Henry “Harry” Garland Buffum, a Medal of Honor (MOH) recipient, spent eight years in the U.S. military. First in the Navy for one year of the Civil War, and then in a cavalry regiment in the American West where he saw fierce combat during the so-called Indian Wars. A severe hip injury incurred in battle forced him to leave regular service to care for soldiers and veterans as a hospital steward. What is known of his history suggests he may have suffered from was is now referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which led to taking his own life in 1883.  

Henry was born into a prominent New England family in Boston, MA, around 1841. His father, retired sea captain Joshua Buffum, served as superintendent of a sailor’s boarding house in Boston that emphasized moral righteousness and improvement during the first years of Henry’s life.  By 1860, his father operated a farm on which Henry worked as a laborer.  On August 15, 1862, he enlisted for one year of service in the U.S. Navy at the port of Boston with the low rating of landsmen, or recruit.  He served on two ships during his wartime year of naval service and left the Navy as a seaman when his term expired. On December 5, 1865, he married Mary E. Moore in Boston; their only child, Edith, was born April 1, 1867. Records indicate that Henry and Mary were living separate lives by 1870—she was a school teacher in Boston raising Edith and Henry was a boarder near Reading, PA, working as an engineer.  The couple was granted a divorce in April 1874 for unspecified reasons.  

Henry seemingly began a new life after his marriage ended. On September 22, 1876, he left a job as a salesman and returned to military service, this time enlisting in the Army for five years. He joined under the name of Harry Garland—dropping his father’s family name of Buffum in favor of his mother’s. He was assigned to Company L, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and sent to the Montana Territory just months after the massacre of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and his command at Little Big Horn. The salesman-turned-horse soldier was quickly thrust into combat.

Details of Garland’s arrival in the West or his first battle experience are not documented, but he saw action at Little Muddy Creek near present-day Lame Deer, MT, on May 7, 1877. In this engagement, U.S. forces overtook one of the last bands of Lakota warriors who contributed to Custer’s defeat. During the fighting, peace negotiations went awry, and Co. L unleashed a deadly volley of fire at Chief Lame Deer, the Lakota leader. The Little Muddy Creek action effectively ended the Great Sioux War (1876-1877) and avenged Little Big Horn in the minds of many white Americans.

Garland next served in the Nez Perce War (June-October 1877), in which the U.S. Army pursued Nez Perce Indians who would not relinquish ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to reservation land in the Idaho Territory as the U.S. government was forcing them to do. On August 20, 1877, Garland’s unit, encamped at Camas Meadows, ID, was awakened by war cries and an onslaught of small arms fire. A group of the Nez Perce raided the camp capturing more than 100 mules. Once the attackers withdrew, Garland was part of the three-company party sent to counterattack and recover the animals. Miles from camp they ran into severe fire from a long line of Nez Perce warriors. Two of the American cavalry companies withdrew, but Garland’s company of approximately fifty men dismounted and moved to a position that they fortified with lava rocks. The isolated soldiers were quickly surrounded and engaged in a four-hour battle. It ended when U.S. reinforcements arrived, and the Nez Perce withdrew. Garland experienced intense close combat. Seven of his company were wounded, two mortally. Garland himself was severely wounded when a bullet struck the cartridge belt on his left hip, driving multiple cartridges through his body and fracturing his upper pelvis.  Unable to stand after this, he instead directed the fire of the remaining soldiers.  

Garland and two others were placed under medical care the following morning and moved by wagon to Virginia City, Montana Territory. Garland was promoted to sergeant, and on February 28, 1878, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action at Little Muddy Creek and Camas Meadows. Nine months later he received a warrant promotion to hospital steward at Fort Ellis, Montana Territory. He arrived for duty on December 7, 1878.   It is not known how Garland achieved this post, but pre-military careers indicate that he was a well-educated man.  His wound likely left him unable to continue as a horse soldier. Soldiers typically completed a competitive exam before they could be selected as hospital stewards. Qualifications per the 1862 Hospital Stewards’ manual included “18-35 years old, able-bodied, free of disease, honest and upright,” of “good intelligence, having a knowledge of English, able to spell and write correctly,” and “industrious, patient, and good tempered.”  The position came with a rank roughly equivalent to sergeant major and a long list of responsibilities. Stewards assisted surgeons, mixed and distributed medicine, inventoried and ordered medical supplies, served as hospital administrators, and mentored junior enlisted men.

Garland immediately devoted all his energies to doing his new job well and improving his hospital. One of his first acts was to solicit donations of art and other décor from the women’s philanthropic group, Flower Mission, in New York City. In the first days of his assignment he wrote to donors of his desire to have “something instead of bare white walls, or the bleak and barren landscape for the tired eyes of the poor sick and wounded boys under my care.”  Garland made his appeal personal by speaking as one “of the poor fellows who lie helpless day after day,” when he was confined to a bed for several months “staring at the blank whiteness” after his combat injury.  His letter was shared in the New York Times and Harpers Weekly and he quickly received over sixty colorized photographs, engravings, and Japanese scrolls to adorn and transform his hospital walls—he even had enough to distribute decorations to other Montana post hospitals.

His first term expired on September 21, 1881, and he re-enlisted. It was noted on his file that he was of excellent character.  Newspaper articles in May 1883 indicate that he performed his job well. Local reporters that he proudly toured through his beautified hospital declared it  “the neatest and best kept institution of the kind we have ever seen. The arrangement of wards, store-rooms, operating rooms, etc., are perfect and as clean as they can be made.”  An article published weeks later described Garland the “best steward that post had ever seen.” 

But the headline of the same article praising Garland revealed a tragic tale—“Weary of Life. Death of a Good Man and the best Hospital Steward in the West.”  On the morning of May 22, Garland failed to show up to work. His superiors’ initial reaction revealed evidence of Garland’s inner demons. He was known to occasionally fall victim to strong drink and be unable to perform his job. A search of the fort was initiated, but Garland could not be located. The following day his body was discovered in the fort’s icehouse; he was immediately buried in the post cemetery. The cause of death was suicide by morphine poisoning, which he would have had easy access to as hospital steward. 

The Army located his ex-wife, Mary after his death and sent his personal possessions to her and his 18-year-old daughter in Boston. The list of those items offer some sense of the man—a Medal of Honor in display case, Indian weapons cases and a pipe, mounted taxidermy, a whiskey glass, a cribbage board, a gold ring, four framed photos, a forage cap with badges, three walking canes, eye glasses, and an eclectic library of 47 books.   Along with the mention of alcoholism, newspapers reported that he “suffered somewhat from injuries” in the six years since being shot in the hip.  His three canes indicate he likely needed the aid of one when walking. A member of his unit wrote in a memoir that “his wound never healed,” but incorrectly reported this led to him “blowing out his brains a few years later.”  In addition to enduring severe battle wounds, Garland fought in close combat for sustained periods, witnessed the death of comrades, and likely took the lives of others. It was believed that he overdosed “while in a fit of despondency,” indicating some history of depression.   

The 42-year-old was a decorated combat veteran, respected non-commissioned and warrant officer, and father when he died. After Fort Ellis closed in 1886, his remains were moved to the post cemetery at Fort Missoula, MT (Section B, Site 13). In October 2019, that cemetery was transferred to the VA’s National Cemetery Administration. 

Garland’s life story took a tragic turn, but it is one worth sharing. Servicemembers of all conflicts --past and present--face physical and mental injuries sometimes leading to depression and substance abuse. All Veterans may face this at one time or another, even those like Garland who receive the highest decorations for their service.  

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"Quarantined private cemetery during MDW pull (cemeteryNum 952)"

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