The life and adventures of Charles Windolph, the last survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, are those of a true survivor. Two years before his 100th birthday, Windolph died on March 11, 1950, but left as part of his legacy a ôvivid first person account of the military disaster that wiped out George Armstrong Custer and 212 of his Seventh Cavalry troopers,ö (Jones, p. 1). Yet the stories and memories offered by Windolph of his engagement with Custer on that fateful day demonstrate that the tragedy of the Battle of the Little Bighorn was a tragedy for both U.S. troops and Native Americans.
Originally from Germany, like many other immigrants who came to the United States in the same era, Charles Windolph discovered that his greatest chance for employment lie in enlisting in the U.S. military. At the age of 19 he immigrated to American to escape GermanyÆs compulsory draft and ironically wound up being sworn into Company H, Seventh Cavalry in 1870, (Jones, p. 1). The era was a time of Westward expansion in the United States, complete with conflict between U.S. troops and Native Americans. From the need for study in the creation of National Parks like Yellowstone to engineering surveys and exploratory expeditions, the Native American could no longer deny the increasing encroachment of white settlers on Indian lands. After being station in Nashville, Tennessee, for the first three years of duty, Windolph became part of the military escort provided by CusterÆs troops in the Dakota Territory. Windolph traveled with Custer on the exploratory expedition in the Black Hills when gold was discovered, something that despite the efforts of U.S. officials saw even more settler encroaching in Indian lands. As Jones (p. 2) reveals, ôOnce the gold discovery became known, there was no holding back the flood of miners who flocked into the forbidden Black Hills hoping to make their fortune, despite the governmentÆs best efforts to k...