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No one knows the specifics of how, when and where John Thadus died.

Just that the Guilford County soldier met his fate in one of the most famous encounters ever fought on American soil - the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Historians believe Thadus, a private in the 7th Cavalry, was the only Tar Heel to die with Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876 - 132 years ago today.

"He participated in Custer's Last Stand," said John A. Doerner, chief historian at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, 65 miles southeast of Billings, Mont. "His company rode with Custer to their deaths."

Along a ridge above the Little Bighorn River, bands of Lakota and Cheyenne surrounded Custer and five of his 12 companies. Two-hundred-ten soldiers and civilian personnel traveling with him died in the fighting.

On June 25th, Custer had split his troops into three groups. Two other North Carolinians - Daniel Alexander Kanipe of McDowell County and Jonathan Robers of Surry County - fought in nearby engagements and survived. In that fighting, more than 50 others died.

News of the battle reached the East Coast about July 4.

"It was a big shock because they were celebrating the (nation's) centennial," said Tom Belton, curator of military history at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. "They found out that Custer's unit had been wiped out. It's an interesting story that (Thadus) was there."

Thadus had enlisted in Baltimore on Aug. 17, 1875, at the age of 21.

He had black eyes, dark hair, dark complexion and stood about 5 feet 7 inches tall. As a member of Company C, he rode a light sorrel horse and wore a white hat.

"They were predominately made up of fresh recruits," Doerner said of Company C. "A lot of the young men, including Thadus, had never fired a shot in anger. They were facing some of the best cavalrymen in the world."

As the warriors began to threaten the south end of his defenses, Custer ordered Company C to drive them off. The Indians initially fell back but then made several charges of their own and overran the company's position.

As the soldiers dismounted, the Indians stampeded their horses, leaving many of the men on foot.

"His company was the first to fall," Doerner said. "As for John Thadus, we don't know if he was killed in the initial overrun or if he survived and made it to the command post called Custer's Hill. They found members of Company C all over the battlefield."

More than four miles away, Maj. Marcus Reno and Capt. Frederick Benteen, who commanded the rest of Custer's 547 men, found themselves besieged by the Indians for two days.

It would be June 28 before Custer and his men could be buried. Their bodies, which had been stripped of their clothing, had been mutilated and had begun to decompose.

Most, including the enlisted men, did not get a proper burial. Animals and erosion soon disturbed the shallow graves. Later, the bodies of some of the men were dug up and reburied near their homes or in military cemeteries.

It was not until 1881, five years after the battle, that the rest of the bodies that could be found were placed in a mass grave beneath a monument near where Custer fell.

Where is Thadus buried?

"There are two possibilities," Bob Reece, president of Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, said in an e-mail. "He's either in the mass grave with his fellow soldiers under the 7th Cavalry Monument or he is somewhere on the battlefield waiting to be found."

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com