George Edwin Lord (February 17, 1846 – June 25, 1876) was a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Assistant Surgeon A surgeon's mate was a rank in the Royal Navy for a medically trained assistant to the ship's surgeon. The rank was renamed assistant surgeon in 1805, and was considered equivalent to the rank of master's mate/mate. In 1807, first-rate would ...

in the 7th Cavalry who was killed in the

Battle of the Little Big Horn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

Montana Territory The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana. Original boundaries ...

during the

Black Hills War The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the ...

. Lord was born in

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

and graduated from Bowdoin College. He attended medical school and moved west to serve in the U.S. Army at various forts and outposts. He entered into another contract with the U. S. Army in January 1875 and was made a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

in the 7th Cavalry, posted in

Fort Abraham Lincoln Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is a North Dakota state park located south of Mandan, North Dakota, United States. The park is home to the replica Mandan On-A-Slant Indian Village and reconstructed military buildings including the Custer House. ...

in the

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...

. During the Great Sioux War, he accompanied Lt. Col.

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

's column towards the Little Bighorn River, where he was killed in action. Dr. Lord's body was not positively identified by the first burial crews, and he was initially listed by General Alfred H. Terry and others as missing in action. Captain Otto E. Michaelis and Lieutenant Richard E. Thompson, however, later contacted Lord's brother with their belief that a body sighted on the field had been the doctor's, based on a blue shirt the corpse was wearing as well as "the shapely hands, the moustache, and general appearance."Richard G. Hardorff, ''The Custer Battle Casualties II''. Michaelis also thought the socks on the corpse were from the same set of three pairs Lord had earlier purchased from a trader at Powder River. Based on this new information, three months after the battle Terry recommended that Lord's status be changed to killed in action. However, there is no marker with Lord's name at the

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument preserves the site of the June 25 and 26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, Montana, in the United States. It also serves as a memorial to those who fought in the battle: George Arm ...

that specifically marks this reported death site. In 1890, a marker for Lord was placed on the so-called South Skirmish Line, based on the discovery there of buttons that were thought to be part of a staff officer's uniform which doctors would wear. Lord's surgical kit eventually was recovered from the Indians and sent to the Army's medical museum.

References

;Bibliography * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, George Edwin 1846 births 1876 deaths People of the Great Sioux War of 1876 Bowdoin College alumni American military personnel killed in the American Indian Wars People from Brunswick, Maine Battle of the Little Bighorn