Doctor Henry Porter

Acting Assistant Surgeon with the 7th Cavalry.
(LIBI Archives/Library)

Acting Assistant Surgeon Henry Rinaldo Porter was the sole surviving surgeon with Custer's 7^th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Surgeon James DeWolf was killed in the retreat from the valley floor and Surgeon George Lord had perished with Custer. For much of two days Doctor Porter was the only trained medical professional caring for the 30 wounded soldiers of Reno and Benteen's commands. His improvised field hospital at the Reno-Benteen defense site was under constant fire from Lakota and Cheyenne riflemen. The lack of water for drinking and dressing wounds, however, became the greatest deficiency. Twice during the siege, soldier volunteers made runs down to the river for water. It is to Dr. Porter's credit that the great majority of the wounded that came under his care survived.

During the siege, Porter had laudanum and morphine to ease pain, but not much else and a carbolic-acid solution was used to sterilize wounds. Porter performed two amputations while on the ridge, a lower leg of one of the water carriers, Private Mike Madden, and the upper half of the middle finger of Private John Phillips. Both men survived.

Dr. Porter was 28 years old at the time of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Porter was mustered out of the army on September 30, 1876, at Fort Abraham Lincoln, and he returned to medical practice in Bismarck, Dakota Territory.

Porter was called to testify at the Reno Court of Inquiry in January 1879. Porter, who had been with Reno's battalion, stated that Reno seemed uncertain whether to stay or flee the woods. Porter also remarked that the retreat was done with considerable confusion and disorder, Porter himself being left by the soldiers, and that he was fortunate to secure his horse and ride to safety. He also stated that Captain Benteen was the real commander of the hilltop defense. Of the 23 witnesses who gave testimony, 14 were officers of the 7^th Cavalry. The testimony of the five civilians who were at the battle was decidedly more critical of Reno's conduct, than that of the 7^th Cavalry officers.

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Porter had his accounts of the battle published in the New York Herald, on July 11, 1876, as "The Terrible Sioux: Doctor Porter's Account of the Battle" and in the Bismarck Tribune, on May 24, 1878 as "The Brave Doctor." He died at the age of 54 on March 3, 1903, in the Hotel Metropole, Agra, India.

Learn more: "Deliverance from the Little Big Horn: Doctor Henry Porter and Custer's Seventh Cavalry" by Joan Nasbeth Stevenson (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013)