Henry Rinaldo Porter

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Henry Rinaldo Porter (February 3, 1848 – March 3, 1903) was an Acting Assistant Surgeon in the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Porter was born in New York Mills, New York. He graduated Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1872 as a doctor. Four years later, he became a Contract Surgeon with the U.S. Army at Fort Abraham Lincoln during the Black Hills War.

Commanding officer Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer assigned Dr. Porter to Frederick Benteen's battalion during the march to the Little Bighorn River in June 1876. Porter was the only one of the 7th Cavalry's three surgeons available to the survivors on Reno Hill for the two days they were besieged. (Dr. George Edwin Lord had been killed with Custer's Battalion and Dr. James Madison DeWolf was killed during the climb up Reno Hill.)

Dr. Porter left his contract service in September 1876. He testified at the Reno Court of Inquiry in 1879.

Porter died in Agra, India, where he had gone on a trip with his wife.