Gwynne’s book on the Comanche, Empire of the Summer Moon. “The infantry roped the crazed horses and led them into firing squads,” according to S. Mackenzie marched his troops back to their camp, 20 miles away, and there on the following morning he ordered all the horses, except a few hundred spared for use, shot. Having surprised the Comanche and others and driven them from their encampment, Mackenzie’s men burned the tepees, destroyed the stockpiled food and blankets, and regrouped on the canyon rim with more than a thousand captured horses. Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, serving out of Fort Concho, in West Texas. The attack was executed by the Fourth Cavalry under Col. And then, on September 28, 1874, the largest remaining body of Comanche fighters (along with a number of Kiowa and Cheyenne allies) was caught, amid their tepees, with their families, in an undefended bivouac at a place called Palo Duro Canyon. They had become proficient, expert, ferocious, and even lordly as horseback warriors, terrorizing their Indian neighbors, making wrathful assaults to stem the trend of white settlement and buffalo slaughter, and eventually bedeviling the U.S. This event boded deep changes on the Great Plains, because the Comanche had been among the first tribes, and the most successful, to adopt the horse after its arrival with Spanish conquistadores. In September 1874, in the panhandle of Texas, the great Comanche equestrian empire came to an ugly and sorrowful end. Comanche is on public display in Dyche Hall.This story appears in the March 2014 issue of National Geographic magazine. The body of Comanche is preserved to this day at the University of Kansas having been mounted by Kansas taxidermist Lewis Dyche. Having led nearly every parade at the fort during his time there, he became something of a celebrity and was treated with reverence and pride by every soldier. On November 7, 1891, Comanche died of colic, a digestive disorder not uncommon in elderly horses. ""Further, Company I will see that a special and comfortable stable is fitted for him and he will not be ridden by any person whatsoever, under any circumstances, nor will be put to any kind of work.” “The horse known as ‘Comanche” being the only living representative of the bloody tragedy of the Little Big Horn, June 25th, 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." On April 10, 1878, “General Order Number 7" was issued, stating: He remained at Fort Riley for the rest of his life.Ĭomanche received hero attention at Fort Riley. The horse stayed at Fort Meade until 1887, when he was shipped to Fort Riley, Kansas. Comanche received veterinary care and recovered from his wounds. Rivers took charge of the animal, assigning him to the Seventh Regiment Cavalry unit that transported him to Fort Meade, in what is now the Sturgis, South Dakota. While the solders were busy burying their 7th Calvary comrades, Rivers nursed the horse back to health. Sargeant Rivers inspected Comanche and determined that he would survive. The official “keeper” of horses for the 7th Cavalry was farrier John Rivers of Company One. It is widely believed that the Indian warriors captured several of the 7th Cavalry horses that survived the battle, but this one horse was left in the field of battle because he had seven gunshot wounds and was thought to be close to death. Photo: Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, H-63 Army arrived on the battlefield several hours after the Indian attack wiped out Custer’s troops, they found the 14 year old horse, badly wounded but still living and standing over the body of Captain Keogh. The surprise for most people is that the survivor was a buckskin gelding named Comanche, a mixed-breed horse ridden by Cavalry Captain Myles Keogh. One of the little known facts surrounding the “Battle at Little Big Horn” in Montana 143 years ago is that there was an Army survivor of "Custer's Last Stand." The story of the battle focused on the loss of life for General George Armstrong Custer and 225 of his soldiers in the 7th Cavalry has continued to have a place in American history, but has overlooked the story of that survivor. Grabill Collection, Library of Congresss Prints and Photographs division.
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