Peter A. Porter

Peter Augustus Porter (July 14, 1827 – June 3, 1864) was a lawyer, politician, and member of the Breckinridge family and a Union Army colonel in the American Civil War. He died in the Battle of Cold Harbor. Early life Porter was born on July 14, 1827, in Black Rock, New York, the only son of Yale lawyer Peter Buell Porter, a military leader in the War of 1812 and United States Secretary of War from 1828 to 1829, and Letitia Breckinridge. Before his parents marriage, his mother was a widow as her first husband, whom she married in 1804, Alfred William Grayson, had died in 1810. Grayson, a graduate of Cambridge University, was the son of Senator William Grayson of Virginia. Through his mother's first marriage, Porter had a half-brother, John Breckinridge Grayson (1806–1862). Porter graduated from Harvard, studied at Heidelberg and Berlin, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1857. He also authored plays, poems, and essays. Family His maternal grandfather was John Breckinridge (1760–1806), a U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1801 to 1805, and Attorney General of the United States under Jefferson from 1805 to 1806. His maternal grandmother was Mary Hopkins Cabell, of the Cabell political family. His maternal uncles were Cabell Breckinridge (1788–1823), Rev. Dr. John Breckinridge (1797–1841), Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800–1871), and Rev. Dr. William Lewis Breckinridge (1803–1876). His first cousin was John C. Breckinridge (1821–1875), the youngest-ever Vice President of the United States, serving from 1857 until 1861, under President James Buchanan.