Preservation Thursday: Charles Windolph: Experiences with the US 7th Cavalry

Nineteen-year-old Charles Windolph immigrated to the United States in 1871 from the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany and enlisted in the 2nd US Infantry that same year. The following year, he began an eleven-year enlistment with the 7th US Cavalry, which included the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition, Custer’s 1874 Black Hills Expedition, and the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. Windolph‘s actions at the Little Bighorn resulted in his being awarded the Medal of Honor and eventually the Purple Heart. His military unit also assisted with the removal of miners trespassing in the Black Hills as well as going to New Orleans to subdue the increasingly violent activities of the Ku Klux Klan. Windolph is interred at the Black Hills National Cemetery. The presentation is by South Dakota Humanities Council’s Speakers Bureau Scholar Brad Tennant. This presentation is part of Tennant’s On This Day In South Dakota History series. Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center; 12:00 p.m.; free for members and $5 for non-members.