Early Life and Career
Hatch was born in Oswego, N. Y., a son of Moses Porter and Hannah (Reed) Hatch. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1845, ranking 17th in his class. He experienced his first active field service as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry during the Mexican War. In May 1846, he served under General Zachary Taylor at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. He was transferred later to serve under Winfield Scott in the Mounted Rifles. He was brevetted as a first lieutenant for gallant service in the subsequent battles of Contreras and Churubusco, and captain for bravery at Chapultepec.
When the war ended, Hatch was assigned to various posts on the frontier of the Old West, as well as in Oregon. He married Adelaide Goldsmith Burckle in 1851; the couple raised two children. In the next decade, Hatch participated in several expeditions against Native American tribes. He was promoted to the full rank of captain in October 1860 and served as the Chief of Commissary for the army's Department of New Mexico.
Read more about this topic: John Porter Hatch
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“For the writer, there is nothing quite like having someone say that he or she understands, that you have reached them and affected them with what you have written. It is the feeling early humans must have experienced when the firelight first overcame the darkness of the cave. It is the communal cooking pot, the Street, all over again. It is our need to know we are not alone.”
—Virginia Hamilton (b. 1936)
“What, really, is wanted from a neighborhood? Convenience, certainly, an absence of major aggravation, to be sure. But perhaps most of all, ideally, what is wanted is a comfortable background, a breathing space of intermission between the intensities of private life and the calculations of public life.”
—Joseph Epstein (b. 1937)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)