A BLOODY JACKET, AN EMPTY GRAVE

Abrave and capable first lieutenant in George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry, James Ezekiel Porter is memorialized on two headstones—each standing over an empty grave.

Porter was born on Jan. 12, 1847, in Strong, Maine, the eldest of four sons of Rachel (née Hunter) and Jeremy Wyman Porter, a Maine senator and trustee of the state reform school. James attended the Maine State Seminary (present-day Bates College) in 1842–43, transferred to Norwich University for a year, then in 1864 was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point by U.S. Representative Sidney Perham. Porter graduated 16th out of 39 in Class of 1869.

The second lieutenant