Charles Windolph

He held exposed ground to secure water for his trapped force

During the two-day Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876, Private Charles Windolph and three fellow soldiers held an exposed position that helped secure water for the U.S. Army command. Fighting from the bluffs above the river, the four men drew danger upon themselves while the battle around them became a desperate defensive struggle. Windolph later received the Medal of Honor for his part in holding that position.

Born in Bergen, Germany, on 9 December 1851, Windolph served in Company H of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. On 25–26 June 1876, his unit fought Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors at the Little Bighorn River in Montana. The battle was part of a wider U.S. military campaign against Native nations resisting pressure to confine them to reservations. Windolph survived the engagement, though he was wounded during the fighting.

Windolph remained in Army service after Little Bighorn and eventually attained the rank of first sergeant. After leaving the cavalry, he settled in Lead, South Dakota. There he worked for many years at the Homestake Mine, linking his life to the mining community that grew around the Black Hills gold rush.

In December 1946, at age 95, he received the Purple Heart for his wound at Little Bighorn. The following year, he recounted the battle in *I Fought with Custer*, a memoir prepared with Frazier and Robert Hunt. His testimony became one of the last firsthand accounts by a surviving 7th Cavalry participant. He died in Lead on 11 March 1950, aged 98, and was buried at Black Hills National Cemetery.

**Medal of Honor citation**

“With three comrades, during the entire engagement, courageously held a position that secured water for the command.”