BRUNSWICK CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
MEETING – October 6, 2015
SCAPEGOAT OR HERO?The court martial of Fitz John Porter
SPEAKER: Matthew Borowick
Matt Borowick took us through a brief overview of historical “Ironical Happenstances”where blame was easily placed on individuals as scapegoats. He is slowly building us to either a mighty crescendo or an empty conclusion.
He gives us a background of Fitz John as a West Pointer, a “soldier’s soldier”and career Army. Matt shows us how the “deck was stacked”against Fitz John from the start. For starters, members of the court were personally chosen by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (a strong McClellan opponent). One such member, Rufus King, was a very suspect appointment. Ya just had to be there to hear Matt give a profound explanation as to why Rufus was MIA for ALL of second Manassas!
The two charges against Fitz John were very serious and could actually bring execution. The first one was disobeying Pope’s order. The second was misbehavior in front of the enemy. Matt shared the “joint order”from Pope that started it all. It was a masterpiece of the lateral arabesque (going sidewise and doing nothing). As we waded through the juicy generalizations, we were led to conclude it was just one botched encounter after another. At one short point, the Confederates were so frustrated they actually threw large rocks at the enemy.
The president of the court, David Hunter, saw political advantage to a trial open to the public. Reporters, newspapers and magazines saw a feeding frenzy. They joyfully entered that great American game called…politics. The country took sides and viewed the trial through very partisan eyes. The outrageous did not go unnoticed. Only ONE map, supplied by Pope, was used to tell the position of Longstreet’s troops! Character assassination attempts made Porter bristle and helped him begin avenues to restore his good name. Lincoln looked at the thirty-one pages of testimony and assumed Porter guilty “by sheer volume.”The court held a secret vote but Porter learns of his guilty charges from a New York Times reporter.
Matt tells us that Porter began a long “mud march”to clear his name. Not until the term of President Chester Arthur in 1882 is his sentence overturned and justice comes to Porter. We are assured that Porter was a fine soldier—perhaps the finest in the Army of the Potomac. He did what any leader would have done under the same circumstances. If anything, he was convicted of using common sense.
Scapegoat or hero? Matt sees him as a bit of both. The game of politics truly victimized Fitz John. He was no traitor and finally proved it. The whole episode was a great injustice. In conclusion, Matt hopes you lean towards thinking of Fitz John Porter as an American hero.
By Dan Fink