<p style="text-align:center"><strong>JOSEPH H. POTTER</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>No. 1188 · Class of 1843</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>Died December 1, 1892, at Columbus, Ohio, aged 70 years.</strong></p><p>General Joseph H. Potter, of the U.S. Army, was born in New Hampshire October 12, 1822, and appointed a Cadet from that State to the Military Academy, entering July 1, 1839 the class of 1843 now become celebrated.</p><p>The members of this class had become well settled in their profession when the Mexican War broke out. That war gave them an opportunity for early and immediate distinction as young men, and those who survived, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, stepped naturally forward in the prime of life wearing honors for the gallant experience of their early days. This class was not alone; for there were others of about the same date that contributed their just proportion of candidates for distinction on both sides.</p><p>The experience gained in the Mexican War was a strong recommendation to favor with General Scott and lesser officers who were in authority at the opportune moment when commands were seeking leaders on both sides of the Civil War.</p><p>General Potter, the subject of this sketch, first served in the war with Mexico, on Taylor's line. He was in the gallant Seventh Infantry at Fort Brown, when the ball was opened May 3, 1846, by the week's bombardment of that field work before relief came from General Taylor in person.</p><p>Lieutenant Potter was severely wounded in the attack on Monterey, which took place upon the advance of Taylor's army to that City, September 21 and 22, 1846; he received a brevet for his gallantry in storming the enemy's works.</p><p>After the Mexican War, Lieutenant Potter served on frontier duty as an officer of the Seventh Infantry in the Utah expedition, and in New Mexico until the breaking out of the Rebellion. He became Colonel of the Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, September 27, 1862, and with his regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac. He was engaged in the Battle of Fredericksburg and in the Battle of Chancellorsville where he was severely wounded, taken prisoner by the enemy, and soon after paroled.</p><p>After exchange he became commander of a brigade in the Army of the James, and was in the field actively engaged with his command until the final surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865.</p><p>General Potter was brevetted for the Battle of Fredericksburg and of Chancellorsville, and finally as a Brigadier-General for gallant and meritorious services in the campaign terminating with the surrender of the insurgent army, under Robert E. Lee.</p><p>After the war he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirtieth Infantry, July 28, 1866, and became Colonel of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in December 1873, and was appointed Brigadier-General April 1, 1886, retiring by operation of law for age in the same year.</p><p>Such in brief, is the record of a fine soldier, who did his duty fully and energetically wherever placed. He was not fitted by nature to advance his own interest by those arts which are often more successful than the hardest service, in securing brilliant rewards.</p><p>Standing next below General Grant on his class roll, like him he was undemonstrative, and content to do his duty wherever placed, but unlike the former, he was not fortunate in the event. Taken prisoner at the beginning of the war in New Mexico, he suffered, with many others, from the unjust prejudice with which such accidents were viewed by the authorities under the excitement of the opening of the war. But gradually his staunch soldiership, and his readiness to shed his blood for the cause in which he fought, as he had already done in Mexico, brought him that respect due to strong character and brave endurance. To those who knew him, the final recognition of his services, by his appointment to a Brigadier-General's commission, seemed a graceful act, and was warmly approved by his old comrades in arms.</p><p>General Potter was a man of true courage; calm and strong in what he esteemed the right; singularly free from all pretence and disposition to trumpet his own fame; but rather inclined, in his modesty to leave his merits undiscovered, even though he should become a martyr to neglect, or monument of injustice.</p><p>General Grant personally knew his value, and endeavored to secure him his due promotion immediately after the war, upon the reorganization of the army, but he was over ruled, and his recommendation in this case set aside.</p><p>General Potter was for several years Governor of the Soldiers Home, where his careful management again placed that beneficent institution upon its greatly improved foundation, and brought it more thoroughly in accord with the wants of the army, and the intention of its founders.</p><p>For many years General Potter suffered from ill health, due to early and constant exposure in line of duty, to which he at last succumbed on the 1st of December 1892.</p><blockquote><p>"Him only pleasure leads and peace attends; Him, only him, the shield of Jove defends Whose means are fair and spotless as his ends."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align:right">� S. B. HOLABIRD.</p><p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://usmalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/aogreunion/id/11434">Annual Report, June 9, 1893, pp. 71�73 · U.S. Military Academy Library</a></p>