Theodore Goldin: Questionable Storyteller

Theodore Goldin: A Questionable AccounCountless individuals claimed to have been the sole survivor of Custer’s battalion. One writer speculates that they outnumber the actual soldiers in the command. At the same time, several of those present at the battle also gave questionable accounts.

One such witness was Theodore Goldin. He was born July 25, 1858, possibly as John Stillwell, in Avon Township, Wisconsin. He had apparently been abandoned. He was then adopted by the Rueben Goldin family.

Theodore went on to a successful law career and was active in Wisconsin politics. He attained the rank of captain, and possibly colonel, in the state’s National Guard. However, his date of birth came back to haunt him – or at least his lack of honesty about it did.

A Legacy of Lying

Goldin lied about his age in order to enlist in the 7^th Cavalry in April, 1876. He later claimed he had been in the Seventh since 1873. Such unfounded claims may have been a pattern. Regardless, his dishonesty about his age when enlisting (not an uncommon practice) seems to give weight to others’ distrust of his Little Bighorn claims.

Goldin belonged to G Troop, which was part of Reno’s battalion when Custer divided his command. Goldin claimed to have been sent with Custer as an orderly and to have relayed a dispatch back to Reno. However, no one else in the command remembered such an occurrence.

Kanipe and Martin: Remembered Messengers

Trumpeter/Orderly John Martin belonged to H Troop, which had been sent south with Captain Benteen’s battalion. After Sergeant Daniel Kanipe was sent back with a message that Benteen and the pack train should hurry forward, Martin was then sent with a written message. It reiterated the command in urgent terms.

However, various members of Benteen’s command remembered seeing both messengers when they delivered their orders. They even recalled what the messengers said.

Goldin, on the other hand, later claimed he had handed a written message to Reno after Reno deployed his men as skirmishers. He stated Reno glanced at the message and then put it in his shirt pocket. When questioned, Goldin stated he did not know what was written on the sheet. No one, including Reno, remembered that occurrence.

Trailing behind, the pack train was escorted by Captain McDougal’s single company. After relaying Custer’s verbal orders to Benteen, Sergeant Kanipe rode on to find it. As Kanipe rode past Benteen’s three troops he was heard to holler, “We’ve got ‘em, boys!”

Martin was heard to tell Benteen the Indians were “skedaddling.” He handed the captain a message written hastily by Custer’s adjutant, Lt. W.W. Cooke. That message still exists. Its tattered remains were eventually given to West Point, where they remain.

Reiterations?

Some of what Goldin later related seems to have come from someone who actually had started out with Custer. Parts of his accounts jibe with those of Kanipe and Martin. They echo others like Peter Thompson, who belonged to Tom Custer’s C Troop. (More on Thompson will be written at a later date.)

However, parts of Thompson’s account were also later questioned and disputed – if not discredited – by his former fellow troop members. Regardless, parts of Goldin’s story may have developed from hearing accounts of those like Thompson who had been with Custer.

It seems some individuals tend to hear an account and then soon picture it in their minds as if they were actually there. That may have been the case with Goldin. He gave later accounts of having been numerous places during the battle, but no one seemed to remember his presence there.

Deciphering the Differences

Much of what Goldin wrote is credible. The difficulty comes in knowing how much he witnessed and how much he imagined after hearing it from other sources. Beyond having lied about his age in order to enlist, he misrepresented several other aspects of his army career and other facts.

As examples, Goldin wrote that he had enlisted in the army in 1873 and had served with the 7^th Cavalry in the Dakotas until his discharge, except for a year spent on Reconstruction duty in 1875. In reality, Goldin did not enlist until April 1876, and he was discharged in November 1877.

Goldin claimed to have known Custer since 1873 and that he moved with his company to Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, from Shreveport, LA in early 1876. Given his actual enlistment date, neither could have been true, yet he stated them as fact.

Goldin concluded a letter to Cyrus Brady, who published Indian Fights and Fighters in 1904, that, “My experiences with Gen. Custer always led me to look upon him as somewhat recklessly brave, disposed to take chances without fully considering the odds against him.” It seems difficult to imagine that a buck private, a raw recruit, would have become that well acquainted with Custer during the 2 ½ months before Custer’s death. Custer’s only other campaign then was political.

Discharge and After

Military records show Goldin was discharged November 13, 1877 at the request of his adoptive parents. They had informed the army Theodore enlisted without their knowledge or consent and had given a false birth date in order to do so. While his discharge was not an “honorable” discharge, it did list him as a private of good character, discharged for “minority.”

Some accounts show that Goldin began studying law in 1881 and became a Mason in 1883. He later practiced law successfully with his brother-in-law, and he attained the 33^rd Masonic degree by 1902. He also became active in politics starting in 1882.

Goldin Goes Public

By 1886 Goldin began what might be considered self-promotion, or at least promotion of his version of Little Bighorn events. He also began correspondence with Benteen, who retired as a major. It is noted that a gap in the known and published letters between them stretched from April 1892 to July 1894.

That gap coincides with a time-frame in which Goldin seems to have prepared a series of Little Bighorn accounts. They were published in “Army Magazine” starting in June 1894, but neither the articles nor letters have been found. Col. William Graham believed the correspondence continued during that time, but he lamented the fact that by the 1950’s the material had not surfaced.

Goldin’s letters to Benteen have all been lost, apparently, but Benteen’s to Goldin were not. They were eventually, after years of reluctance, released by Benteen’s family for publication. They reveal what seems to be a mutual “back-scratching” between “birds of a feather.”

Oddly, Benteen refers to Goldin with honor and respect. He withheld such from fellow officers who maintained their regular army careers and later were discharged honorably.

Benteen also, oddly, castigates Lt. Edward Godfrey for his 1892 published account of Little Bighorn events. A fellow participant might have disagreed on some points, and it has been said Godfrey’s stance began to lean in a more pro-Custer direction as he aged and befriended Custer’s widow. However, Benteen also became “chummy” with Goldin, whose accounts were widely discredited.

A Wikepedia piece states Goldin later embellished his own biography as well as his Little Bighorn accounts. He claimed to have been born in 1855 and studied four years at a Tilton University before enlisting at age 20. It also states he claimed to have been wounded twice at the Little Bighorn. Other accounts fail to make mention of that. It sounds eerily like Peter Thompson’s story.

Medal of Honor

Eighteen men were awarded Medals of Honor in 1878 for their heroic actions in retrieving water for the wounded during Reno’s Little Bighorn siege. Goldin was not among them. He later petitioned to receive the medal. It is noted that he was chairman of Wisconsin’s Republican Party at the time. Joseph Doe, the Assistant Secretary of War at the time was a Democrat.

It is noted, or conceded, that Goldin’s receiving the medal through efforts of a prominent member of an opposing political party speaks well of him. The fact, however, that it came at his request and through political channels casts questions on its merit. Such seems to be the case also with his accounts of the Little Bighorn.