A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn cover art

A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn

U.S. Army Surgeon George E. Lord

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A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn

By: Todd E. Harburn
Narrated by: Aaron Killian
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About this listen

Of the three physicians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Doctor George Edwin Lord (1846–76) was the lone commissioned medical officer, an assistant surgeon with the United States Army’s 7th Cavalry. A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn tells Lord’s story for the first time. Notable for its unique angle on Custer’s last stand and for its depiction of frontier-era medicine, the book is above all a compelling portrait of the making of an army medical professional in mid-nineteenth-century America.

Lord’s time as a contract physician with the army took him in 1874 to the U.S. Northern Boundary Survey. From there Harburn recounts how, after a failed romance and the rigors of the U.S. Army Medical Board examination, the young doctor proceeded to his first—and only—appointment as a post surgeon, at Fort Buford in Dakota Territory. What followed, of course, was Lord’s service, and his death, in the Little Big Horn campaign, which this book shows us for the first time from the unique perspective of the surgeon.

A portrait of a singular figure in the milieu of the American military’s nineteenth-century medical elite, A Life Cut Short at the Little Big Horn offers a close look at a familiar chapter in U.S. history, and a reminder of the humanity lost in a battle that resonates to this day.

The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2023 University of Oklahoma Press (P)2025 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

“A deeply researched and well-written biography...highly recommended.” (Journal of America’s Military Past)

“An admirable addition to the Little Big Horn canon.” (James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory)

"Will interest all students of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.” (James S. Brust, coauthor of Where Custer Fell)

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