William Gentles William Gentles ( c1830 – 1878 ) , a private in the U . S . Army , was identified as possibly the soldier who bayoneted the Oglala war leader Crazy Horse in 1877 . Early life . William Gentles was born in County Tyrone , Ireland , though the date is not known for certain . Records suggest that he was born some time between 1828 and 1835 . He may be the William Gentles born September 30 , 1828 , the son of Robert and Sarah Gentles . William Gentles immigrated to the United States in 1850 , arriving in New York City where he worked as a laborer for several years . Utah War . On April 2 , 1856 , Gentles went in to the recruiting station in New York City and enlisted in the U . S . Army . He was described in his enlistment record as 5 foot 8½ inches tall , with grey eyes , brown hair and a ruddy complexion . Private Gentles was assigned to Company K Tenth Infantry and sent to Fort Ridgely , Minnesota where he was stationed for the next year . The perception of a brewing rebellion in Utah Territory prompted President Buchanan to order a large military force west , including the entire Tenth Infantry , as part of the Utah Expedition . Private Gentles departed Fort Ridgely with his company on June 9 , 1857 and arrived at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , two weeks later . They began marching west along the trail in July , finally reaching Fort Bridger in November . The loss of a supply train to Mormon raiders promised hardships for the soldiers as they settled into winter quarters at Smith ' s Fork nearby . Captain Randolph B . Marcy was ordered to make a dangerous trek south to Fort Massachusetts to obtain additional supplies and horses . When the volunteers were called for , Private William Gentles was one of those who stepped forward . They struggled through deep snow in the mountains and finally reached Fort Massachusetts in January 1858 . They returned to Fort Bridger two months later . Private Gentles was with his company in July 1858 when they moved through Salt Lake City and established Camp Floyd further south . The following month , they were transferred back to Fort Bridger where Gentles remained for the next two years . In June 1860 , the company was transferred to Fort Laramie where Gentles completed his first enlistment and was discharged on April 1 , 1861 . Civil War and Reconstruction . As a civilian , William Gentles apparently settled in St . Joseph , Missouri . But with the Civil War engulfing the nation , Gentles again enlisted , this time in the 25th Regular Missouri Volunteers , which later became the 1st Regiment of Missouri Engineers . He was wounded in the hand at the Battle of Pilot Knob on September 27 , 1862 . Gentles completed his enlistment in 1864 and re - enlisted as a veteran volunteer . He was mustered out on July 22 , 1865 in Louisville , Kentucky . After the Civil War , Gentles returned to civilian life for two years , probably back in Missouri . Then on June 10 , 1867 , he enlisted in the Regular Army again . He was sent initially to the recruit depot at Newport Barracks , Kentucky and within days , he was assigned to Company F 45th Infantry and shipped to Tennessee where the regiment was on Reconstruction duty . In 1869 , while stationed in Louisville , Kentucky , the army consolidated a number of the regiments and Gentles ' company became Company F 14th Infantry . Back in the West . In the spring of 1870 , the 14th Infantry was transferred to the Department of Dakota , with Private Gentles ' company assigned to Fort Randall . Two weeks later , the company was sent down the Missouri to Fort Thompson near the Crow Creek Agency . On June 10 , 1870 , while camped near the agency , Private Gentles re - enlisted for his third enlistment . In August 1870 , the regiment was transferred to the Department of the Platte . Marching on to the steamboat The Far West , famous six years later for evacuating the wounded from the Battle of the Little Bighorn , Company F arrived at Omaha Barracks , Nebraska , where they were stationed for the winter . Gentles was stationed with his company at Fort Fetterman , Wyoming , from March 1871 to September 1873 and then at Fort Sanders until February 1874 . In early 1874 , troubles were brewing with the Oglala Lakota at the Red Cloud Agency in northwestern Nebraska . Following the killing of the agency clerk , the army sent a large contingent of troops to establish military posts near Red Cloud and the nearby Spotted Tail Agency . On February 15 , 1874 , Private Gentles and his company rode the train to Cheyenne and then marched north to Fort Laramie . Here they were met by other companies that then marched on to the Red Cloud Agency . Company F established a tent encampment near the agency where they remained for the next four months . Shortly after returning to Fort Sanders , Private Gentles and Company F 14 Infantry were transferred to Camp Douglas , Utah Territory , arriving on September 5 , 1874 . Camp Douglas was named regimental headquarters for the 14th Infantry , under the command of Colonel John E . Smith . Most of the original log and adobe buildings at the post were in the process of being torn down and replaced by new red sandstone structures . For the next two years , the soldiers at Camp Douglas , including Private Gentles , were busy quarrying and hauling stone as well as other garrison duties . Gentles re - enlisted for his fourth enlistment while at Camp Douglas on June 10 , 1875 . The Great Sioux War of 1876 - 77 . In May 1876 , Brigadier General George Crook led his expedition north to engage northern bands of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne who had refused to come in to the reservations , part of the Great Sioux War of 1876 - 77 . After being nearly defeated at the Battle of the Rosebud , Crook called for reinforcements and went into camp , awaiting their arrival . Meanwhile , the large village of Lakota and Cheyenne defeated Custer ' s command at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25 . Orders were issued for Companies B and F stationed at Camp Douglas to join Crook in the field . Traveling by train to Cheyenne , Private Gentles and his company marched north to Fort Fetterman where they departed on July 4 , 1876 to find General Crook . Once all of the reinforcements had arrived , Crook ' s expedition set out again , following various Indians trails but failing to find the villages as the Lakota began to scatter . Running short of supplies , the column made a desperate push south to the Black Hills in what became the famous " Starvation March . " With the close of the campaign , Company F 14th Infantry was assigned to remain at Camp Robinson , Nebraska . During that fall , the troops patrolled the Sidney - Deadwood trail and engaged in normal post duties . During the spring of 1877 , the soldiers at Camp Robinson witnessed the surrender of large bands of Northern Cheyenne and Lakota at the nearby Red Cloud Agency , culminating with the surrender of Crazy Horse on May 5 , 1877 . Private Gentles ' name appears in the post records in August 1877 when he was tried by a garrison court martial and sentenced to twenty days in the post guardhouse . The Death of Crazy Horse . On the evening of September 5 , 1877 , Crazy Horse was brought to Camp Robinson . During an attempt to place him in the guardhouse , there was a struggle and the famed Oglala war leader was fatally wounded . At the time , there was considerable confusion as to how he had been wounded but a member of the guard detail that evening , Private Edwin D . Wood , wrote that he saw a soldier bayonet Crazy Horse . Nearly all later eye witness accounts collected by various historians confirm that a soldier was responsible . The identity of that soldier , however , was questionable . No official army records note the name of the soldier . In 1903 , a former sergeant of the 14th Infantry , giving his name as William F . Kelly , told a " Washington Post " reporter what he had seen that evening at Camp Robinson . " It was an exciting moment , when no one knew just what to do , " Kelly explained , recalling the struggle outside the guardhouse door between Crazy Horse and Little Big Man . " Suddenly , as the men surged forward in the direction of where I was standing , I saw Wm . Gentles , an old soldier and a veteran of the Mormon campaign of 1857 , gave Crazy Horse a thrust with his bayonet . The thrust was delivered with lightning rapidity , and in the next instant he had his gun at carry , as though nothing had happened . Crazy Horse gave a deep groan , staggered forward and dropped his knife and fell . " Most writers have since accepted Sergeant Kelly ' s claim without question . Classic works by E . A . Brininstool , David Humphries Miller and Mari Sandoze have firmly established Private Gentles ' name in the literature as the soldier responsible . John Carroll , in his introduction to Richard Hardorff ' s book on the genealogy of Crazy Horse , provided a brief biography of this soldier and he was even made the list of significant people in the west in Dan Thrapp ' s three volume Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography . This general acceptance in the literature prompted one recent writer to erroneously conclude that " numerous accounts place William Gentles at the guardhouse . " In 1996 , historian Ephriam Dickson challenged the identification of Private Gentles as the soldier responsible , based on two lines of evidence . First , he noted that shortly after Sergeant Kelly ' s account was published , researcher Walter Camp sent copies to a number of individuals who had been present that evening to verify the information . Three different respondents specifically refuted Sergeant Kelly ' s identification of Private Gentles as the soldier who bayonetted Crazy Horse . Second , Dickson noted that no soldier named William F . Kelly is documented as serving in the Fourteenth Infantry or was present at Camp Robinson in 1877 . Walter Camp attempted to track down Sergeant Kelly but without success . Dickson concluded that while witnesses agreed Crazy Horse was bayoneted by an enlisted soldier on guard duty outside the guardhouse , the identity of the soldier responsible remains unclear . Death . Company F 14th Infantry departed Camp Robinson on November 4 , 1877 , however , Private William Gentles remained behind , perhaps packing the company baggage . On November 10 , he was issued two blankets by the quartermaster department and a short time later , " relieved from duty " at the post . He soon joined his company back at Camp Douglas , Utah . In May 1878 suffering from asthma , Private Gentles was admitted to the post hospital at Camp Douglas . He died there on May 20 , 1878 and was buried several days later in the post cemetery .