Fascinating first-hand account transcribed from Seventh Calvary’s Sergeant Charles A. Windolph, a six-year veteran of the Seventh Cavalry. Published in 1947, this book provides a multi-layered history lesson. The somewhat misleading and lengthy title tells you that it’s the story of the last survivor. But there were no survivors of Custer’s Last Stand. The Seventh Cavalry was split into three “groups,” Major Reno, Colonel Benteen, and General Custer, all of which were to attack the Indian camp and kill as many as they could. Windolph was with Benteen, and then Reno, where the fighting was no less harrowing, especially in its relation to Custer’s demise. The “last survivor” refers to Winthrop in 1947 as the last person remaining who was alive and involved in the “last stand” of 1876.
The first half is mostly Windolph’s direct account nearly seventy years after Little Big Horn, while the second half details accounts by others, as edited by the Hunts. While they tried to be unbiased, telling of the broken treaties and the atrocities committed by both soldier and Indian, the 1947 viewpoint also tells us something about the culture at the time it was published. Necessarily, I suppose, the book is white-man centric; it is the tale of the Seventh Calvary and the aftermath, the political finger-pointing, and second-guessing. Historians inevitably reveal their own moment in history when writing about the past.
As a 2023 reader, it seemed that the “Battle” of Washita and the Sand Creek massacre were glossed over, the Hunts remarking that the Indians “never forgave Custer for the whirling attack on their sleeping village in the dead of winter.” The brutal reprisals by the Cheyenne and Sioux are described in detail as are the mutilations of Custer’s men (but curiously not Custer himself). The Hunts suggest the Indians were “upset.” Custer and others slaughtered women and children.
The Indian Wars were full of contradictions, depravity, and more, from all sides. This first-hand account tells about the Seventh’s heroism and some curious decisions. And within the context of its time, makes an honest attempt at acknowledging of the bravery of the Indians. It is well worth reading.
