Charles DeRudio
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Charles Camillo DeRudio (August 26, 1832 – November 1, 1910) was an Italian aristocrat, attempted assassin, and later a U.S. Army officer who fought in the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
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[edit] Early life
Carlo di Rudio was born in Belluno, Italy. He was the son of Count and Countess Aquila di Rudio. (Shortly before his death, he was interviewed by Walter Mason Camp, and showed him family records going back to 1680.) As a teenager, he attended an Austrian military academy in Milan. At the age of 15, di Rudio left to join the Italian patriots during the uprising in 1848, and participated in the defense of Rome and, later, of Venice against the Austrians. He was shipwrecked off Spain in an aborted attempt to sail to America. By 1855, he was living in East London (England) and had married Eliza, the 15-year-old daughter of a confectionist. They eventually had two daughters.
[edit] Louis Napoleon
On January 14, 1858, during a visit to the Paris Opera, three bombs were thrown at the royal precession of Emperor Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III). Three or four people and a horse were killed and many injured. Four men were arrested: Felice Orsini, the leader of the plot, Giuseppi Pieri, Antonio Gomez, and a Portuguese beer salesman named "Da Selva," which turned out to be di Rudio. (See Felice Orsini for details). Orsini and Pieri were guillotined on March 14 and Gomez was acquitted. di Rudio was sentenced for execution with Orsini and Pieri, but someone pled clemency for him and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. Several months later, he was with twelve others who escaped from the prison and made their way to British Guiana. From there, di Rudio made his way back to London and his wife and went on the lecture circuit. His name was anglicized as 'Charles DeRudio'.
[edit] American Civil War
DeRudio immigrated to New York City in 1864. He became a private in the 79th "Highlanders," New York Volunteers, serving about two months with them. In October 1864, he was commissioned second lieutenant, 2nd U. S. Colored Infantry. DeRudio was honorably mustered out of service in January 1866.
[edit] Seventh Cavalry
After his Civil War service, DeRudio joined the Regular Army and was appointed lieutenant by August 1867. Three weeks later, he failed a physical and his appointment was canceled. (Also, the U.S. War Department discovered his previous 'political activity'.) But about a month later, he was back in uniform.
DeRudio was assigned to the Seventh Cavalry in July 1869. Initially, he was in Company H, commanded by Captain Frederick Benteen. DeRudio was promoted to first lieutenant early in 1876 as part of the reorganization of the Seventh Cavalry. As he was in Company E, he should have received command of it when promoted. However, E Company was one of Custer's, and Custer had DeRudio trade places with a favorite of his, Algernon Smith of Company A. DeRudio and Captain Myles Moylan of Company A, apparently did not get along and DeRudio became Benteen's Adjutant. The transfer was to doom Smith to an early death and spare DeRudio's life.
Benteen nicknamed nicknamed DeRudio "Count No Account" because of his boastful story-telling and haughty manner. Few respected his military abilities as an Indian fighter.
[edit] Battle of the Little Bighorn
Years later, in an interview with Walter Mason Camp, DeRudio claimed that he had had the only saber at the Little Bighorn. (Perhaps unknown to him, Lt. Edward Mathey with the pack train had kept his also, using it to kill snakes. And at least two Indians had sabers, having obtained them at the Battle of the Rosebud.) He showed Camp a golden saber that had been a gift given to him by Company G in 1870. He had been scolded by Custer for accepting the present, and, perhaps as a matter of spite, had not surrendered his issued saber when the others had been packed up at the Powder River Depot.
In the fall of 1876, a rather damaging story attributed to DeRudio appeared in the New York Herald. DeRudio later claimed he had not written the story, but had given information to Major James ('Grasshopper Jim') Brisbin, who had elaborated his story and published it without his (DeRudio's) consent.
In 1879, he testified at the Reno Court of Inquiry.
[edit] Later life
DeRudio was promoted to captain in December, 1882. He retired on August 26, 1896, to San Diego, California.
Charles DeRudio died in 1910 in Pasadena, California.
[edit] References
- Connell, Evan S., Son of the Morning Star: Custer And The Little Bighorn. (1985)
- Hammer, Ken, ed., Custer in '76: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1976.
