[1]For his failure to carry out Pope’s order of the 29th to attack Jackson, Porter was court-martialed and dismissed from the army on January 21, 1863. In 1879, a board of general officers who reviewed the case held that Porter could not have attacked Jackson successfully, as ordered, because Longstreet’s corps had moved up into position on the right of Jackson and opposite Porter, and that this was known to the latter. Thus, Pope’s order, which was written without knowledge of this development, could not be carried out. President Arthur, in 1882, remitted that part of the sentence which disqualified Porter from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the United States. On August 5, 1886, Porter was reappointed colonel of infantry, and 2 days later placed on the retirement list. To this day, despite his final vindication, the controversy over Porter’s action on August 29, 1862, at Second Manassas has not died down among military students.
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