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Billy Heath: The Man Who Survived Custer's Last Stand
by Vincent J. Genovese, Brian C. Pohanka
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Prometheus Books (2003-05)
ISBN: 1591020662
EAN: 9781591020660
Dewy Decimal #: 973.82
Hardcover: 232 pages
SKU: T071217-3779
Condition: Very Good
Comments: Very good + overall condition. No writing, very tight binding. Ships same day or next in a bubble mailer. Enjoy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
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 Big Horn, 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 In this intriguing analysis of hitherto neglected historical documents, Vincent J. Genovese provides verifiable evidence that dispels the long-held myth that none of Custer's soldiers survived the massacre that took place in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.
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Customer Reviews
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Interesting but unsubstantiated story
Rating  (2)
Date: 2005-09-12
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Custer's Last stand is one of the most famous events in American History. Supposedly all 210+ men in the five companies that accompanied him to attack the village on the Little Bighorn river died along with him, but legends have persisted ever since that there were survivors. The current book is an attempt to prove that one man did survive: William Heath, a farrier (horse handler) in Company L of the 7th Cavalry.
The difficulty is that the author has little proof for his story beyond the bare bones of tax records and army enlistment papers. Records don't always tell the whole story, and in some cases the facts they present are completely inaccurate. Here those records seem to show that Heath entered the USA in 1872 from England, enlisted in the army in 1875, fought at the Little Bighorn and was killed, and then reappearred the next year in Pennsylvania at his home and lived for another dozen or so years, fathering half a dozen children in the meanwhile.
The difficulty with the above is that there are major discrepancies which the author either ignores or unconvincingly explains away. For one thing, Heath was a coal miner for much of the period 1872-5, then became a policeman working for the coal company. In 1872 he was illiterate, and made his mark on his citizenship papers. In 1875 he signs his name (with a beautiful flowing script) on his enlistment papers. When did he find time to learn to read and write? Another circumstance which the author ignores is that Heath's reason for leaving his home and enlisting in the army was that the Molly Maguires (violent proto-Union coalminers) threatened him. A few pages later, the author tells you that the Mollies cut off the ears of those they wanted to threaten, but not kill. Later still, he tells you that Heath had part of one ear cut off during his service with the 7th Cavalry. However, he never makes the obvious conclusion that perhaps he lost the ear in a confrontation with the Mollies as opposed to a fight with the Sioux.
I think, from the available evidence presented by the author, that it's equally likely that Heath fled home after one of the Mollies cut his ear off, and that somehow someone else from the area took his name for some reason and used it when they entered the army. This would account for him learning to read, and explain how he could reappear after being killed at the Little Bighorn. He simply wasn't there. One thing the author doesn't explain at all: after the battle, Heath supposedly was found and nursed back to health by a family of settlers, and made his way home. The Mollies, in the meanwhile, had been broken up and sent to jail or the gallows. How did Heath, out on the frontier, receive word that it was safe to go home? My suspicion is he was holed up in Philadelphia or New York City, and read about it in the paper.
Another difficulty of the book is that since there's so little evidence, the author feels the need to pad things with extraneous information, to flesh out his story. As a result we get a painfully amateurish history lesson, replete with politically correct silliness and psychohistory. Everything from a half-baked psychoanalysis of Custer to Andrew Carnegie's nickname for John D. Rockefeller is included. Not exactly what I was expecting or looking for.
All in all, this is an interesting theory, but it's far from fully supported by the meager documentation the author has. He only has one photograph of the man (only reproduced on the front cover of the book) and hardly anything else about him is available. This leaves the premise way more thin than it should be for the author to make such a claim with the certainty that he exhibits.
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Billy Heath: The Man Who Survived Custer's Last Stand
Rating  (4)
Date: 2004-02-01
2 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a gem of a book that not only relives, but provides new information about the fascinating and horrifying battle of Little Big Horn -- Custer's Last Stand. Contrary to common belief among scholars that no white man survived the battle, this book provides solid evidence that one white man actually did survive -- Billy Heath, the Seventh Calvary's farrier (person responsible for the well being of the company's horses). The author, Vincent J. Genovese, supports this startling claim by providing us with photocopies of birth, army, tax, and funeral records. Genovese also enlivens the text with photographs of the key participants (both White and Native American), and important locations. The background information makes interesting and exciting reading -- the harsh life of making a living in the coal mines of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; the Molly Maguire episode; the biography of George Custer; the balanced presentation of the plight of the Indians; the shocking battle of Little Big Horn itself; and the daring, but necessarily hypothetical, means of escape by Billy Heath. I think this book provides lively and fast-paced reading for the general public and provides ample groundwork for scholars.
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Mystery is an Integral Part of the Battle of the Little Bigh
Rating (4)
Date: 2003-09-24
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
I don't know if Billy Heath survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but as a student of the battle and of Custer, I enjoy considering the "what ifs" of history. For a long time History (with a capital H) was only about the great, a contradiction to the principles of our democratic society. Now we have in addition the recuperation of the lives of others, such as the enlisted man Billy Heath. I find his life as a nineteenth-century working man fascinating, above and beyond whatever role he may have played on June 25, 1876. As for the negative portrait of Custer, this is more in keeping with the view of a 7th cavalry enlisted man than a privileged officer (or reader!). See for comparison Private Theodore Ewert's sour view of the Black Hills expedition. Many historians have put stock in the oral tradition of Native American accounts of the battle--why not in the oral tradition of a soldier's family? The detail that William Heath was unmarried can be just as inaccurate as his name being erroneously placed on the battlefield monument. Information about enlisted men is notoriously slippery. As for Frank Finkel and other fraudulent "sole survivors," they have already been written about by others. This is Billy Heath's story, as reconstructed by a determined and intrepid researcher. Was Heath in reality a deserter? History never gives us all the information we want, and that's its challenge.
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Argument not supported
Rating  (1)
Date: 2003-09-15
7 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
Ever since Custer's debacle at Little Big Horn numerous stories about survivors have popped up. This is another one of those stories. While on the surface this book may seem compelling, the author's argument is not. The author's lack of notation and sources creates numerous problems for serious historians. A glimpse through the slightly less than two page bibliography reveals that the author, who identifies himself as "an amateur historian," has not done exhaustive primary research. The sources that he lists are generally secondary and there is a sprinkling of published primary sources. The authors lack of documentation also does not bode well for this book in academic circles. Suggesting that Heath was the sole survivor and not providing one footnote is a poor methodological practice. In all this book offers nothing more than another "survivor story." This book is of no great historical significance because nothing is substantiated.
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Comments on Billy Health - Suvivor of Little Big Horn
Rating (4)
Date: 2003-09-01
0 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Although not an historian of the Battle of Little Bighorn, the author does offer compelling evidence that there was a survivor. In addition, the book provides interesting information on the Pa. coal region, Custer, Little Bighorn, etc. The information appears to have been thoroughly researched and well written. It's very evident that the writer believes that Billy Heath is, in fact, the sole suvivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
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