Comanche

COMANCHE

Michael Koch

SINCE 1876 WRITERS HAVE mistakenly penned accounts of a noble horse whom they’ve described as the last U. S. Army survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn, more commonly called “Custer’s Last Stand.” They’ve also claimed this horse was George A. Custer’s mount. Now after one hundred and forty-three years of scholastic research it’s seems apparent this horse, later named “Comanche,” wasn’t the celebrated horse claimed to be the “sole survivor” of the historic battle in 1876. Nor was he ridden by George Custer.

Several afficionados of the battle agree that many U. S. Army horses survived Custer’s Last Stand, near the Little Bighorn River in the Montana Territory. Some were eventually recovered by Native Americans, while others just ran off. Other wounded steeds were destroyed on the battlefield by the remaining men of the Seventh Cavalry after they arrived a couple of days after the fight. One reporter wrote:

“There were any number of horses found on or near the battlefield. All horses found alive were wounded so badly that the Indians left them for dead. With the exception of Comanche, all were mercifully shot by the cavalrymen… All usable horses were taken by the Indians and former Seventh Cavalry mounts were noted in various Indian Agencies in future years.”

Although there have been many myths of survivors of the battle, most historians now “agree that, of the U. S. Army soldiers trapped with Custer at the beginning of the battle, none survived.”

The mixed-breed gelding horse, later known as Comanche, was likely born in 1862, on what was once called “the Great Horse Desert of Texas, which was a vast region that was once the home to thousands of mustangs.” Comanche bore the makings of the early Spanish horses—the “bay or claybank horse” (though sometimes referred to as dun or buckskin in many accounts). This apparently meant a shade of chestnut.

Although there was reportedly a lot of plundering of these broncos during this time period, no one can say when Comanche was taken off the range. Many horses were rounded up by cowboys for cattle drives, personal use, profit or any combination thereof, but many were sold to the army. These round-ups were frequently cruel towards the yearlings. The cowboys used a method of “creasing,” in which they fired a bullet into the upper area of the horse’s neck, causing temporary paralysis due to striking a nerve. If their aim was poor, “the shot would fatally wound the mustang, or injure the creature permanently, and they were left to wander the desert until bleeding to death or attacked by a predator.”

Luckily, Comanche survived to be sold to the U. S. Army in April 1868, in St. Louis, Missouri, for $90.00. A week later, Comanche and an unknown number of geldings were loaded onto railroad cars and transported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Each were “branded with the letters US on the left shoulder, the regiment number on the left thigh and the letter C for cavalry.”

Custer’s 7th Cavalry unit lost a number of mustangs that spring. So, Custer sent his brother, First Lieutenant Tom, to purchase remounts. Tom searched the mounts housed in the corrals, and bought forty-one, including Comanche. Each was loaded onto a train and shipped to Hays City, Kansas, where Custer and his troops were encamped.

Captain Myles Walter Keogh of the 7th Cavalry must have taken an interest in this one particular charger, which he would later name Comanche, as he purchased him for his personal mount. Keogh has been described as a “dashing Irishman” and “a noblehearted gentleman.” By all accounts, his “favorable character extended to treatment of his horses.” While in Atlanta during the Civil War, he wrote a “letter to his sister about the loss of an old horse that had carried him through many charges.” Keogh had an “affinity for alcohol, as did many prairie solders. There the similarities stopped—many enlisted men were criminals, fugitives, or seekers looking for a free trip out West, with few skills. Keogh, on the other hand, was a war veteran.”

After recovering from seven separate gunshot wounds incurred during the battle, Comanche was presented as the lone survivor of the massacre on Last Stand Hill, and turned into the treasured mascot of 7th Cavalry Regiment.

On June 25, 1868, Keogh rode his newly acquired equine into a battle with Comanche Native Americans on the Cimarron River near Fort Dodge, Kansas. Here, Comanche received its first wound from an arrow but continued to carry Keogh into battle. One account has it that “Keogh caressed his wounded steed’s head while a farrier dislodged the arrow that had broken off in his right hindquarter.” Keogh soon named his horse “Comanche” to honor his bravery.

Comanche recovered quickly and resumed his duties. Comanche received another wound in 1870, this time as a result of a bullet wound in its right leg during a skirmish in Kansas. He was lame for several weeks, but once again rallied to resume his duties. In 1871, Comanche’s unit, Troop I, was transferred to Kentucky, where the army had been “dealing with post-Civil War problems such as the Ku Klux Klan, carpetbaggers, and moonshiners.” It was while the army was taking on a crowd at an illegal distillery, said an observer, that the horse known as Comanche received “a slight flesh wound in the right shoulder, but as usual he quickly recovered.” In 1873, Troop I received orders to return to Ft. Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, to rejoin Custer in the campaign against Native Americans.

On June 25, 1876, Captain Keogh rode his celebrated equine at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The detachment was completely decimated when their surprise attack met a force of Arapaho, Lakota and Cheyenne Native Americans who outnumbered Custer’s men by several hundred. US Soldiers from the remaining companies of the 7th Cavalry found the carnage, two days later. Lt. Col. George A. Custer and 210 men lay dead. Also discovered was the body of Capt. Myles Keogh, who was clinging to the reigns of Comanche, who had somehow survived despite suffering seven separate gunshot wounds during the course of the battle.

Comanche was transported to Fort Abraham Lincoln, where he was slowly nursed back to health. Afterward, he received the honorary title of “secondin-command” of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and was retired to become the unit’s mascot.

In April 1878, Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis issued the following order:

Headquarters Seventh United States Cavalry, Fort A. Lincoln, D. T., April 10th, 1878. General Orders No. 7.

(1) The horse known as ‘Comanche,’ being the only living representative of the bloody tragedy of the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876, his kind treatment and comfort shall be a matter of special pride and solicitude on the part of every member of the Seventh Cavalry to the end that his life be preserved to the utmost limit. Wounded and scarred as he is, his very existence speaks in terms more eloquent than words, of the desperate struggle against overwhelming numbers, of hopeless conflict, and the heroic manner in which all went down on that fatal day.

(2) The commanding officer of Company I will see that a special and comfortable stable is fitted up for him, and he will not be ridden by any person whatsoever, under any circumstances, nor will he be put to any kind of work.

(3) Hereafter, upon all occasions of ceremony of mounted regimental formation, ‘Comanche,’ saddled, bridled, and draped in mourning, and led by a mounted trooper of Company I, will be paraded with the regiment.

By command of Col. Sturgis, E. A. Garlington, First Lieutenant and Adjutant, Seventh Cavalry.

Comanche currently resides at the Kansas University Natural History Museum, where he stands permanent watch over the lands he once patrolled. He remains one of the most famous and celebrated military horses in history.

In this order Comanche was presented as the sole survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn. This was an error, which has been repeated over and over for many years.

Comanche had the run of the post grounds and soon became the favorite mascot to many soldiers. He allegedly acquired a taste for beer due to many toasts made to his heroism and valor in battle.

On November 7, 1891, Comanche passed away from colic. The gallant horse was thought to be twenty-nine at the time of his passing. Comanche became one of three horses in the history of the United States to receive full military honors at death. His body was mounted by Lewis Dyche, a well-known Kansas taxidermist, and was then exhibited at the World’s Fair of 1893, in Chicago.

Currently, Comanche resides at Kansas University Natural History Museum, where he stands on display.

The myths that Comanche was George A. Custer’s mount as well as the last surviving horse at the Battle at the Little Big Horn are now two dispelled misconceptions. Comanche, the gallant charger of many battles, still lives on and remains one of the most celebrated military horses of the Old West.

—Michael Koch has penned two nonfictional books. He’s a member of The Tulsa NightWriters, Ozark Writers League, Ozark Creative Writers, and the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. His short stories have been published in Echoes of the Ozarks, Mysteries of the Ozarks, Frontier Tales, Wicked East Press, and the Southeast Missouri State University Press. Mike has also written several short stories for anthologies in Full Moon Books and Static Movement. His latest short story was published in a Tulsa NightWriters anthology called A River of Stories. He lives in Coweta, Oklahoma and is a regular contibutor to Saddlebag Dispatches.