EPA: The Young and Handsome

Edward Porter Alexander wanted to be a soldier from early youth. His well-to-do father, a successful Georgia planter, wanted him to be an engineer. When a family friend advised the senior Alexander that a West Point education could allow young Porter to do both, the matter was settled.

Porter Alexander (1835-1910) enrolled in West Point, demonstrated his intellect and military aptitude, and graduated 3rd in his class of 1857. It qualified the strikingly handsome young 2nd Lieutenant a place in the elite and prestigious Corps of Engineers.

Born and reared in the Presbyterian faith, EPA, while never more than conventionally religious, always had a sense of fate’s place in one’s life. If his own plans or desires were not forthcoming, he was content to wait for the preordained.

The Direction of Fate

After spending a brief time teaching military engineering and fencing at West Point, he was assigned to the Utah territory where political trouble was brewing that might have led to armed difficulties. By the time Alexander arrived, said difficulties had been peaceably resolved.

Nevertheless, the young solider discovered the magnificence of America the Beautiful, and the joys of the sportsman: hunting and fishing. It would remain with him forever. He also enjoyed pleasant interactions with several Native tribes, and along the way made friends with fellow soldiers Lewis Armistead and Richard Garnett, who would reappear in his life some five years later. At Gettysburg.

Reappointed to his teaching position at West Point, he met Albert Myers, a military surgeon who was developing a messaging systems for long distances. Myers took a liking to the young soldier, and appointed him as his assistant. It was a fortuitous opportunity for an inventive and curious engineer. They called it the wig-wag system of flags placed on high topography, and together they devised a set code of manipulation that could be seen and “read” at a great distance. 

This new communication system drew the favorable attention of higher-ups, and shortly thereafter Myers was made Brigadier General of the nascent Signal Corps. It also changed Alexander’s life.

EPA and The Civil War

Porter Alexander had never been especially political, and most indications are that the young soldier had hoped to relocate out West. But when Georgia seceded from the Union in early 1861, Lt. Alexander resigned his commission and joined the Confederacy as a Captain. His reputation with signal corps experience was already known, and he was also regarded as a fine military engineer. 

At the first Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), stationed on top of Signal Hill, Captain Alexander made his mark as the first Confederate to send a message during combat, using signal flags. That message helped turn the tide of the battle. By July, he was a Major, and by the end of the year, had been promoted to Lt. Colonel under General Joseph E. Johnston, who appointed him chief of artillery.

By the end of the war, at thirty, Porter Alexander was a Brigadier General, with a unique resume of being actively and substantively involved in practically every major campaign. 

In addition to both Bull Run battles, he served (under Joseph Johnston) on the Peninsula Campaign, under James Longstreet at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and continued with Longstreet in Tennessee. He also saw action in the Overland Campaign in Virginia, including the siege at Petersburg and finally ending at Appomattox Courthouse. 

Gettysburg

But perhaps the most seminal credit on Alexander’s military resume was the three day battle at Gettysburg in July, 1863. The weather was blisteringly hot, the clashes were generally unplanned, and for the most part, unwanted, and the fighting was fierce beyond belief, with casualties that drained the entire country. 

Col. Alexander, in full command of artillery, served under Longstreet, where he combined brilliance, knowledge and imagination, along with innate leadership. Good soldier that he was, he obeyed the previously sanctioned strategy of “day 3,” despite his grave concerns and logical objections: His ammunition was already low. The ground to be covered was far too long and open. His big guns could barely reach the intended target. Longstreet concurred; even General Lee acknowledged the difficulties. But the plan, once conceived, was enacted. Alexander unleashed a massive barrage of cannon fire, but “Pickett’s Charge” across a mile-long open field was a predictable Confederate disaster.

After, After and Long After

The Civil War ostensibly ended on April 9, 1865. A now-unemployed 30-year-old CSA ex-General needed to build a different life. 

Alexander taught engineering for a while in South Carolina, and then began a long new career with the railroads, and a stretch of successful opportunities that would last for years.

He traveled west again, this time with his growing family, where he spent some of his happiest days.

He developed a warm friendship with President Grover Cleveland, in part due to their mutual love of hunting and fishing, He wrote magazine articles on similar subjects.

Around 1905, his editors who respected his abilities, suggested he write about his Civil War experiences.

His “memoirs,” if they could be called such, were not merely biographical. Nor were they merely chatty anecdotes and remembrances that so many of his fellow soldiers (North and South) poured out in volumes. Nor were they merely mind-numbing tome-like lectures for West Point classes. In his own words, drawing on every available source he could locate, including personal interviews, he explained that “I want to tell the story professionally, & to comment freely on every professional feature as one would comment on moves at chess, even tho’ it may seem to reflect on Lee or Jackson or anybody else.”

More than a century later, most historians conclude that he did exactly that. And, no surprise, he did it very well.

Sources:

Alexander, General Edward Porter – Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative (reprint) – Making History, 2018

McPherson, James – Battle Cry of Freedom – Oxford University Press; 2003

www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com

www.civilwarsignals.org

https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-gettysburg