Fighting a lingering illness of several months, Benjamin Duval Porter, Confederate veteran, author and newspaperman, died last night at the Retreat for the Sick in the eighty-first year of his age. At the bedside at the time of Mr. Porter's death were a son, Rawley Duval Porter of Richmond, and a daughter, Miss Mary Staples Porter, of New York.
Born in “Springfield,” Appomattox County, July 23, 1844, the son of Madison Campbell and Staples Porter, Mr. Porter spent his early life in Virginia and served with distinction in the War Between the States. He enlisted in the Confederate Army in May, 1862, with Company B, Forty-sixth Virginia Infantry and served under Captain G. W. Abbott. Later he was transferred to the Forty-fourth Virginia Infantry and served under Captain James Robertson.
From the time he took up the fight for the Confederacy, until he died, Mr. Porter regarded States' rights as a sacred ideal. Until a few days before his death he discussed with his daughter the ideals for which the South fought, and went over the several…[missing text].
…[Missing text]… taken prisoner at Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865. He was [confin]ed in prison at Point Lookout, Md., and, on account of the assassination of President Lincoln, remained in prison from April until July.
Educated at Columbian University, now George Washington University, at Washington, D. C., Mr. Porter later entered the newspaper business, being a member of the reportorial staff of the New York World fifty years ago. He was political writer for the World and confrere of Senator John W. Daniel. It was while a member of the World staff that he wrote his first collection of poems entitled “Porter's Poems,”which were in a private edition. Porter was later with the Lynchburg News, the Dan Valley Echo and Alliance-Democrat, the last two publications being printed in Danville, Va. Mr. Porter also contributed many articles to the Times-Dispatch, Baltimore papers and papers throughout the South.
Mr. Porter was well known for his several volumes of poems, including “People, Places and Things,” “Along the Lines of Byrd Survey,” “The Same Old Fool,” “Wasted Talents,” “Lyrics of the Lost Cause,” all of which were published in private editions for his friends. “Sunset Poems” was his last work published before Mr. Porter's death.
Mr. Porter was author of “Official Virginia,” and had a second edition of the book in manuscript form when he died. Taken ill last summer, Mr. Porter was forced to abandon work on this second edition.
One of the greatest poems written by Mr. Porter is “Edgar Allan Poe,” which is preserved in the archives of the Poe memorial at the University of Virginia. On December 22, 1875, Mr. Porter married Miss Bettie Susan Younger, who died about four years ago in Richmond. For a long time Mr. Porter resided at Cascade, Va. but came to Richmond in 1917. He is survived by one daughter, Miss Mary Staples Porter, of New York, three sons, John Madison, of Dumbarton; George Carter, recently of Philadelphia; and Rawley Duval Porter, of 1631 West Grace Street, Richmond; one brother, J. A. Porter of Winchester, Tenn.; and one sister, Mrs. Benjamin Carrington Abbott, of Appomattox County.Funeral arrangements have not been made. The family stated last night that the services probably will be conducted tomorrow or Sunday.
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