One of the youngest generals of both sides in the civil war, Edward Alexander Porter in Washington, Georgia, born May 26, 1835. He went to the Military Academy of the United States, graduated third in a class of 38 in 1857.
Before the war, Alexander served as an instructor at West Point, Utah, and the expedition against the Mormons in 1857 and 1858. When his native state seceded from the Union before the Civil War, Alexander resigned from the army S. U. joining Confederation. He began his career as captain of the CSA Engineering, and lead to the rank of brigadier general of artillery at the end of the war.