Borderruffian
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
- Location
- Marshfield Missouri
Joseph Chrisman Porter (September 12, 1819 - February 18, 1863) was a Confederate Officer in the American War Of Northern Aggression of 1861 and a key leader in the guerilla campaigns in northern Missouri. Colonel Porter formed and commanded The First Northeast Missouri Cavalry, C.S.A., better known to many as Porter's Regiment
One of the main sources for Colonel Porter's history is the monumental book "With Porter In North Missouri" penned by Joseph A. Mudd (see below). Porter's chief adversary, yankee Col. John McNeil, regarded him simply as a guerilla, though clearly Porter's service under General John S. Marmaduke in the Springfield campaign and following, clearly shows he was a fully Commissioned Officer in the Confederate States Army.
EARLY LIFE AND CAREER
Joseph C. Porter was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, to James and Rebecca Chrisman Porter. The family moved to Marion County, Missouri, in 1828 or 1829, where Porter attended Marion College in Philadelphia, Missouri, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. About 1844, Porter married Mary Ann E. Marshall (d. DeWitt, AR about two years after the war closed, according to Porter’s sister). They subsequently moved to Knox County, remaining there until 1857, when they moved to Lewis County, and settled five miles east of Newark. Family members assert that only one picture of Porter was known to exist, and it was destroyed when his home was burned, allegedly by yankee soldiers.
Porter had strong southern sympathies, and was for this reason subject to harassment by neighbors, in an area where loyalties were sharply divided. His brother, James William Porter (b. 1827, m. Carolina Marshall, sister to Joseph’s wife Mary Ann, 1853), was also a Confederate officer and Joseph's trusted subordinate, attaining the rank of Major. The brothers went to California in the Gold Rush of 1849, then prospered in livestock and farming together before the war.
WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION - 1861
The brothers went south with CSA Colonel Martin E. Green’s regiment to join the attack on Lexington, September of 1861. Although he had no military experience, Porter was a natural born leader, quickly elected Lieutenant Colonel (official commission would come later) in the Missouri State Guard. He fought at Athens, Shelbina, Lexington (September 18 - 20, 1861) and Pea Ridge (or Elkhorn Tavern) in March 1862.
In the spring of 1862 he returned home, on the orders of General Sterling Price, to raise recruits throughout northeast Missouri. His duties included the establishment of supply drops, weapons caches and the construction of a network of Southern-sympathizing informants. The recruited were under threat of being hanged if captured by the yankees. Throughout Porter’s brief military career, his status as a regular army officer, with the attached authority and immunities, was not fully recognized by his adversaries, particularly Col. John McNeil, and the right of rebel soldiers to be treated as combatants and prisoners of war rather than criminals and traitors was inconsistently observed even though Colonel Porter was a Comissioned Officer in the Confederate States Army. Some of Porter's were in conjunction with Confederate Irregulars and Partisan Rangers; yet many pitched battles were fought.
On June 17, 1862, he was near Warren or New Market, in Warren Township, Marion County, with 43 mounted men, and made prisoners of four men of the yankee regiment he found there. The yankees had their arms and horses taken from them, were sworn not to take up arms against the Southern Confederacy until duly exchanged, and then released.
http://www.rulen.com/porter/bio.htm
http://shelby.mogenweb.org/shelby1884chapter8.pdf
http://www.civilwarmo.org/educators/resources/info-sheets/palmyra-massacre
http://law.missouri.edu/bowman/Second_Diary/JournalPage2.html
http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030972628/cu31924030972628_djvu.txt
One of the main sources for Colonel Porter's history is the monumental book "With Porter In North Missouri" penned by Joseph A. Mudd (see below). Porter's chief adversary, yankee Col. John McNeil, regarded him simply as a guerilla, though clearly Porter's service under General John S. Marmaduke in the Springfield campaign and following, clearly shows he was a fully Commissioned Officer in the Confederate States Army.
EARLY LIFE AND CAREER
Joseph C. Porter was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, to James and Rebecca Chrisman Porter. The family moved to Marion County, Missouri, in 1828 or 1829, where Porter attended Marion College in Philadelphia, Missouri, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. About 1844, Porter married Mary Ann E. Marshall (d. DeWitt, AR about two years after the war closed, according to Porter’s sister). They subsequently moved to Knox County, remaining there until 1857, when they moved to Lewis County, and settled five miles east of Newark. Family members assert that only one picture of Porter was known to exist, and it was destroyed when his home was burned, allegedly by yankee soldiers.
Porter had strong southern sympathies, and was for this reason subject to harassment by neighbors, in an area where loyalties were sharply divided. His brother, James William Porter (b. 1827, m. Carolina Marshall, sister to Joseph’s wife Mary Ann, 1853), was also a Confederate officer and Joseph's trusted subordinate, attaining the rank of Major. The brothers went to California in the Gold Rush of 1849, then prospered in livestock and farming together before the war.
WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION - 1861
The brothers went south with CSA Colonel Martin E. Green’s regiment to join the attack on Lexington, September of 1861. Although he had no military experience, Porter was a natural born leader, quickly elected Lieutenant Colonel (official commission would come later) in the Missouri State Guard. He fought at Athens, Shelbina, Lexington (September 18 - 20, 1861) and Pea Ridge (or Elkhorn Tavern) in March 1862.
In the spring of 1862 he returned home, on the orders of General Sterling Price, to raise recruits throughout northeast Missouri. His duties included the establishment of supply drops, weapons caches and the construction of a network of Southern-sympathizing informants. The recruited were under threat of being hanged if captured by the yankees. Throughout Porter’s brief military career, his status as a regular army officer, with the attached authority and immunities, was not fully recognized by his adversaries, particularly Col. John McNeil, and the right of rebel soldiers to be treated as combatants and prisoners of war rather than criminals and traitors was inconsistently observed even though Colonel Porter was a Comissioned Officer in the Confederate States Army. Some of Porter's were in conjunction with Confederate Irregulars and Partisan Rangers; yet many pitched battles were fought.
On June 17, 1862, he was near Warren or New Market, in Warren Township, Marion County, with 43 mounted men, and made prisoners of four men of the yankee regiment he found there. The yankees had their arms and horses taken from them, were sworn not to take up arms against the Southern Confederacy until duly exchanged, and then released.
http://www.rulen.com/porter/bio.htm
http://shelby.mogenweb.org/shelby1884chapter8.pdf
http://www.civilwarmo.org/educators/resources/info-sheets/palmyra-massacre
http://law.missouri.edu/bowman/Second_Diary/JournalPage2.html
http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030972628/cu31924030972628_djvu.txt