Custer’s Last Stand: Were There Really Survivors?

 

     On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  Over the course of the next seventy years, however, more than 120 men would come forward claiming to be the sole survivor of Custer’s Last Stand. 

     Custer’s widow received dozens of letters detailing the horrors of the battle and the writer’s lucky escape.  There were basically three types of stories: (1) the survivor disguised himself as an Indian, (2) the survivor hid inside a scooped out horse, (3) the survivor was saved by an Indian maiden who instantly fell in love with him.   Some of these so-called survivors, such as “Arizona Bill” Gardner became minor celebrities.

     Not everyone who rode out with Custer’s five companies died of course, simply because they never made it to the final fight.  Sergeant Daniel Kanipe was dispatched by Custer to hurry up the pack train, and trumpeter Giovanni Martini was sent with orders for Captain Benteen to “Come quick”.  There were others.  Privates Peter Thompson, James Watson, John Fitzgerald and John Brennan, claiming problems with their horses, could not keep up with Custer and finally limped back to Reno’s position.

     The Crow scouts were not in the fight.  Custer sent his Crow scouts away about an hour before the final battle.  The scout Curly was the first to report Custer’s annihilation. Curly did not claim he fought in the battle, but only that he witnessed it from a distance.  When accounts of “Custer's Last Stand” began to circulate in the press, however, legends grew that Curly had actively participated in the battle, but had managed to escape. 

     Historian, Albert Winkler, asserts that Private Gustave Korn was a genuine survivor of the battle: Several contemporary accounts note that Korn's wounded horse bolted in the early stages of the battle, while he was serving with  ' I '  company.  Winkler speculates that the horse took Korn on a mad ride through the Indian village, back toward Reno’s original position, and up the bluffs to safety, before dropping dead from loss of blood.  However improbable this may seem, Korn did end up joining Reno's companies making their stand on Reno Hill.  The Bismarck Tribune printed the first known newspaper account of Korn's story in 1884.

     There were other stories of bolting horses taking men away from the scene of battle.  Corporal John Foley of C Company was chased for miles by three Indians armed only with bows. The pursuers were out of arrows when Foley panicked and shot himself in the head.  Others might have initially gotten away, only to be ridden down and killed.  Loyal Crow Indians found six skeletons with 7th Cavalry equipment years later, far from the battlefield.

     The most controversial survivor claimant is Frank Finkel.   The story goes like this:  Finkel claimed that, early in the battle, both he and his horse were shot, and the horse bolted. Days after the disaster, Finkel shot his dying horse in the head. Finkel wandered on and then discovered a shack in the middle of the uncharted territory. A man called Bill doctored him back to health. When Finkel returned to civilization he discovered that his own name appeared in the Bismarck Tribune as among the dead.  Now, officially dead, he never returned to the Army.

Historians who support Finkel's claim argue that several details in his account could only be known by someone who was at the Little Bighorn.  Those who dispute Finkel's claim argue that records at the time do not indicate the existence of a Frank Finkel and that the fate of all the people who have been suggested as possible false names for Finkel are known.  This controversy, like many others inspired by the Battle of the Little Bighorn, rages on.

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