Did He Survive the battle?

[joewiggs]

There has been some credible evidence that a member of Custer's command actually survived the battle. Sgt. Finkle, a member of "C" troop, allegedly was struck by Indian rifle fire that struck his mount as well. The Sergeants horse bolted while Finkle held on for dear life. Wounded, loosing blood, he tenaciously held on to consciousness and horse running through a portion of the village while doing so..

Sometime later and several miles from the battlefield the weaken soldier was forced to shoot his dying horse and stumbling along seeking clean water and food.

He told no one his story for fear of being classified as a deserter until years later when he overheard a group of friends discussing the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Distraught over a few negative comments of "fault pointing" reference and responsibility for the outcome of the battle he spoke up for the first time by declaring to his friends, "you don't know what you're talking about!"

The Sgt. then commenced to tell his whole story to his friends who were shocked but, nevertheless, believed Finkle because of his outstanding character and reputation as a honest and reputable business man of the town.

Becoming quite interested in this story I was dismayed when I came across Sgt. Kanipe's statement that he identified the body of Finkle laying near the body of Finley on Calhoun Ridge:

"I recognized Sgt. Finkle and Finley. Sgt. Finley lay at his horses (Carlos) head. Finkle's horse was named Ginger."

This tidbit of information busted my balloon and I thought, "Oh boy, another he got away story" until I came across a statement from W.O. Windolph in his book:

"Most of the troops had been stripped of their clothing and scalped. Some of them had been horribly mutilated. I tried to find the body of my German friend, Trooper Finkle the tallest man in the regiment, but I could not identify him."

This failure to recover the body of his friend haunted Windolph for the rest of his life.

One has to ask the obvious question, Kanipe easily identified an acquaintance while the very good friend could not. What do you think?

[whitebull]

Funny that you brought this up when you did. A while back I was reading a book by Camp where he talked about two separate findings of the remains of soldiers found away from the battlefield. One was a soldier and his horse. The other one was just a horse being found with no dead soldier around. I believe they were found somewhere near the Rosebud.

For a while, Camp thought the two findings were the same but he then figured out it was all about two different incidents. The one find where there was only a horse may be what you have just posted!

[joewiggs]

I have all the Camp books and I think I know what you referring to. Let me clean off the "cobwebs" of my book stash and I'll get back to you with a confirmation; hopefully!

[joewiggs]

In the mean time;

I found some more info regarding the possible survival of Sgt. Finkle:


"Finkle related that he had been wounded several times that day and escaped when his horse bolted. He happened upon a trapper's cabin and the following day was nursed back to health. At that time, he reported to Ft. Benton, where an officer in charge did not believe his story. Finkle soon thereafter deserted and became a farmer near St. Louis before moving to Dayton, Washington, where he lived for many years. His description of the terrain was said to have been nearly perfect and his body did show scars from apparent bullet wounds.

It is virtually impossible to confirm or debunk the claim by Finkel. One curious note. He died in 1930 from a malignancy caused by a bullet in his side that he had received decades before!"

[strange]

Fraud. Plain and simple.

There's no way for his horse to bolt and carry him to safety. Not here. Not when every indian is waiting for something like that to happen so that they can pounce.