By Berry Craig, Kentucky Lantern · June 25, 2026

On June 26, 1876, U.S. Seventh Cavalry trooper Michael P. Madden of Louisville gulped brandy before a surgeon amputated his right leg under fire during the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The sawbones gave the Irish-born Kentucky enlistee another snort afterwards. Supposedly, Madden was so appreciative of the second drink that he invited the surgeon to “cut off me other leg.”

The sesquicentennial of the storied battle Madden survived isn’t getting much press in the semiquincentennial hoopla. Nor is it widely known that several sons of the Bluegrass State rode with Custer. Some were killed.

News of  the battle dubbed “Custer’s Last Stand” turned the white folks’ big July 4 centennial celebrations back East into angry demands for revenge against victorious Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors whom newspapers commonly dismissed as “savages.”

“THE CUSTER CATASTROPHE” trumpeted a front-page headline in the July 10, 1876, Louisville Courier-Journal. The subhead described “Fearful Torture and Mutilation of Custer’s Men.”

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, the 7th’s flamboyant commander, was a Union Civil War hero. Famous for emerging unscathed from bloody cavalry clashes, he made brigadier general of volunteers at age 23. “Custer’s Luck,” his astonished admirers called his good fortune.

His luck ran out on June 25, 1876, when he and 262 of his men—including soldiers, civilians and Native American scouts–were killed in what became a desperate two-day fight along the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana Territory. Between 60 and 100 warriors lost their lives.

While Madden lost only a leg, the Kentucky fallen included 2nd Lt. John J. Crittenden III, a Logan County native and son of Kentucky Union Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden and grandson of Kentucky Sen. John J. Crittenden. His gold pocket watch is on display at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in Frankfort.

Lakota chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull were the victors over Custer. But almost always, winners ultimately write the history books and memorialize their heroes. So the battle became “Custer’s Last Stand” and in 1946, the site became the ‘Custer Battlefield National Monument.” Despite conservative charges of “political correctness,” Congress changed the name to the “Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument” in 1991. But the park includes the Custer National Cemetery in which Crittenden is buried.

Madden, a Union Civil War veteran, had rejoined the army at Louisville in 1871. Records aren’t clear if he was living in the Falls City when he reupped. He had been discharged at Mount Vernon, Ky., following America’s most lethal conflict.

The first news reports of the battle said Custer and his entire force of more than 600 men were annihilated. But almost 360 managed to save themselves.

Custer, expecting to burnish his hero’s creds with another victory, led his horsemen in a charge down grassy hillsides toward a massive Native American camp along the river. After as many as 1,500 to 1,800 mounted  warriors rushed out to overwhelm Custer and the men near him; they pinned down the rest of the the regiment which had fled to a grassy hilltop above the river. It was blazing hot. The thirsty soldiers soon emptied their canteens; the wounded cried out for water.

On June 26, Madden joined a group of volunteers who grabbed kettles and canteens and ran down a deep gully—now called “Water Carrier’s Ravine”— to fetch water from the river. Protected by sharpshooters, they braved a storm of rifle fire and arrows. All made it back, though a rifle slug hit Madden in the right leg, just above the ankle.

Dr. Henry R. Porter, a 28-year-old civilian contract physician, dodged bullets and arrows while he amputated Madden’s mangled limb. He reputedly used a collapsed tent for a ground cover and operating table.

E.A. Brininstool included Madden’s legendary quip in his 1925 book, “Troopers with Custer: Historic Incidents of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.” The author quoted Pvt. William Slaper, another water carrier: “Before amputating … the surgeon gave Mike a stiff horn of brandy to brace him up. Mike went through the ordeal without a whimper, and was given another drink. Smacking his lips in appreciation, he whispered to the surgeon, ‘Doctor, cut off me other leg!'”

The other water carriers won Medals of Honor. For reasons not clear, Slaper, Madden  and possibly a third trooper did not. Madden, however, earned sergeant’s stripes “for distinguished bravery in action.”

With the approach of Army reinforcements, the Native Americans broke camp and left on the evening of June 26. Madden was placed on a litter and evacuated by mule. Once, the cantankerous critter balked and sent its human cargo thudding to the ground. Madden, who apparently suffered no further injury, eventually went by Bighorn River steamboat to Fort Lincoln, Dakota Territory, where he recovered.

The Army discharged him in August, 1876, “as a sergeant of excellent character.” Born in Ireland around 1841, Madden died on Dec. 18, 1883, at age 41 or 42 in California City, Mo.

He was interred in the potter’s field section of the California City cemetery. But in 2010, the local historical society placed a marble marker at his grave denoting him as a “SERG 7 US CAVALRY INDIAN WARS.”

Custer and part of the Seventh Cavalry had spent 1871-1873  in Elizabethtown, the Hardin County seat, where they helped enforce the law and recruited volunteers locally and in Louisville. Some Hardin countians call his tenure there “Custer’s Next to Last Stand.”