James Porter (7th Cavalry)
| James Ezekiel Porter | |
|---|---|
James Porter
|
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| Born |
February 2, 1847 Strong, Maine |
| Died | June 25, 1876 (aged 29) Montana |
| Place of Burial | Strong Village Cemetery Strong, Maine |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1869–76 |
| Rank | First Lieutenant |
| Unit | 7th U.S. Cavalry |
| Battles/wars | |
James Ezekiel Porter (February 2, 1847 – June 25, 1876) was one of General Custer's eleven officers killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, and Porter was among the first verified casualties of the historic battle alerting the world to the demise of Custer's group. According to several historians, Porter led troops in a defensive action at the Little Bighorn. 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. Porter was then was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point by U.S. Representative Sidney Perham, and Porter graduated in 1869, ranked 16th in a class of 39. Porter and the other officers of the 7th Cavalry "in the nineteenth century...often came from cultured backgrounds." Most officers in the Seventh Cavalry were educated at "civilian colleges" or the "prestigious Military Academy at West Point" and were part of a "stratified class system existing between commissioned and enlisted status."
He received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment upon graduation and was first sent to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, then Fort Wallace and Fort Harker, also in Kansas. He participated in "The Plains" Indian warfare from 1869 to 1876 and also served "Ku Klux" duty in the South, according to a comrade, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era when Porter served in various cities between 1871 and 1873, including Chester, South Carolina, Rutherfordton, North Carolina, Lincolnton, North Carolina and then Shelbyville, Lebanon and Louisville, Kentucky while the 7th was charged with suppressing the Ku Klux Klan. For his efforts in serving "Ku Klux" duty, Porter was recognized by a comrade for his "energy and discretion [which] formed a combination sufficiently rare and valuable to give him a name among his fellows." In 1872, Porter became a 1st lieutenant and was assigned to Troop I. He was eventually sent back to Fort Abraham Lincoln and Fort Totten in Dakota. He served in the Northern Boundary Survey in 1873 and 1874 being based in Minnesota. Prior to the Battle at Little Bighorn in June 1876, Porter "had requested a transfer to the general staff for a more settled life" because "his wife had just given birth to their second child in March" and "the couple had moved fourteen times." When Captain Myles Keogh returned to Ireland in 1874, Porter took command of Company I.
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