Charles Windolph

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Charles Windolph was a soldier in Company H of the George Armstrong Custer's Seventh U. S. Cavalry who survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Windolph was born in Bergen, Germany, December 9, 1851, to Joseph and Adelphina Koch Windolph. He arrived in the United States in 1871, and enlisted in the army that same year. He deserted the next year, and promptly reinlisted as Charles Wrangel. He later surrendered and was restored to duty without punishment. He was a shoemaker and did cobbler work among his comrades. He was a participant in the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 and the Black Hills Expedition in 1874.

Windolph took part in the Reno-Benteen hilltop action at the Little Bighorn, and was wounded in the buttock. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during that fight, specifically for providing covering fire for his comrades (including Medal of Honor winner Peter Thompson) who went for water for the wounded on June 26, 1876. He was also awarded the Purple Heart many years later. He was discharged in 1882 as First Sergeant. Like Thompson, he moved to Lead, Dakota Territory, and took a job with the Homestake Mine, where he worked for 49 years. He married twice and had three children. His wife had a bakery. He was the source/subject of a book I Fought With Custer, The Story of Sergeant Windolph which is listed as written by Frazier & Robert Hunt, published in 1947. He died in 1950 at age 98, the last of the white participants in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His remains were interred in the Black Hills National Cemetery.

[edit] References

• Nichols, Ronald. Men with Custer (rev. ed.). Hardin MT: Custer Battlefield Historical and Museum Society, 2000.