Frank Finkle/Finkel

[yanmacca]

Using what info he did leave, there should be an entire horse skeleton complete with army saddle along with his name I presume, just waiting to be found.

[azranger]

I believe the cavalry horse found had the carbine with it and with no broken stock. So when would the soldier have taken off his attachment link to the carbine?

There was also a picture found of the supposed Sgt. and it does not match the "survivor".   Myself I would like to know  how you go unconscious and still stay mounted in a McClellan saddle.  Also what would make a cavalry horse continue without input from the rider? If it is panic than the first turn or change in speed would most likely unhorse the rider. If you are knocked out you have not muscle control to remain seated.

The chances of not finding a particular body if detached from a particular company would on that battlefield are high I would think.

Regards

Steve

[mac]

OK I found his original (I think) interview in the Walla Walla bulletin thanks to Doug Ellison.

www.polfdesign.com/Doug-Ellison.html

If and it is a very big if I was to say what happened with Finkle was real then I would say this.

He enlisted in Arizona as Frank Hall and then deserted and re enlisted as August Finkle in the 7th using his experience in Arizona as fake experience in Prussia in a con job to gain rank quickly. (I confess here  that I have not checked dates due to low care factor.)
At the Custer Battle he was with Company C and advanced down towards the river at Ford D. They were surprised by some warriors concealed nearby and he was wounded in the foot and torso and then his carbine was knocked from his hands and a splinter gave a bleeding head wound. Not surprisingly he panicked and rode away over the ridge to the south east. This is the first shots in the action and he exits almost immediately so there are no warriors to the south east at this point. This is then a desertion in the face of the enemy and little wonder he stays quiet and later seeks no publicity and dresses it up as "I was unconscious".
Everything about the terrible losses and the ride through the village etc are all put in place mainly others "dressing up" the story.

We can never prove any of this, as I have said, and so it is a moot point whether his story is true.

I just find it interesting that the story of the first contact has a terrain that matches Ford D area and a concealed group of warriors and of course Company C and Tom Custer.

Cheers

[yanmacca]

Mac, does he mention anything about dismounting in that account?
In some of the ones I read he mentions about being hit after he remounted his horse.

[mac]

I saw that too Ian but did not notice it here...feel free to check me.

Cheers

[yanmacca]

Going bed mate, I couldn't sleep so I thought I would join you boys in a spot of posting, but it is 2 AM here and I need to be up at seven, so I am turning in.

Look forward to reading your posts tomorrow.

Goodnight!

[azranger]

www.custerbattlefield.org/Finckle%20-%20Kush.htm

[mac]

Thanks AZ! No surprise to me but reading it raises questions about the actual Finkel.

I love a good mystery so I will counter with the notion; who was Frank Hall?

I think that Frank Finkle never claimed to be August Finkel. Again added by others.


My interest is waning.
Cheers

[deadwoodgultch]

Several years ago I saw a facial recognition done, no match!

Regards,
Tom

[mac]

You read my mind Tom...Scary!

I hate it when a mystery starts to bottom out. 
Cheers

[deadwoodgultch]

Mac, This Bud is for you, it does not require another thread.

For more than one hundred twenty-five years virtually every history book in print has contended that no white man survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Custer made his famous "last stand." This book provides compelling proof that at least one member of the Seventh Cavalry, a man named William Heath, did indeed escape. In this intriguing analysis of hitherto neglected historical documents, Vincent J. Genovese provides verifiable evidence that dispels the long-held myth that none of Custer's soldiers survived the massacre that took place in Montana on June 25, 1876.

Genovese chronicles the life of this "Lazarus of the Little Bighorn," who joined the army at age 27 after fleeing from Pennsylvania under threats on his life. Documents show that Billy Heath lived in a small coal-mining town in Pennsylvania and that he enlisted in the Seventh Cavalry in 1875, not long before the fateful battle. Further, U.S. Army records verify that he was one of the soldiers at the Little Bighorn. His name also appears on a list of those killed in action and is inscribed on the official monument that stands at the battle site.

What makes Genovese's contribution to the history of this famous event so interesting are public records that he here introduces, which show indisputably that William Heath lived on for fourteen more years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Birth records from his hometown in Schuylkill County, PA, indicate that he fathered seven children before dying in obscurity. His gravestone still exists in the local cemetery.

This is a unique and fascinating re-evaluation of a storied event in American history, which will surely provoke controversy.

Interestingly military records show the real William Heath was born in Staffordshire England, in 1848. Does not seem to matter the book is still for sale on Amazon, even a Kindle version!

Regards,
Tom