Animal Figure. Owned by Captain Myles Keogh, commander of Company C, 7th United States Cavalry, he was the sole surviving horse from Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's battalion that was destroyed to a man on Last Stand Hill during the June 25, Battle of Little Bighorn, Montana. Trained to lay down on command to provide a shield if needed for the soldier, Comanche was found wandering near the Big Horn River two days after the battle, with seven major wounds. He was returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln, North Dakota, where the 7th Cavalry was based, on the steamer "Far West," which was used to transport wounded from the battle. There he was "retired" as a survivor of the battle, and was brought out only for parades and other ceremonies. Eventually brought to live at Fort Riley, Kansas, when he died there in 1891 he was buried with full military honors, the first of only two United States military horses to be so honored (the other being Black Jack, who served as the symbolic riderless horse at the funerals of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, and Lydon B. Johnson).
Animal Figure. Owned by Captain Myles Keogh, commander of Company C, 7th United States Cavalry, he was the sole surviving horse from Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's battalion that was destroyed to a man on Last Stand Hill during the June 25, Battle of Little Bighorn, Montana. Trained to lay down on command to provide a shield if needed for the soldier, Comanche was found wandering near the Big Horn River two days after the battle, with seven major wounds. He was returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln, North Dakota, where the 7th Cavalry was based, on the steamer "Far West," which was used to transport wounded from the battle. There he was "retired" as a survivor of the battle, and was brought out only for parades and other ceremonies. Eventually brought to live at Fort Riley, Kansas, when he died there in 1891 he was buried with full military honors, the first of only two United States military horses to be so honored (the other being Black Jack, who served as the symbolic riderless horse at the funerals of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, and Lydon B. Johnson).
Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson
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