Custer Survivor

Proof of survivor at Little Big Horn. History Channel shows episode repeatedly.

In this controversial book, Genovese provides compelling proof that at least one member of the Seventh Cavalry, a man named William Heath, survived Custer's Last Stand. Illustrations throughout.

The myth that all members of the five companies of the Seventh Cavalry with General Custer at the battle of the Little Big Horn were killed by the Sioux and the Cheyenne is disproved by author and historian John Koster. Meticulous research by the author along with forensic evidence proves that one man did survive. Introduction by Prof. Louise Barnett, Rutgers University and author of Touched by Fire. Custer Survivor is the story of the man, how he escaped, his ensuing ordeal and the subsequent years of his successful life. This is the book that corrects the record and makes complete the history of Custer's Last Stand. New evidence proves that this myth is the truth.

Sergeant Charles Windolph was the last white survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn when he described it nearly seventy years later. A six-year veteran of the Seventh Cavalry, Windolph fought in Benteen?s troop on that fatal Sunday and recalls in vivid detail the battle that wiped out Custer?s command. Equally vivid is the evidence marshaled by Frazier and Robert Hunt on events leading up to the battle and on the investigation that followed.

Comanche, first published in 1935 and beautifully illustrated by the book’s author Barron Brown, is an account of the U.S. Army horse “Comanche,” who survived General George Armstrong Custer’s detachment of the United States 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. “Comanche” was bought by the U.S. Army in 1868 in St. Louis, Missouri and sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was captured in a wild horse roundup on April 3, 1868. Captain Myles Keogh of the 7th Cavalry liked the 15 hands (60 inches, 152 cm) gelding and bought him for his personal mount, to be ridden only in battle. In 1868, while the army was fighting the Comanche in Kansas, the horse was wounded in the hindquarters by an arrow but continued to carry Keogh in the fight. He named the horse “Comanche” to honor his bravery. “Comanche” was wounded many more times but always exhibited the same toughness. It was on June 25, 1876 that Captain Keogh rode “Comanche” at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, in which their entire detachment was killed. U.S. soldiers found “Comanche,” badly wounded, two days after the battle. After being transported to Fort Lincoln, he was slowly nursed back to health. After a lengthy convalescence, “Comanche” was retired. In June 1879, “Comanche” was brought to Fort Meade by the Seventh Regiment, where he was kept like a prince until 1887. He was taken to Fort Riley, Kansas. As an honor, he was made “Second Commanding Officer” of the 7th Cavalry. “Comanche” died of colic on November 7, 1891, believed to be 29 years old at the time. He is one of only three horses in U.S. history to be given a military funeral with full military honors, the others were “Black Jack” and “Sergeant Reckless.” His remains were sent to the University of Kansas and preserved, where the taxidermy mount can still be seen today in the university’s Natural History Museum.

“The stories contained herein are all of actual happenings and actual participants; here are no fictitious names, no colored circumstances. They are part of the real history of the West, and for that reason I am not ashamed to place this volume in the hands of any interested boy or girl, youth or elderly person, who may desire to know the truth about one of the leading Indian battles, and other important frontier happenings pertaining thereto, and the men who played leading parts therein. Every character mentioned in each chapter was a living, breathing person, and every incident related in this book can be vouched for and verified.” From Troopers with Custer. Although everyone in Custer’s immediate command was killed during the fighting at the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25-26, 1876, others who participated in the battle survived. Troopers with Custer tells their stories, often in their own words.

Dan Murphy is a Civil War veteran now serving in the Seventh Calvary. Led by Sergeant Jim Lawton, this squad of troopers from Fort Abraham Lincoln is a mixture of old hands and new recruits. The team includes Corporal Judd, a bigoted Bible-thumper; Sam Streeter, a glory-hungry New Englander; Jake Picard, a tough half-Indian from Chicago; and several others. Dan finds himself drawn to young Sam. Dan has spent years filled with regret due to his inability to save his brother in the tragic battle of Antietam. Now, he hopes to keep Sam alive in spite of the young mans idol worship of General Custer, who claims the Indians wont put up a fight. Following a lengthy march, their battalion attacks Little Bighorn. The Indians do fight back, however, and more than three hundred cavalrymen are forced onto a hill where they must defend themselves against fifteen hundred warriors. Whats more, they have no idea that General Custer is about to march to his death a mere four miles away. This proves to be the first of several confrontations for the Seventh Cavalry, and only time will tell how many of the men will live to share their tales.

This is undoubtedly a remarkable book on a period of American history about which much has been written - the period of the Indian wars in the Northwest, from the close of the Civil War until the Custer disaster on the Little Big Horn. It presents in graphic detail and on a vast canvas the great events and the small which reached a decisive crescendo in Custer’s fate. Here is no savage battle incident presented in isolation from other events, but a sweeping panorama of a whole ere-inept, hesitant, and tragic. To insure comprehensiveness, the author describes the pertinent facts of the Grant administration, the embitterment of the Great Plains tribes, and the deteriorating Civil War army. The book is the record not only of the dashing Seventh Cavalry and its leader but also of the Grant-Custer feud, Sitting Bull, the Belknap scandal, Rain-in-the-Face, the battle strategy of the Indians, and Custer’s military rivals. Particular note is taken of the effect on history of Custer’s recklessness and glory-seeking and of the superstitions and fatalistic determination of the Sioux and the Cheyennes. The Battle of the Little Big Horn, reconstructed in this account largely on Indian eyewitness testimony, climaxed the long-developing tragedy and provided a "smashing crescendo to the vacillating policy of the United States government...towards the Indians of the Great Plains." A four color reproduction of an oil painting by John Hauser, entitled "The Challenge," has been selected for the cover of Custer’s Luck. The original canvas is in the collection of the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the publishers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of that organization in making this reproduction possible.