Lonesome Charley

[crzhrs]

It may have been Porter (thought it was De Wolf) who was reportedly helping a wounded man. Still, Herendeen says he saw Reynolds' horse shot from under him and started firing from that position. Unless Reynolds was assisting the doctor prior to his trying to leave.

[Diane Merkel]

Making good on my promise to look into this, here is what has been published in past LBHA Newsletters about the burial of Lonesome Charley:

February 1982 - Custeriana Queries section, answered by Jim Pyatt:

Q. Is Charles Reynolds buried where he fell at the Battle of the Little Big Horn?

A. When he was killed Reynolds was near Dr. H. R. Porter, who survived the fight, so that spot is known. James H. Taylor said that Reynolds' body was reinterred near Ann Arbor University in Michigan. Authorities there denied this. Superintendent C. H. Asbury (Crow Agency) first said that Reynolds was buried ". . . on the side of the river on which Reno fought . . ." but later said, ". . . was buried with the unrecognized dead under the battle monument on the top of Custer Hill . . . . the spot where he was shot and killed is about one mile southeast of the present railroad station of Garryowen. . . ." (1)

(1) E. A. Brininstool, Troopers with Custer (Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Co., 1952), pp. 318-319.

December 1991 - excerpt from "Charley Reynolds Found?" by E. Elden Davis

The story told to Mrs. McAdams' mother by P. W. Norris' son, Arthur, follows:

P.W. Norris visited the Custer Battlefield site in 1877 on his way to take over the Superintendency of Yellowstone National Park. Having been a close friend to Charley Reynolds, he wanted to find his remains for a decent burial. After searching he . . . "retrieved Charley's heart, and it was buried with Norris in his coat pocket".

The gist is, Norris recovered what remains could be found, and they were eventually buried with him.

Pioneer, Ohio historian Wilna Krisher relates this version of the story:

While searching the valley floor in the area where Charley had been killed, Norris found bone fragments, and a shock of auburn colored hair. He placed these remains in his handkerchief, hoping to return them to Charley's family for proper burial.

Norris eventually returned to Norris, Michigan and upon his death, the remains of Charley Reynolds were buried in the same casket.

April 1998 - an excerpt from an excellent three-part biography (published in February, March, and April), "A Life of Mystery: Lonesome Charley Reynolds" by Thomas Best

However, Norris's concern for this friend Charley did not end with simple eulogies. He was determined to provide a proper burial site for Reynolds. Arriving on the battlefield on July 5, 1877, with a map drawn by Fred Gerard, and undaunted by orders from the recently arrived military burial party of Michael Sheridan and Capt. Henry Nowlan of the 7th Cavalry that no one should be allowed to visit the site, Norris disguised himself as a harmless drifter and secretly moved into the valley in the company of a man he and Charley had worked with in 1875 and whom had just worked with the burial detail, "Yellowstone" Jack Baronette. At the suspected earthen tomb, Norris unearthed the skeleton of a horse, a human skeleton lacking a head, and some shreds of Charley's hat, a few small bones, and tufts of auburn hair from the back of his head. These final small relics he carefully wrapped in a handkerchief. Never learning of Charley's origins, he placed these remains in his Norris family plot in his home of Norris, Michigan. Unfortunately, Norris contributed to the mystery of Charley's remains when the location of his family cemetery was lost years later to the urban sprawl of Detroit. Brininstool attempted to trace down the location but uncovered nothing more than rumors that a professor from the nearby University of Michigan at Ann Arbor had relocated Charley's few remains to a place near the school's campus without marking the spot.

Gee . . . I think I'd better change the website's listing to read, "Burial: Unknown."

[Scout]

Yea Diane, I think we are no more nearer the truth than we began with...so much contradictory information that it looks like there is no definitive answer. Brininstool heard the Ann Arbor tale himself and did some investigations of his own but could get no actual confirmation form the university on the story. Norris met Charley while exporing the Yellowstone Park area. Reynolds was 33 years-old and Norris 54. Norris claimed in letters that some sort of 'bond' existed between the two 'kindred spirits'. Whether this notion existed only in the mind of Norris, no one can say. Most of the observations of 'Lonesome Charley' at that time describe him as the 'introvert's introvert'.

It is highly questionable that any bone fragments Norris took back were actually those of Charley's. This was in the year preceding the battle and Norris gives no information on how he identified the remains. Norris says he began the journey to the LBH to recover Charley's remains but when he got to the junction of the Tongue River and the LBH River, he met Michael Sheridan and his expedition which was returning with the remains of Custer and the other officers. Norris then talks scout 'Yellowstone Jack' Baronette to go back with him to the battlefield to recover Reynolds remains. Norris describes how he 'found' the places where Bloody Knife, McIntosh and Reynolds 'went down.' What he found only filled a hankerchief.

Norris compulsive reasoning for wanting to remove Charley's remains will never be known but he later said it was done to reinter him in a 'christian land.' Norris then alludes to scattering Charley in Kentucky. If he was buried in Norris's family plot, fate got the final laugh for the Norris family cemetery has disappeard from all records and Charley's remains are most likely under a parking lot or apartment today.

[Jim]

Here's something interesting I found on EBay today. It says the .32 caliber rimfire pistol was found 15 feet away from Charley's gravesite.

tinyurl.com/yh6coo

BUT, buyer beware!


(Modified URL to fit the board -- DM)

[George Armstrong Custer]

"If Charley was 'removed' by Norris in 1877 how would any one know where to set the marker, which was put in place later on? The two just don't add up. I need some of you super sleuths to figure this one out because I am totally confused."

Cant claim to be a super sleuth, Scout, and I agree that it's an apparent conundrum how anyone would know where to set up the marker for where Charlie fell after friend Norris had apparently removed the remains in 1877. However, the authors of Where Custer Fell may offer a clue to this. They state that the first marker on the site was set up in 1908 and consisted of 'a four-inch pipe and a brass plate." But by then, of course, the site had lain unmarked for over thirty years since Norris' alleged removal of the remains - so how did they locate it in 1908? Well, according to the endnote for this passage in Where Custer Fell, which cites a Greasy Grass article by James Brust from May 1994, "Norris drew [an] early on-site map." Now, if this is true then Norris must have left papers relating to his recovery of Charlie's remains - including said map. He must surely have made this map in July 1877 when he is supposed to have recovered the remains - which shows a pretty amazing prescience and historical awareness on Norris' part.

More to the point, did any Norris papers survive along with the map which give a conclusive account of where he put Charlie's remains and how he marked them? It seem inconceivable to me that if Norris did recover Charlie's remains, and moreover went to the trouble of drawing a map of where he found them for posterity, that he would then rebury them in an unmarked grave and no precise written record of where it was!

Clear as mud, ain't it?
GAC

[Scout]

I guess we could include Charley on the MIA list since he was carted away. We all know now the truth about Harrington...Walt where are you? Norris may have had honorable intentions, where the Smithsonian dude who stole Harrington's remains didn't. Well, at least we know where Harrington is...and we have no clue on the whereabouts of Charley. Norris did just as much damage in the long run. You are right G-man, it is as clear as mud.

[George Armstrong Custer]

scout2 said:

...Walt where are you?

Yes, I've been wondering where Walt Cross has got to, Scout; I recall him being a key player in some intense collaborative threads nearly a year back, as a great group of members worked on ID-ing photographs - halcyon days! Has he been on-site anytime recently? And did his Harrington book get published - I seem to recall his proposed University publisher keeping him hanging on?

Regards,
George

[Scout]

I talked with him just the other day and inquired about his book....he says a book publisher has it and will make a decision on whether to publish it. Which I find baffling....it is a sure fire thing that it will sell. It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle so to speak. Wish I had found out the answer to the Harrington mystery....quite a find I think. Anyway he comes and goes on the board. We had an excellent 'duel' over the Rosebud story though. ...great debate.

[stevereynolds]

Private Theodore Goldin, "G" Company, who was on the burial detail at the Reno site, said that Reynolds was scalped but not mutilated, as he lay some distance from the others, partly hidden by a clump of brush. He was not decapitated.

Sergeant Alexander Brown found Charley's body two days after the battle. What may of remained of the body he didn't say, but he must have looked for identifying items because he retrieved Charley's diary, a diary given to him on May 14th by the custodian at Ft. Abraham Lincoln: "Charles Reynolds, 'May your shadow never grow less' Yours Truly, Walter C. Gooding

Norris, as I recall, had a map drawn by Frederic Gerard who had been with Charley in the Valley, and so quite possibly found some of the remains as described by Tom Best above, and left with them. Be that as it may, a wooden cross was set up there by E. A. Brininstool in 1926 on the 50th anniversary, and the monument was placed on that spot August 18, 1938 by some relatives and George C. Osten of Billings, who each year for almost fifty years, until he died, placed a wreath on this spot on the anniversary of the battle.

Later, an owner of the property, a Japanese farmer, moved the monument. When I was there back in the spring of 1994, young Jason Pitsch, the present owner, said he was going to move the monument back where it had been originally. We were standing in the field and he pointed out where this would be. I suppose that he did and that he had as good an idea of where that was as anybody, being fourth generation owner of the property and vitally interested in the history; and had been involved in archealogical work on the Custer Battlefield. I've not been back to see if he developed a museum in that area or not. He had a large collection of stuff from the Reno Battlefield.

It's possible that when the detail sent there a year or so later was gathering bones to bury on the hill they may have gathered some from the valley. That would be the only way Charley would be interred up there. Certainly not right after the battle. If you've ever been around decomposing bodies you would not be trying to move them a great distance. The burial detail had their hands full and did their best, I'm sure, but it likely was scratch and cover with some dirt and brush.

[Diane Merkel]

The only thing Jason is developing these days is within prison walls.

tinyurl.com/ydg6mq

[stevereynolds]

That is indeed a shock. So, what is the outcome re the following? And is the museum still operating?

"Kelleher said most of Pitsch's assets are his collection of Indian artifacts, which is at the privately owned Custer Battlefield Museum in Garryowen. Kelleher said museum owner Chris Kortlander is making a claim against Pitsch for $20,000 and is refusing to relinquish the collection until the claim is settled. Other artifacts not in the museum belong to Pitsch's father, he said."

[Diane Merkel]

The museum ceased operation a long time ago. The last I heard was that the building was purchased by Robert Nightengale's girlfriend and that they live there. I'm not sure what happened to Jason's artifacts. Many of the best artifacts were the property of Glen Swanson and can be viewed in his beautiful book, G. A. Custer: His Life and Times.

www.swansonproductions.com/

[harpskiddie]

As a matter of interest, the Norris map referenced by Dr. Brust, is identical to Godfrey's map in his Century article as to the course of the river, so either Godfrey borrowed from Norris, who actually published the map sometime after 1877 but before 1892 , or they both borrowed from someom=ne else.

I pointed this out to Dr. Brust just after the Greasy Grass article came out, and after checking with one of the archaeologists CAM program, he agreed. He suggested that perhaps we could look for the common antecedent as a joint research program, but I told him that that was not a particular interest of mine. We also had some correspondence regarding his find of Fouch's first photograph of Custer's burial place.

Gordie

[stevereynolds]

Regarding the Swanson book and the artifacts: Can anyone tell me what happened to the Winchester Centennial Model 1876 , caliber 45-75 found on the Reno battlefield? There were very few purchased by the time of the battle, and due to the cost of such a rifle it is doubtful that a soldier or Indian scout ($13 a month) or anyone who made less than a guide or interpreter ($100 a month) could have afforded one. I suspect maybe Charley or Dorman, though I suppose there is some current thought on this. It was said by the ordnance chief that Charley used a "government" weapon, meaning a Springfield 45-caliber, I believe. I've searched the threads to see if I could find something new on this.

[herosrest]

^Ducemus

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