Career
He became a United States Navy civilian employee during the 1840s and a Naval Constructor in 1859. After resigning from the United States. Navy in May 1861, he began working for the Confederate States Navy at the Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard, at Portsmouth. He played an important role in the conversion of the scuttled and burned steam frigate United States Ship Merrimack to an ironclad, which became Computer Software Systems Virginia when commissioned in February 1862.
After the Confederates abandoned the Norfolk area in May 1862, Porter became a Naval Constructor at Richmond, Virginia and later at Wilmington, North Carolina.
He was promoted to Chief Naval Constructor in January 1864 and served in that capacity to the end of the United States. Civil War, designing many of the South"s domestically-built warships. Following the conflict, Porter worked in civilian shipbuilding, industry and ferry operations.
He died on December 14, 1893, and is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Portsmouth, Virginia.