 Porter also served in the American South during the Reconstruction Era, where, according to a comrade, he respectably served "Ku Klux" duty while the 7th Cavalry was charged with eradicating the Ku Klux Klan and illegal distilling.James Ezekiel Porter was born in Strong, Maine, in 1846 to Jeremy W. Porter, a wood manufacturer and state senator and trustee of the state reform school.James Porter attended Bates College (called the Maine State Seminary until 1863) from 1862–1863 and then Norwich University from 1863-1864.