History: Comanche-The Only Cavalry Survivor of the Custer Battle

There are many famous horses in history. The Goldolphin Arabian, Man of War, Three Bars, Secretariat and Seabiscuit, to name a few. But one of the most famous was Comanche. Comanche never won a major race, never sired a new line of horses. But he was the calvary horse that survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn, not far from Sheridan.

Comanche was mentioned in this history column on Saturday, August 17, about the horse cemetery near Last Stand Hill at the Little Big Horn Battlefield. (History: Horse Cemetery at Little Big Horn Battlefield, Sheridanmedia.)

Little is known about Comanche’s origins; records are scanty from that period. But one reader contacted Sheridan Media after reading the story and had this interesting history to relate about Comanche. Diane Hackett, who lives in Gillette, Wyoming, called to say that her great-great-grandfather’s brother, William Hackett bred and raised Comanche at his farm near Ottawa, Kansas.

Hackett put us in touch with William’s great-great granddaughter, Linda Shirk formally Mills, who lives in Kansas. Here is her families’ story about Comanche.

Shirk admits that she does not have any first-hand documentation, such as a bill of sale to the army, it is just what her grandmother told her. However, when researching her family history, she discovered that William’s father Reuben, was the first justice of peace in Ottawa. While doing research on him, she discovered another tidbit in an article written by another great-great-grandchild of William Hackett.

In a copy of an article sent by Diane Hackett, which appeared in the Winter 2003-2004 issue of the Deadwood Magazine, written by Earl Cox, titled, “The Horse that Survived the Little Bighorn Battle,” he stated that in April of 1868, the army purchased Comanche when he was about six years old. He was a buckskin or light bay gelding which stood around 15 hands, weighed about 900 pounds, with a small white star on his forehead. Captain Myles W. Keogh of the 7th Cavalry purchased the horse for $90 as his personal mount. That was the same price that the government paid for him.

The article said that he earned his name when Keogh rode him in an 1868 skirmish with Comanche Indians in Kansas, where he was wounded by an arrow but stoically carried Keogh through the fight. In 1873, the 7th Cavalry was ordered to Dakota Territory, where Keogh and Comanche accompanied the 1874 expedition into the Black Hills.

There were several articles written about Comanche after he survived the battle.

The Sheridan Post, January 8, 1907 –The Only Creature that came Out Alive. Was Keogh’s Mount. Body of Historic Animal Preserved in Natural History Building of the University of Kansas – In the basement of the natural history building of the University of Kansas at Lawrence, stands a light hay horse, saddled and bridled and looking mildly through his glass eyes, at the few persons who daily find their way to the room where he is on exhibit says the Kansas City Star.

It is Comanche, the only living thing, — horse or man — of General Custer’s troops that is positively known to have escaped the massacre on the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876. He was ridden by Captain Keogh— gallant Captain Keogh, who fought so well by the side of his chief and whose picture is given prominence in Mulvaney’s portrayal of the battle. Comanche also appears in the picture, and is the only thing that, after the battle, could have been drawn from life.

It is commonly supposed that one of Custer’s soldiers, desperately wounded and left for dead on the field, survived the battle for a few days, but this is vigorously denied by army officers who are familiar with the story of the massacre. Comanche was probably left lor dead, but he escaped and was found after that dreadful day, wandering on the prairie near the battlefield by a trooper of the Seventh, who had been sent to Major Reno by General Custer the day before the fight.

Was Carefully Nursed – He was so badly hurt that it was thought best to kill him and end his misery, but when it was found that he was the only living thing that had survived the fight it was revolved to save his life if possible. He was cared for by Reno’s men as if he were human and was sent to Lincoln, Neb., from which place he was transferred to Fort Rilley, Kan., where he passed the remainder of his life in idleness, kept at the expense of the government.

He was fifteen years old at the time of the Battle of the Little Big Horn and died at the ripe age of 32. Captain Keogh was the last man who ever rode Comanche. The dignity of a government order was invoked to save the old horse from further labor, and at the end of his life, by a government order, L. L. Dyche, professor at the University of Kansas, mounted his skin.

His body is still behind glass at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. The saddle and bridle his mounted body wears today were the same ones that he was ridden with by Captain Keogh on that fateful day in 1876.

Although most of what was written about Comanche was after the battle, so there is little known about his life before the Army purchased him. It is always interesting to learn more of the history of this famous horse.

Photos of Comanche at the University of Kansas shared by Linda Shirk, used with permission.