Detail of a bas relief panel on the Fitz John Porter monument in Portsmouth by sculptor James E. Kelly. Porter, on horseback at left, commanding at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, a Union victory. Shown on horseback at right is Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher.
Detail of a bas relief panel on the Fitz John Porter monument in Portsmouth by sculptor James E. Kelly. Porter, on horseback at left, commanding at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, a Union victory. Shown on horseback at right is Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher.
WHEN FORMER Civil War Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter passed away in Morristown, New Jersey, on May 21, 1901, the city of Portsmouth, N.H., had received a $30,000 bequest to erect an equestrian monument in his honor. In 1902, the city established a committee to oversee the project and it contracted with James E. Kelly, a New York City sculptor, to create the bronze statue and bas-relief plaques for its granite base.
In considering an appropriate site for the monument, the committee was open to suggestions from the public. Among the locations proposed were Market Square, Church Hill (near St. John’s Episcopal Church), Haymarket Square, and Haven Park. The most popular spot mentioned was Haven Park, a new public park located between Pleasant Street and South Mill Pond. Before it was moved across Livermore Street in 1899, the house where Porter had been born and had spent his early childhood had been located on the site.
However, the committee rejected the Haven Park suggestion because the Haven family, which had donated the land to the city, had specified that no buildings could be constructed on the park grounds. It was thought that this restriction applied to monuments. On Oct. 2, 1902, the committee voted to build the statue in Haymarket Square, located at the intersection of Court and Middle streets. The monument would stand over an old underground reservoir, which likely would be put out of service. Because the reservoir was the emergency backup for the fire hydrants in this upper class neighborhood, the residents strongly protested the decision.
Simmering in the background was the reality of Porter’s controversial reputation. He had been cashiered from the army in 1863 after being found guilty by court-martial of committing serious offenses while commanding Union troops during the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. It didn’t matter to some that it later was determined that he had been justified in his actions during the battle, and that the verdict against him had, in fact, been reversed.
Thomas G. Lester, the owner of a granite works on Water Street, had been awarded the contract to produce the base for the monument. On Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1903, the Portsmouth Herald reported that someone had entered his sheds over the previous weekend and vandalized several large blocks of granite with the use of stone cutters’ tools.
As the newspaper reported, “Whoever did the job made it very evident that the vandalism was intended as an act of hostility against the Fitz John Porter statue, for many smaller and finished pieces of marble work were easier to access than the stones defaced …” Lester stated, “I have guards at the works now and as soon as a stone is completed, from now on, it will be securely boxed up and placed under lock and key.” He mentioned that the damaged blocks would be repaired or replaced as needed.
In a second article about the incident published on Feb. 5, the writer commented, “There has been an objection all along to the erection of the statue, but when the contract was awarded it was thought this objection died with it, but this seems to prove different.”
On March 31, 1903, the committee held a public meeting to hear testimony in reconsideration of the site decision, as the city solicitor had recently concluded that there would be no legal barrier to choosing Haven Park. As the majority of the public present favored this location, the committee voted unanimously that Haven Park would be the Porter monument’s home.
During the meeting, prominent local citizen David Urch, a member of the Civil War veterans’ organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, spoke warmly in favor of Haven Park. He also delivered an extraordinary statement in support of the monument. According to the Portsmouth Herald, he said, “I know that there is some opposition on the part of Civil War veterans and members of the Grand Army to the erecting of a statue of Gen. Porter in this city … I would say that the last order is the one which loyalty demands that every soldier shall obey — and the last judgment in Gen. Porter’s case should be accepted by every veteran of the Civil War.”
Next week: The handsome Fitz John Porter monument is erected in Haven Park, but it will take months before the dedication ceremony would finally take place.
