View source for William Heath

Place of Birth: Staffordshire

Date of enlistment: 9 October 1875

Age given at enlistment: 27

Rank: Farrier

Company: L

Location on 25 June 1876: With Custer's column

	

William Heath had blue eyes, brown hair, a dark complexion, was 5′ 7 1/4″ tall, previously employed as a coachman.

He was killed with Custer’s column and is listed as W. H. HEATH on the battle monument.

Final Statement of William H. Heath (Farrier) [Captain Michael Sheridan's Company] signed by 1st Lieut. W.S. Edgerly, Commanding Company, at Fort Abraham Lincoln on 31 January 1877.

    DUE SOLDIER
    For clothing not drawn in kind … $15.83
    Proceeds of sale of effects [April 26, 1877] … $5.00
    DUE UNITED STATES
    For tobacco … $1.14
    The above statement does not take into account basic pay due for the period May 1 to June 25, 1876.

Or, the Man who survived Custer's Last Stand!

Correspendence with two direct descendants of the subject of Vincent Genovese’s Billy Heath: The Man Who Survived Custer’s Last Stand, in 2005, revealed that at least some members of the family disassociate themselves fron the Genovese account, much of which they claim is pure conjecture. Apparently no one in the family ever referred to him as “Billy” and his being found by a member of a wagon train is just one of several figments of the author’s vivid imagination. In their version of the story William Heath was nursed back to health by a family of homesteaders. I use the word ‘version’ advisedly because, while not questioning their undoubted sincerity, they failed to produce a single piece of hard evidence to substantiate that their ancestor ever served in the United States Army, let alone being with Custer’s 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

My own independent research discovered that Heath was (still is) a very common Staffordshire surname, and several possible candidates were born during the critical years, 1846 to 1849, any one of which could have emigrated to America and joined the army.  Eight years on I’ve yet to be convinced that the William Heath who lies buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania and William H. Heath, the farrier in Company L, were one and the same person, although it must be conceded that, to date, he is the only man of that name, of roughly the same age (he was actually two years older), from Staffordshire, England, who we know was definitely in the United States prior to the battle. Clearly more research is required before the true identity of Farrier William Heath can be established beyond any reasonable doubt. However, surely the onus is on his descendants to prove that he was a genuine survivor, not for others to prove that he wasn’t.