Editing Battle of the Little Bighorn (section)

==Survivor claims==
[[File:Giovanni Martini (militare).jpg|thumb|upright=.7|left|[[Giovanni Martino]] wearing the US Army uniform, c. 1904]]

Soldiers under Custer's direct command were annihilated on the first day of the battle, except for three [[Crow scouts]] and several troopers (including [[Giovanni Martino|John Martin (Giovanni Martino)]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://custersbugler.blogspot.com/2012/12/young-john-martin.html |title=Young John Martin |website=Custer's Bugler: The Life of John Martin (Giovanni Martino) |date=December 23, 2012 |access-date=January 22, 2025}}{{better source needed|date=January 2025}}</ref>) who had left that column before the battle; one Crow scout, [[Curly (scout)|Curly]], was the only survivor to leave after the battle had begun. Rumors of other survivors persisted for years.{{NoteTag|Graham, 146. Lt Edward Godfrey reported finding a dead 7th Cavalry horse (shot in the head), a grain sack, and a carbine at the mouth of the Rosebud River. He conjectured that a soldier had escaped Custer's fight and rafted across the river, abandoning his played-out horse.}}

Over 120 men and women came forward over the next 70 years claiming they were "the lone survivor" of Custer's Last Stand.<ref name="Custer Survivors 101">{{cite book| last=Harris| first=Ethan E.| title=Custer Survivors 101: The Impostor Roster| year=2012| publisher=Warrior's Quill |type=E-book| at=Introduction}}</ref> The phenomenon became so widespread that one historian remarked, "Had Custer had all of those who claimed to be 'the lone survivor' of his two battalions he would have had at least a brigade behind him when he crossed the Wolf Mountains and rode to the attack."<ref>{{cite book| last=Stewart| first=Edgar I.| title=Custer's Luck| year=1980| publisher=University of Oklahoma Press| location=Norman, Oklahoma| isbn=978-0-8061-1632-7| page=490}}</ref>

The historian [[Earl Alonzo Brininstool]] suggested he had collected at least 70 "lone survivor" stories.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van de Water |first=Frederic F. |date=1988 |title=Glory-Hunter: A Life of General Custer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ln5AQjdS9l8C&pg=PA5 |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |page=5 |isbn=978-0-8032-9607-7 |access-date=May 16, 2014 |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117221402/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ln5AQjdS9l8C&pg=PA5 |archive-date=January 17, 2017 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Ege| first=Robert J.| title=Curse Not His Curls| year=2008| publisher=Old Army Press| page=121}}</ref> Michael Nunnally, an amateur Custer historian, wrote a booklet describing 30 such accounts.<ref name="Nunnally Survived">{{cite book| last=Nunnally| first=Michael L.| title=I Survived Custer's Last Stand| year=2005| page=38}}</ref> W. A. Graham claimed that even Libby Custer received dozens of letters from men, in shocking detail, about their sole survivor experience.<ref>{{cite book| last=Graham| first=W. A.| title= The Custer Myth: A source book of Custeriana with a new introduction by Brian C. Pohanka| year=1995| publisher=Stackpole Books| location=Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania| isbn=0-8117-0347-9|pages=353–357, 413}}</ref> At least 125 alleged "single survivor" tales have been confirmed in the historical record as of July 2012.

[[Frank Finkel]], from [[Dayton, Washington]], had such a convincing story that historian Charles Kuhlman<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.lib.montana.edu/collect/spcoll/findaid/1043.html| title=Charles Kuhlman Papers, 1896–1959| publisher=University of Montana Library| access-date=June 10, 2013|url-status = live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221005946/http://www.lib.montana.edu/collect/spcoll/findaid/1043.html| archive-date=December 21, 2013| df=mdy-all}}</ref> believed the alleged survivor, going so far as to write a lengthy defense of Finkel's participation in the battle.<ref name="Kuhlman Finkel">{{cite book| last=Kuhlman| first=Charles| title=The Frank Finkel Story| year=1968| publisher=Citizen Printing Co.| location=Omaha, Nebraska| page=20}}</ref> Douglas Ellison—mayor of [[Medora, North Dakota]], and an amateur historian—also wrote a book in support of the veracity of Finkel's claim,<ref name="Ellison Finkel">{{cite book| last=Ellison| first=Douglas W.| title=Sole Survivor: An Examination of the Frank Finkel Narrative| year=1983| publisher=North Plains Press| page=128}}</ref> but most scholars reject it.<ref name=Boyes>{{cite book| last=Boyes| first=William| title=No Custer Survivors: Or, The Unveiling of Frank Finkel| year=1977| publisher=WJBM Associates| page=16}}</ref><ref name="Nunnally Hoax">{{cite book| last=Nunnally| first=Michael L.| title=The Frank Finkel Hoax: No Survivor of Custer's Last Stand| year=2008| publisher=Old Scout Books| page=32}}</ref>

Some of these survivors held a form of celebrity status in the United States, among them Raymond Hatfield "Arizona Bill" Gardner<ref>{{cite book| title=The Old Wild West: Adventures of Arizona Bill| publisher=Naylor Company| location=San Antonio, Texas| author=Raymond Hatfield Gardner| edition=1st| year=1944}}</ref> and Frank Tarbeaux.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Autobiography of Frank Tarbeaux, as Told to Donald Henderson Clarke| url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyoff00tarb| year=1930| publisher=Vanguard Press| page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyoff00tarb/page/n304 287]}}</ref> A few even published autobiographies that detailed their deeds at the Little Bighorn.<ref>{{cite book| last=Ryan| first=Ed| title=Me and The Black Hills| year=1951| publisher=Ed Ryan| location=Custer, South Dakota| page=89}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Gardner| first=Raymond Hatfield| title=The Old Wild West: Adventures of Arizona Bill| year=2009| publisher=Kessinger Publishing| isbn=978-1-104-84859-0| page=326}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Clarke| first=Donald Henderson| title=The Autobiography of Frank Tarbeaux| url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyoff00tarb| year=1930| publisher=Vanguard Press| location=New York| page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyoff00tarb/page/286 286]}}</ref>

A modern historian, Albert Winkler, has asserted that there is some evidence to support the case of Private Gustave Korn being a genuine survivor of the battle: "While nearly all of the accounts of men who claimed to be survivors from Custer's column at the Battle of the Little Bighorn are fictitious, Gustave Korn's story is supported by contemporary records." Several contemporary accounts note that Korn's horse bolted in the early stages of the battle, whilst he was serving with Custer's 'I' company, and that he ended up joining Reno's companies making their stand on Reno Hill.<ref>Winkler, A. (2013). "[https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2881&context=facpub The case for a Custer Battalion survivor: Private Gustave Korn’s story]". ''The Magazine of Western History'', 63(1)</ref>

Almost as soon as men came forward implying or directly pronouncing their unique role in the battle, there were others who were equally opposed to any such claims. [[Theodore W. Goldin]], a battle participant who later became a controversial historian on the event, wrote (in regards to Charles Hayward's claim to have been with Custer and taken prisoner):

{{Blockquote|The Indians always insisted that they took no prisoners. If they did—a thing I firmly believe—they were tortured and killed the night of the 25th. As an evidence of this I recall the three charred and burned heads we picked up in the village near the scene of the big war dance, when we visited the village with Capt. Benteen and Lieut. Wallace on the morning of the 27th ... I'm sorely afraid, Tony, that we will have to class Hayward's story, like that of so many others, as pure, unadulterated B. S. As a clerk at headquarters I had occasion to look over the morning reports of at least the six troops at Lincoln almost daily, and never saw his name there, or among the list of scouts employed from time to time ... I am hoping that some day all of these damned fakers will die and it will be safe for actual participants in the battle to admit and insist that they were there, without being branded and looked upon as a lot of damned liars. Actually, there have been times when I have been tempted to deny that I ever heard of the 7th Cavalry, much less participated with it in that engagement ... My Medal of Honor and its inscription have served me as proof positive that I was at least in the vicinity at the time in question, otherwise I should be tempted to deny all knowledge of the event.<ref name="A Pretended Custer Survivor">{{cite web| title=A Pretended Custer Survivor: Another Attempt to Pose As a Survivor Punctured by the Regiment's Clerk| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=mdGv78FIKkEC&dat=19260505&printsec=frontpage&hl=en| publisher=The Big Horn Searchlight| access-date=2 August 2012}}</ref>}}

The only documented and verified survivor of Custer's command (having been actually involved in Custer's part of the battle) was Captain Keogh's horse, [[Comanche (horse)|Comanche]]. The wounded horse was discovered on the battlefield by General Terry's troops. Although other cavalry mounts survived, they had been taken by the Indians. Comanche eventually was returned to the fort and became the regimental mascot.{{NoteTag|Badly wounded, the horse had been overlooked or left behind by the victors, who had taken the other surviving horses. Comanche was taken back to the steamer ''Far West'' and returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln to be nursed back to health.}} Several other badly wounded horses were found and killed at the scene.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newwest.net/topic/article/comanche_the_horse_that_survived_the_battle_of_the_little_bighorn_part_2/C39/L39 |title=Comanche: The Horse that Survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Part 2 |last=Shanks |first=Jenny |date=June 26, 2007 |website=NewWest |access-date=15 January 2017 |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025010617/http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/comanche_the_horse_that_survived_the_battle_of_the_little_bighorn_part_2/C39/L39/ |archive-date=October 25, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Writer [[Evan S. Connell]] noted in ''[[Son of the Morning Star]]'':<ref>{{cite book |last= Connell|first= Evan S. |author-link= Evan S. Connell|date=1984 |title= Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=f7uQZPCvPPcC |publisher= [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]] |isbn=0-88394-088-4 |access-date=15 January 2017}}</ref>
[[File:ComancheeCuster-GrabillLR.jpg|thumb|[[Comanche (horse)|Comanche]] in 1887]]

{{Blockquote|Comanche was reputed to be the only survivor of the Little Bighorn, but quite a few Seventh Cavalry mounts survived, probably more than one hundred, and there was even a yellow bulldog. Comanche lived on another fifteen years. When he died, he was stuffed and to this day remains in a glass case at the University of Kansas. So, protected from moths and souvenir hunters by his humidity-controlled glass case, Comanche stands patiently, enduring generation after generation of undergraduate jokes. The other horses are gone, and the mysterious yellow bulldog is gone, which means that in a sense the legend is true. Comanche alone survived.}}