Custer's Battle-Field (June 25th 1876), Surveyed and drawn under the personel supervision of Lieut. Edward Maguire, Corps of Engineers U.S.A. by Sergeant Charles Becker Co. "D" Battalion of Engineers.On the afternoon of the 25th, Grouard, dressed as a Sioux, rode north.
That night he found the trail left by Custer's forces and soon came across the body of a dead soldier. From a Sioux he learned of the battle, but the Sioux soon suspected he was not of them. He was, thus, pursued by four Sioux for more than fifty miles before eluding the pursuers. On the 26th, in accordance with Terry's plan, Gibbon was cautiously moving his way toward the scene. Warned by scouts of Gibbon's approach, the village was dismantled and the Indians disappeared into the Bighorns. The next day the extent of Custer's defeat was learned. Lt. George Wallace described moving to the scene of Custer's fight, "but the sight was too horrible to describe.
We buried 204 bodies and encamped near Gen'l Terry. But the smell of dead horses forced him to move camp several miles." Bodies were down by the river, and another smaller group, as shown by the numbers on the above map, were found below the crest of what is now known as "Last Stand Hill.
" There were found the bodies of (3) Custer's brother-in-law, Lt. James Calhoun; (4) Lt. J. J. Crittenden; (5) Lt. Col. Geo. A. Custer; (6) Custer's bother, Capt. T. W. Custer; (7) Capt. G. W. Yates; (8) Lt. A. Smith; (9) Lt. W. Reilly; (10) Lt. W. W. Cooke; (11) Custer's bother, W. B. Custer; and (12) Custer's nephew, Armstrong Reed. Some distance to the southeast were found (1) the body of Capt. (Brevet Lt. Col.) Myles Walter Keogh. Near K eogh's body were found the bodies of his two sergeants, bugler, and flag bearer.
Among those killed at Little Bighorn was Custer's dog Tuck. In his letter of June 12 to Libby Custer, Custer wrote: "Tuck" regularly comes when I am writing, and lays her head on the desk, rooting up my hand with her long nose until I consent to stop and notice her. She and Swift, Lady and Kaiser sleep in my tent.
Comanche held by Gustave Korn as unidentified officer looks on. Photo by F. Jay Haynes. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Korn (1852-1890), referred to by his fellow soldiers as "Yankee," was Capt. Keogh's orderly and was assigned to the Custer column but was saved from the fate of the rest of Custer's men when his horse bolted when the troop reached the river. The horse had taken the bit in his mouth and carried Korn through the Indian lines to Reno and Benteen's units on what is now known as "Reno Hill.
Custer with Bloody Knife pointing to map), 1874.
Comanche held by Gustave Korn as unidentified officer looks on. Photo by F. Jay Haynes. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Korn (1852-1890), referred to by his fellow soldiers as "Yankee," was Capt. Keogh's orderly and was assigned to 
the Custer column but was saved from the fate of the rest of Custer's men when his horse bolted when the troop reached the river. The horse had taken the bit in his mouth and carried Korn through the Indian lines to Reno and Benteen's units on what is now known as "Reno Hill.
Other rumors relate to the survival of two dogs. In addition to Tuck who travelled with Custer on his last journey, Custer took with him a number of greyhounds. The greyhounds were left with packers at the previous night's encampment and, thus, survived. Tuck was not left behind and is regarded as one of the casualties of the battle. Of humans, the three most controversial accounts of survivors are those relating to Frank Finkel, Charles Hopkins, and Company L's (Calhoun's) farrier, William Heath.
In 1920 at a Rotary Club meeting, a claim was made by Frank Finkel of Dayton, Washington State, that he had served with Custer at Little Bighorn. Allegedly, Finkel had run away from home in Ohio and in 1874 enlisted in the Army under the name "Frank Hall." He contended that he used the fictitious name since he was underage. During the battle, a bullet struck the butt of his gun which splintered, sending a splinter of wood into his forehead. At the same time a bullet hit his horse in the flank. The horse bolted and carried Finkel through the Indian lines. Finkel was hit twice by bullets, one in a foot and the other in his abdomen. After reaching some hills, Finkel went into hiding. He made a tourniquet from a blanket in an effort to stop his bleeding. After hiding for four days, he found a cabin with two occupants, one named Bill, the other, later identified to Hinkel only by his initials "G. W.," was terminally ill in bed. Finkel was still bleeding. G. W. from his death bed gave instructions to staunch the wound with hot pitch. When G. W. expired, Finkel helped bury him and carved G. W.'s initials on a stone grave marker. Bill gave Finkel directions fron the cabin to civilization. Finkel set out and caught a steamboat to Fort Benton. At Fort Benton, Finkel read in a newspaper that Custer and all of his men had been killed. He proceeded to St. Louis and from there moved west to Washington State.
The account, based on its details and the refusal of Finkel to change portions to fit known facts, was apparently regarded by Custer historian Charles Kuhlman as making the tale more credible. The difficulty with the account is that there was no record of either a "Frank Finkel" or a "Frank Hall" in the Seventh Cavalry. In this rOhio but from Prussia. Frank Finkel was also adamant that he was a private and occasionally an acting corporal, but never a sergeant. Sgt. Finkel's body was additionally one of those actually identified. It can, however, be argued that the identification was in error. Further, Frank Finkel was insistant that he rode a roan horse. Company C used sorrels. Each Company had different colored horses.
And what happened in the battle? Just as the artists provided imaginative views of the battle, writers of the day also provided glorious accounts having little or no relationship to reality. Thus, popular magazine writer Henry Inman wrote in conjuntion with Wm. F. Cody, in his 1898 The Great Salt Lake Trail, Macmillan Company, New York: Hinkel should not be confused with either Curtis Hall or Edward Hall in Weir's Company D, both of whom survived. Additionally, census records reflect that Finkle was born in Ohio in 1854 and was, thus, not underage. It has, therefore, been suggested that Finkel may have forgotten the name under which he enlisted or that Finkel was really George August Finkel, a sergeant in Thomas Custer's Company C. That contention, however, does not wash in that George Finkel was not from In a moment, fateful incident, the Indians came swarming about that heroic band until the very earth seemed to open and let loose the elements of volcanic fury, or like a riot of the fiends of Erebus, blazing with the hot sulphur of their impious dominion. Down from the hillside, up through the valleys, that dreadful torrent of Indian cruelty and massacre poured around the little squad to swallow it up with one grand swoop of fire.
But Custer was there at the head, like Spartacus fighting the legions about him, tall, graceful, brave as a lion at bay, and with thunderbolts in his hands. His brave followers formed a hollow square, and met the rush and roar and fury of the demons. Bravely they breasted that battle shock, bravely stood up and faced the leaden hail, nor quailed when looking into the blazing muzzles of five thousand deadly rifles.
Brushing away the powder grimes that had settled in his face, Custer looked over the boiling sea of fury around him, peering through the smoke for some signs of Reno and Benteen, but seeing none. Still thinking of the aid which must soon come, with cheering words to his men he renewed the battle, fighting still like a Hercules and piling heaps of victims around his very feet.
Hour after hour passed, and yet no friendly sign of Reno's coming; nothing to be seen through the battle-smoke, except streaks of fire splitting through the misty clouds, blood flowing in rivulets under tramping feet, dying comrades, and Indians swarming around him, rending the air with their demoniacal “hi-yi-yip-yah! yah-hi-yah!
The fight continued with unabated fury until late in the afternoon; men had sunk down beside their gallant leader until there was but a handful left, only a dozen, bleeding from many wounds and hot carbines in their stiffening hands. The day is almost done, when look! Heaven now defend him! The charm of his life is broken, for Custer has fallen; a bullet cleaves a pathway through his side, and as he falters another strikes his noble breast.
Like a strong oak stricken by the lightning's bolt, shivering the mighty trunk and bending its withering branches down close to the earth, so fell Custer; but, like the reacting branches, he rises partly up again, and striking out like a fatally wounded giant he lays three more Indians dead and breaks his mighty sword on the musket of a fourth; then, with useless blade and empty pistol, falls back the victim of a dozen wounds. ~ He was the last to succumb to death, and died, too, with the glory of accomplished duty on his conscience and the benediction of a grateful country on his head.
The place where fell these noblest of heroes is sacred ground, and though it be the Golgotha of a nation's mistakes, it is bathed with precious blood, rich with the gems of heroic inheritance.
Custer's Funeral, West Point, Harper's 1877
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White Man Runs Him (Miastashedekaroos)
White-Man-Runs-Him, also known as Crow-Who-Talks-Gros Venre and White-Buffalo-That-Turns-Around, was the last surviving of the Crow Scouts. He died in 1928.
It is now generally believed fron Curly's testimony and from archeological evidence that at Cedar Creek Custer sent Companies E and F under Yates down to ford the river and Companies C, I, and L along Luce Ridge finally ending up on Calhoun Hill, thus, dividing his forces yet again. Yates was forced to retreat up to Calhoun Hill. Archeological evidence uncovered as a result of a fire in 1983 indicates that a some point Custer's command was overwhelmed by the Indians fairly early in the battle. With Custer overrun and dead, the remaining men in panic attempted to reach the cottonwoods along the river and were killed on the way, in the words of one Indian, "just like hunting buffalo." Some Indians reported that some of the soldiers committed suicide. Thus, Wooden Leg later recalled: The white men went crazy. Instead of shooting us, they turned their guns upon themselves. Almost before we could get to them, every one of them was dead. They killed themselves. (source, Wyoming Trails)
CUSTERS LAST STAND DEAD AND WOUNDED, 1876.
Also referred to as the Custer Massacre, reported in the Dakota
Territory Bismark Tribune.
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see table of soldiers killed
below
BIG HORN COUNTY TOWNS
WYOLA,
LODGEGRASS
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CUSTER BATTLEFIELD
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