my love to all the family and accept a share for yourself. ⁹

It is likely that the LaGrange, Tennessee institution which William referred to would have been the LaGrange Presbyterian Church. That particular facility had been opened for only six years at the time the American Civil War began, and the house of worship was originally constructed at a recorded cost of approximately $60,000. ¹⁰

The information in this 1858 letter indicates that the Elias Washington and Jeanette Porter family was not only successful in its financial and educational pursuits, but that it also managed to regularly visit members of its extended family. William, the Porter family’s correspondent cousin, obviously relished the memories that he had forged with Elias Robinson Porter. Those were incidents that likely included Elias R. Porter’s two male siblings, Texas and Richard Baxter as well.

Religion appears to have also played a major role in the daily lives of the members of the Elias Washington and Jeanette Porter family. Not only did their cousin William state that he was becoming more conscious of his own spiritual condition, but he also wanted the Porter patriarch, Elias Washington Porter, to be aware of the presence of a