THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609040140
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: 84 lines
Marion H. ``Hank'' Morris of Portsmouth and William ``Bill'' Blake deserve a round of applause from Civil War historians and local history buffs alike.
Not only have the two members of Stonewall Camp No. 380 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans found a perfect way to raise funds to refurbish Portsmouth's historic Cedar Grove Cemetery, but by reprinting and selling John William Hunter Porter's history of area veterans in the Civil War, they have given a new voice to those who fought in the battles.
J.W.H. Porter's book, entitled ``A Record of Events in Norfolk County, Virginia, From April 19th, 1861, to May 10th, 1862, with a History of the Soldiers and Sailors of Norfolk County, Norfolk City and Portsmouth Who Served in the Confederate States Army or Navy,'' is a gold mine of eyewitness accounts. The contents are directly from almost all the 3,400 soldiers from this area who fought for the South.
First printed in 1894, Porter, the son of Confederate naval constructor John L. Porter, who designed America's first ironclad, CSS Virginia, hoped to preserve the battlefield experiences of each veteran as a living testimony of their courage and sacrifice. Like the eminent American poet Walt Whitman who saw so much value in the individual, common man's experience during the war, Porter wrote in his preface, ``I have followed them through the smoke of battle, in the hospitals and sometimes through prison walls, recording when and where they were wounded, or when they died.''
He added that his book was the ``first which ever sought to tell the history of the private soldier in the ranks as well as the doings of the officer in command ...''
Porter's devotion to both enlisted and officer ranks could have come from his own personal perspective. At the time of his writing the first edition, he was a successful attorney with a law office at 212 High Street. Born in 1842, he was the descendant of one of the area's most prominent families, whose colonial forebears settled in Portsmouth in the 1640s.
Law, shipbuilding, commerce and military service were his legacies as John Porter Jr. served as a justice and high sheriff of the County Court during the 17th century.
His great-grandfather was an artillery captain in the Revolutionary War and a relative of naval hero Commodore Richard Dale.
His grandfather, Joseph Porter, served in the War of 1812 as a captain of Virginia troops and established a large, private shipyard in Portsmouth after the war.
His father, John Luke Porter won international acclaim for his conversion of the former steam-frigate USS Merrimack into the nation's first ironclad, CSS Virginia.
J.W.H. Porter, having finished his studies at Virginia Collegiate Institute, was at the University of Virginia when ardent abolitionist John Brown seized the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Joining a company of student volunteers, he participated in ending the insurrection. Returning home as the Civil War started, he found the shipyard under Confederate control and family members already active in the southern cause.
He then enlisted as a 19-year old private in Company K, 9th Regiment, Virginia Infantry, popularly known as the Old Dominion Guard. He was then transferred to the Signal Corps, where he was promoted to lieutenant in 1864 and held that position until the end of the war.
Returning to Portsmouth, he followed a family tradition in law, studying in the office of Godwin and Crocker. After his admission to the Virginia Bar, he was elected city attorney in 1872 and served in that capacity for seven years. After retiring from law, he became editor and publisher of the Portsmouth Daily Enterprise until selling the paper in 1889 and returning to his law practice and politics.
Elected in 1883 to what would be two consecutive terms to the Virginia legislature, Porter later served as a city councilman and member of the managing committee of the Norfolk County Ferry. He also served on the board of trustees of Monumental Methodist Church.
During his time after the war, Porter began collecting the written memoirs of surviving Civil War soldiers and sailors who formed the ranks of Stonewall Camp No. 748, Confederate Veterans. In 1892, his work was published and has served ever since as a benchmark in historical research about this area and its veterans during the Civil War.
Now 1,000 new copies of Porter's book are available, complete with a 47-page index of all individuals mentioned thanks to the efforts of Morris and Blake.
For more information about J.W.H. Porter's book, call Hank Morris at 488-1397. It is available for $25 at the following: Pittypat's Flower and Gift Shop, Pfeiffer's Books and Cards, and Prison Square Antiques. ILLUSTRATION: Photo of sketch
John W. H. Porter's book contains this sketch of the CSS Virginia. by CNB