Except for Private Gustave Korn
He was in I company , which was one of the 5 companies that rode with Custer.
C, I & L companies were to lead a faint towards the Indian village through Medicine tail coulee and take some of the Heat off of Reno. Korn's horse will take the bit in his teeth and when the 3 companies stopped at the Little Big Horn rivers edge, Korn and mount kept going. They went through the river and the Indian village up to Reno hill where his horse will drop dead. Korn will survive the battle but will be killed in 1890 at the Wounded knee battle.
Here he is holding Comanche .. Another survivor..
View attachment 944834
The story of his ride..
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2881&context=facpub
I read the article and found it very interesting. There are many inconsistencies though and I still lean in the direction as Korn saw escape to Reno as the only viable way to survive. However it does appear that he fought with Reno and in other battles with distinction and duty. In one excerpt and interviewer says,
He spent much more time discussing the reasons why the Seventh Cavalry was defeated, speculating on the number of Indians in the engagement, arguing that the warriors were better armed than the troopers, and relating how "one of our lieutenants" shot an Indian marksman. In the end, Korn credited his survival more to his magnificent horse than to any other factor. The badly wounded animal carried the trooper perhaps four miles.
Korn knew that Reno's companies were attacking the village, meaning that the men should be near the camp.If his horse fled in that direction, Korn had a chance ofjoining them.
He omits cinching his saddle but it is included in almost every other version. Conjures up old westerns where a cowboy is fiddling with his saddle or saddlebags just stalling to get the drop.
His own story changes.
From a good friend
When Custer went in the fight June 25th, Korn was in Custer's command, and he was appointed orderly for Capt. Keogh. The horse took the bit in his mouth and he was unable to hold him back. He ran down the hill and crossed the creek to the Indian vil- liage [sic] on a big plateau on the west side of the creek, ran up the creek and got into Reno's command. . .. This is the story that "Yankee" Korn told me himself. George Lisk
A rapid ride brought us in sight of the Indians, who seemed to be retreating. I was ordered to ride a little ahead, to the Beecorn [Bighorn?], a small stream in our front, to ascertain whether it was easily passable, as my horse was a fine runner. The entrance to the stream was not in good order, but the other shore was excellent, and I was turning to go back to my comrades and report the condition of the stream, when immediately
in my front the Indians opened fire from the tall grass where they had been concealed.I was not wounded, but a rifle ball struck my horse's neck and rendered him unmanageable. I was carried away toward Maj. Reno's
position, and to that accident I am indebted.
As far as can be verified, the Milwaukee Sentinel interview was the only formal statement Korn gave, but there are other firsthand sources that support his description of events.
When Chicago's Daily Inter Ocean reported Korn's death, "a former member of the old Seventh Regiment" sent a "Special Tele- gram," which the newspaper published onJanuary 7, i8gi. The unnamed fellow trooper told about Korn and his experiences: "Poor fellow [Korn], he was the sole survivor of the Custer massacre on the Little Big Horn River in i876."
Korn rode, as is often the case in the service, a chronic runaway, a horse with an iron mouth and, besides, he was a cribber or wind-sucker. At the last half before the direct movement was made on the portion of the Sioux village designed by General Custer for his attack, Korn noticed that his saddle girth was loos- ening up, caused by the side of the cribber he rode relaxing as they always do after a couple of hours of ride. Korn knowing the temper
of the beast he rode, requested permission
of gallant Keogh, his troop commander, to dismount and regirth. It was given and just as he loosened the girth, the command passed clown the column to move forward. An old cavalry horse, as a rule, will raise a fearful
row if being left by the troop, and the vicious brute poor Gus was trying to regirth was
no exception to the rule, for he made things lively, but Korn succeeded in swinging into the saddle and headed for the column, now a long way off and moving at a rapid trot.
His horse taking the bit in his teeth and his chin on his breast, pulled out on the dead run. Korn soon saw that he was powerless
on the back of the vicious beast. He hoped that the horse would stop on overtaking the column, but he did not. He kept on, and in
a short time was in the center of the Indian village, and going like a train of cars clown hill. The Sioux opened up a fearful fire on the horse and rider. The horse was struck, but, only maclclenecl by the stinging lead, he fairly flew. A crevice in the dry prairie directly infor my life.
so right there Korn says his horse bolted from being shot and he was ordered to the front.
Everybody else says the horse took the bit in his teeth and bolted after being left back apace and kept going, to Reno not the Last Stand.
In a second letter to Camp, Jones wrote that "Sergt. DeLacy accused him of deserting the Com- pany (I) telling him that Capt. Keogh would prefer 'General Charges' against him. Korn could scarcely speak when we met him, his voice trembled and seemed to choke when he uttered these words, 'My horse ran away with me.' I never heard him say any more on the subject." Jones continued, "There was too much excitement and confosion at that time to go into details as to where he left Custer's Battalion and the way he took to reach our pack-train." "I know he had a very fractious horse, hard mouthed and very stubborn, used a No. 4 bit (largest size) Korn was a
man ofa nervous and excitable tempermeut [sic] aud fortunately his unmanageable horse ... carried him
to safety."
If Korn’s horse bolted uncontrolled, it happened way before it got shot. There was also a alleged remark by Custer himself for Korn , as he whizzed by, to shoot his horse and remain with the unit. But the fight had not started. The Indians that shot Korn’s horse had been fighting Reno. However the Indians that Custer would fight were in sight and Korn saw them
there are many other points that could be argued but we will never know. Thanks for bringing this up I am enjoying the research.
My revised opinion is that Korn was smart enough brave enough, whether or not fluent in English, to know the impending disaster and that the only way out was to join Reno. I wouldn’t consider him a deserter though, just preferred fighting and living to fighting and dying. Thanks again.
