Edward Porter Alexander

Edward Porter Alexander was a military engineer, railroad executive, planter, and author. He served first as an officer in the United States Army and later, during the American Civil War , in the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of brigadier general.

Alexander, known to his friends as Porter, was born in Washington, Georgia into a wealthy and distinguished family of planters of the Old South. He was the sixth of ten children of Adam Leopold Alexander and Sarah Hillhouse Gilbert Alexander. He became the brotherinlaw of Alexander R. Lawton and Jeremy F. Gilmer. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1857, third in his class ofcadets, and was brevetted a second lieutenant of engineers. He briefly taught engineering and fencing at the academy before he was ordered to report to Brig. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston for the Utah War expedition. That mission ended before he could reach Johnston, and Alexander returned to West Point. He participated in a number of weapon experiments and worked as an assistant to Major Albert J. Myer, the first officer assigned to the Signal Corps and the inventor of the code for wigwag signal flags, or aerial telegraphy. Alexander was promoted to second lieutenant on October

Source: Wikipedia