Deliverance from the Little Big Horn: Doctor Henry Porter and Custer's Seventh Cavalry

by Joan Nabseth Stevenson

Of the three surgeons who accompanied Custer’s Seventh Cavalry on June 25, 1876, only the youngest, twenty-eight-year-old Henry Porter, survived that day’s ordeal, riding through a gauntlet of Indian attackers and up the steep bluffs to Major Marcus Reno’s hilltop position. But the story of Dr. Porter’s wartime exploits goes far beyond the battle itself. In this compelling narrative of military endurance and medical ingenuity, Joan Nabseth Stevenson opens a new window on the Battle of the Little Big Horn by re-creating the desperate struggle for survival during the fight and in its wake.
As Stevenson recounts in gripping detail, Porter’s life-saving work on the battlefield began immediately, as he assumed the care of nearly sixty soldiers and two Indian scouts, attending to wounds and performing surgeries and amputations. He evacuated the critically wounded soldiers on mules and hand litters, embarking on a hazardous trek of fifteen miles that required two river crossings, the scaling of a steep cliff, and a treacherous descent into the safety of the steamboat Far West , waiting at the mouth of the Little Big Horn River. There began a harrowing 700-mile journey along the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers to the post hospital at Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck, Dakota Territory.
With its new insights into the role and function of the army medical corps and the evolution of battlefield medicine, this unusual book will take its place both as a contribution to the history of the Great Sioux War and alongside such vivid historical novels as Son of the Morning Star and Little Big Man . It will also ensure that the selfless deeds of a lone “contract” surgeon—unrecognized to this day by the U.S. government—will never be forgotten.

Genres: History, American History

232 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2012

Reviews

[Schoppie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long maintained an interest in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and, while I have heard and read Doctor Henry Porter's name before, I must admit that I knew almost nothing about him before I read this book.

Stevenson's book about Porter is a remarkable work which combines the life of the doctor and the state of medicine in the U.S. at that time with the events surrounding the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. Porter was the only surviving doctor of the three who rode with the 7th Cavalry on June 25, 1876, and was single handedly responsible for more than 60 wounded and injured soldiers from the battalions of Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen. Under extrememly trying conditions, Porter helped to save the lives of most of the patients under his care, but he did so using outdated medicine (by European standards) and make-shift modes of transportation for the wounded soldiers.

The author relates the Battle of the Little Bighorn through Dr. Porter's eyes and, naturally, focuses attention on the plight of those unfortunate wounded under his care. As I read this book, I was struck by the fact that most of the histories of this conflict focus so much on the battle itself and the burial of the dead that the wounded soldiers and the actions necessary to save them are usually only after-thoughts (if mentioned at all). Also highlighted in this book are the contributions of the acting assistant surgeons who worked for the U.S. Army by contract (without pension, rank, status, or the same pay as commissioned surgeons in the U.S. Army, even though they did the same work).

Stevenson's book will be required reading for anyone interested in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Frontier U.S. Army, and the history of U.S. medicine. A first-rate book!