Horses in History: Comanche

 

 

The anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which Plains Indians call the Battle of the Greasy Grass and is often called Custer's Last Stand, happened last week. The battle, which took place on June 25-26, 1876 along the Little Bighorn River in southeastern Montana Territory, was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho. The 7th Cavalry troops engaged in this battle were all killed. The only survivor was a buckskin gelding named Comanche.
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Comanche was born around 1862 on the flat plains that were then called the Great Horse Desert of Texas. Like the thousands of mustangs that roamed the region, he exhibited the black stripe down his back and dun coloration of the early Spanish horses from which they were descended. Comanche had a small white star on his forehead and stood 15 hands tall. Many noted that his big head, thick neck, and short legs were out of proportion for his body. But what he lacked in beauty, he made up for in bravery.

Myles Keogh, 1872

​Comanche was captured in a wild horse muster on April 3, 1868. The army bought him for $90, which was an average price for an upbroken mustang. He was loaded into a railroad car and shipped to Fort Leavenworth, where he and the other horses were branded. First Lieutenant Tom W. Custer, the brother of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer bought him and 40 other horses for use by the 7th cavalry.
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Captain Myles Keogh of the 7th Cavalry’s I Company liked the look of Comanche and bought him for his own personal mount.  In September 1868, while fighting the Comanche in Kansas, the horse was wounded by an arrow in the hindquarters but continued to let Keogh fight from his back. Keogh named his mount “Comanche” after that engagement as a tribute to the horse’s bravery. Comanche was wounded many more times and always exhibited the same toughness that he did in his first battle.

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Myles Keogh grave site, 1879.

On June 25, 1876, Captain Keogh rode Comanche into what became known as the Battle of Little Bighorn. When other soldiers arrived at the battlefield two days later, they found that all of the men riding with Custer that day had been killed. Perhaps as many as a hundred of the 7th Cavalry’s horses had survived the battle and were taken by Indian warriors. A yellow bulldog tht had been with the troops was missing, too. Comanche had been left behind, the only living thing left on the battlefield, Even though he wasn't, Comanche became known as the lone survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
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It is supposed that the reason Comanche was left behind is that he was close to death and the Indians assumed he wouldn’t make it. Comanche had had arrows sticking out of him and had lost a lot of blood. Four bullets had punctured the back of the shoulder, another had gone through a hoof, and he had one gunshot wound on either hind leg. His coat was matted with dried blood and soil.

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Sergeant John Rivers, the 7th Cavalry’s farrier , and an old battle comrade of Myles Keogh, inspected Comanche and decided that he would survive. While the solders were busy burying their 7th Calvary comrades, Rivers took charge of the animal. Comanche was sent Fort Meade, in what is now the Sturgis, South Dakota, where he recovered from his wounds under veterinary care. A year later, he was shipped to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he became the 7th Cavalry’s mascot. Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis, the commanding officer, issued “General Order Number 7," which decreed that the horse would never again be ridden, and that he would always be paraded, draped in black, in all military ceremonies involving the 7th Cavalry.

“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..."
"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.”

Comanche was given the honorary title of a “Second Commanding Officer” of the 7th Cavalry. He was even “interviewed” for the daily papers when Sergeant Rivers told his story.

In 1891, Comanche died of colic, a common ailment of old horses. He was likely 29 years old. He is one of only three horses who have been given a full military funeral. The only other horses so honored were Black Jack, who served in more than a thousand military funerals in the 1950s and 1960s, and Sergeant Reckless, who served in Korea. 

Comanche’s hide was stretched over a frame by Kansas taxidermist Lewis Dyche and  remains on exhibit in the University of Kansas’ Natural History Museum, in Dyche Hall.

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A retired Middle School History and Language Arts teacher, Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction and contemporary novels for older children and adults. You can read more about her and her books on her blog. 

Horses in History: Beautiful Jim Key

 

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month. Two of the key players in creating this observation were Dr. William Key and his horse, Beautiful Jim Key. ​   Dr. William Key, who often went by the nickname Bill, was born a slave in 1833 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His master, Captain John Key, died when Bill was five. The captain’s will gave Bill and some other slaves to his cousin, John W. Key of Shelbyville, Tennessee. John’s father was disabled and exhibited wild and violent behavior, but it soon became apparent that Bill could calm the old man down. Bill was still quite young when he began showing a special talent for calming recalcitrant horses, too.  When the Civil War began, Bill followed John W. Key’s two young sons to Fort Donelson, where he constructed his own shelter, a log-covered dugout known as Fort Bill. He and his two young masters sheltered in the dugout during Union bombardment. When Fort Donelson surrendered, Key helped his masters escape to Confederate forces commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was later captured and sentenced to hang, but the execution was postponed when Union soldiers discovered he was a good cook and poker player. Key traded his release for forgiveness of the gambling debts of his captors. ​ At the conclusion of the war, all three returned to Shelbyville. Bill, now a free man, opened a hospital for horses on a lot he purchased on North Main Street. His reputation of being able to do wonders for horses caused him to be considered a veterinarian even though he had no formal training as such. In five years, Bill had morphed into Dr. William Key, and was among the most prominent and prosperous individuals in Shelbyville.  Key developed Keystone Liniment, which he promoted with a traveling minstrel and medicine show that used animals to demonstrate his medication’s effectiveness. The liniment was a big enough success that Dr. Key was able to send the two Key boys to Harvard. When asked about this act of kindness and generosity toward his master’s family, he is said to have responded, “I was one of those fortunate men who had a kind master.” ​ Dr. Key then took an interest in racehorses. He decided to breed the fastest horse in the world. Instead of creating a champion, his experiment produced a colt whose legs were so spindly that he was unable to stand for weeks after birth. He named the pitiful little colt Jim, after the town drunk, who had a similarly wobbly gait.  As Jim grew, he began showing an unusual intelligence. Beautiful Jim let itself out of gates, opened drawers to retrieve apples, and responded with affirmative and negative nods to questions. Key spent the next seven years training Jim so that he could perform in his traveling minstrel and medicine show. By 1897, the horse could spell, distinguish among coins, make change, write letters and his name on a blackboard, identify playing cards, play a hand organ, and respond to political inquiries. One of the men to watch Beautiful Jim Key perform was Albert R. Rogers, an officer of the American Humane Association. Impressed that Key used nothing but positive rewards to train his animals, Rogers went into business with Key. For the next nine years, Key, Rogers, a dog named Monk, and Beautiful Jim toured cities across America. Billed as the most educated horse in the world, Beautiful Jim Key became the hottest attraction in the United States. An estimated ten million Americans saw him perform, and others collected his memorabilia – buttons, photos, and postcards – or danced the Beautiful Jim Key two-step. But more important than entertaining audiences, Key and Rogers changed the way the world looked at animals. During his time touring, hundreds of thousands of children received Jim Key Band of Mercy cards on which they pledged to be kind to animals. Key and Rogers sent sizable shares of their admission sales to local humane societies in the towns they visited.  In 1906, after appearing before almost two million spectators, Key and Beautiful Jim retired to Shelbyville, where Key lived comfortably until his death in 1909. Beautiful Jim Key outlived his master by three years, and died in 1912 at the age of 23. A monument to Beautiful Jim Key and “Jim’s Dear Friends” Albert R. Rogers (Promoter), Monk (Pal – the dog) and Dr. William Key (owner and trainer) sits on a low grassy rise three miles south of the Shelbyville Courthouse just north of Himesville Road where it intersects with the Old Tullahoma Highway.  This story is part of a series of stories on horses in history.. If you wish to learn more about Beautiful Jim Key, read this early source.  Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction that is suitable for middle grade readers and older. Her novel Code: Elephants on the Moon is set in Normandy, France during World War Two and features Galopin, a Breton horse who helps his owner in the Resistance against the German occupation. Her next book, Where Duty Calls, tells the story of a young man who invades New Mexico with the Confederate Army as he tries to protect his mules.  Jennifer Bohnhoff is a Bookshop.org affiliate. If you make a purchase by clicking through the links in this post, she will receive a commission, and Bookshop.org will donate a matching commission to independent booksellers.

Horses in History: Black Jack

 

Black Jack served the military in a unique way. Black Jack was born on January 19,1947 and purchased by the US Army Quartermaster on November 22, 1953. Although his breeding wasn’t recorded, he is likely a mix of Morgan and Quarter horse. He was named in honor of John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, the U.S. Army General who led America’s military forces to victory in Europe during World War I. He was the last horse ever to be branded by the Army. He had the Army’s U.S. brand on his left shoulder and his Army serial number, 2V56, on the left side of his neck. One of the traditional functions of the Army’s Quartermaster Corps was supplying the cavalry with well-trained horses.  Fort Reno in Oklahoma was where most horses were trained, and it was where Black Jack went after being purchased. The feisty, spirited animal made it clear from the start that he did not like to carry riders. He threw rider after rider into the dirt of the training corral. Although his handlers did manage to control him somewhat, he never lost his fiery spirit, which made him a favorite at Fort Reno. ​ Black Jack was so beautiful that the Army decided not to part with him. Coal black, and with a small white star, the handsome horse was 15.1 hands tall and weighed almost 1,200 pounds. He was well built with a beautiful head. The Army transferred him to Virginia’s Fort Myer, where he was attached to the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard”. The Old Guard is the Army’s oldest active duty infantry regiment, dating back to 1784. The horses and soldiers that make up The Old Guard participate in an average of six funerals per day. Black Jack was placed into Caisson Platoon. Horses in the Caisson Platoon serve two functions. One is pulling funeral caissons. Caissons are small wagons that carried cannons, ammunition, spare parts, and tools. Funeral caissons have a flat platform on which the flag-draped casket sits. Six horses, matched blacks or grays that are paired into three teams, pull the caisson All six horses are saddled, but only the horses on the left have mounted riders. This tradition has carried over from the days of horse-drawn artillery, when one horse carried the soldier, and the other horse carried extra supplies. The three teams are the lead team in front, the swing team in the middle, and the wheel team closest to the caisson. Instead of pulling a funeral caisson, Black Jack served as the Caparisoned, or riderless, horse that followed the caisson. The caparisoned horse represents the soldier who will no longer ride in the brigade.  He wears the cavalry saddle, with a sword and a pair of boots reversed, or facing backwards, in the stirrups. Riderless horses have been a part of military funerals since Ghengis Khan’s time. Then, the horses were sacrificed so that their spirits could travel with its master to the afterlife. While they are no longer sacrificed, riderless horses represent the bond between horse and rider on the soldier’s final journey. The backward boots in his stirrups suggest that the warrior is having one last look back at his life. In the United States, caparisoned horses participate in funerals for people who have achieved the rank of colonel in the Army or Marines or above. Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to have a caparisoned horse at his funeral. George Washington and Zachary Taylor’s personal horses were in their master’s funeral processions. Black Jack was the riderless black horse in the funerals of three presidents: Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson He also served in the funeral of Douglas MacArthur and more than a thousand others. Black Jack retired on June 1, 1973 and died after 29 years of military service on Feb. 6, 1976. He was buried on the parade grounds of Fort Myer with full military honors and his remains were transported using the same caisson he’d walked behind during the funerals of three American presidents. The only other horse honored with a military funeral was Comanche, the only surviving horse of Custer’s last stand. ​ After Black Jack retired, “Sgt.York” carried on this tradition. He served as the riderless horse in President Reagan’s funeral procession, walking behind the caisson bearing Reagan’s flag-draped casket. Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction for people from ten to adult. Several of her books, including Code:Elephants on the Moon and A Blaze of Poppies include horses used in war.

Horses from History: Man o' War

 

​Even though he never ran the Kentucky Derby, Man o' War is perhaps the most famous thoroughbred race horse of all time.

Man o' War was born in March of 1917. He was named for his owner, August Belmont, Jr., who  joined the United States Army soon after the colt's birth. Belmont was 65, but World War I had inspired him to serve overseas, in France,  despite his age. 

Man o' War, who was also called Big Red, won an amazing 20 of his 21 races. His only loss was, ironically, against a horse named Upset, and came after a bad start, where he was reportedly facing the wrong way when the starter raised the tape. 
The talented horse never ran the Kentucky Derby because his owner, Samuel Riddle, thought that the spring weather in Kentucky was too unpredictable. Considering that it has snowed on Derby day more than once, he may have had a point. In 1989, the race time temperature in Louisville was 43 degrees, a little cool for a horse to run 1 ¼ miles without straining his muscles.
After his racing career, Man o’ War was put out to stud. He sired many famous racehorses, including  the 1929 Kentucky Derby Winner Clyde Van Dusen and  War Admiral, who won the Triple Crown in 1937. Another of his progeny, Hard Tack, became the father of Seabiscuit, the small horse that came to symbolize hope during the Great Depression.

Man o’ War died in November of 1947 at the age of 30, which is advanced for a horse. His body was embalmed, then placed in a giant, custom-made casket. It took 13 men to carry the 1,200 pound horse to his grave. His death was reported in The New York Times with the kind of pomp that was usually reserved for celebrities and politicians. 

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Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former educator who is now devoting her time to writing historical fiction. Her next book, A Blaze of Poppies, will be published in October 2021 and tells the story of a female rancher from New Mexico and her experiences as a nurse during World War I.

Horses in History: Traveller

 

 

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Horses served an important role in the Civil War, and suffered as greatly as the men beneath them. It has been estimated that 1.5 million horses and mules died in the Civil War. Five million pounds of dead horses was removed from the Gettysburg battlefield alone. But of all the horses that served in this period, none is as famous as Traveller.

Traveller, spelled as the British do, with two Ls, was an iron grey American Saddlebred with black points and a dark mane and tail. The 16-hand tall horse was sired by a race horse named Grey Eagle, who had won $20,000 in a Louisville, Kentucky stake race, and born in 1857 in Greenbrier County, in what is now West Virginia. His first owner named him “Jeff Davis,” after the Mississippi Senator and Mexican American War hero who eventually became the President of the Confederacy.
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In 1861 the son of the original owner took the horse with him when he joined the legion of former Virginia governor Brig. Gen. Henry Wise. He sold the horse to Captain Joseph M. Broun, a quartermaster of Wise’s Legion’s 3rd Infantry. Broun renamed the horse “Greenbriar.” When Robert E. Lee arrived to advise Wise in late August 1861, he saw Broun’s horse and was immediately taken with him, calling the horse ‘my colt’ and saying he would need it before the war was over. Aware of the difference in their ranks, Broun offered to give the horse to Lee, who declined the offer. Broun then offered to sell Greenbriar to Lee for the same price he had himself paid for the horse. Lee added an extra $15 to cover the depreciating value of the Confederate dollar. Lee bought the horse in February 1862 and renamed him Traveller because of his ability to walk at a fast pace.
 
Although Traveller was not the only horse Lee rode from that time on, it was the one he rode and most and the one that became linked to him in the public’s eye. He was known for great endurance during long marches, and being unflappable in battle. He was not perfect, though. Lee’s youngest son, Robert E. Lee Jr later wrote that the horse fretted a lot, especially when in crowds if he wasn’t regularly exercised. At the Second Battle of Manassas he shied at enemy movements, rearing and throwing the General, who broke bones in both his hands during the fall. 

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After the war, Lee continued to keep the grey near him. He brought Traveller to Washington University when he became its president, and the pair were a common site on campus. Traveller became such a celebrity that his mane and tail thinned because students plucked the dark hairs as souvenirs. Locks of Lee’s hair and Traveller’s mane are still part of the collection at Arlington House, Lee’s former home on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

When Lee died in October of 1870, Traveller was draped in black crepe walked, riderless, behind the funeral hearse. Less than a year later, Traveller stepped on a nail and contracted tetanus. He died June of 1871 and was buried along a creek adjoining Washington University’s campus near Lee Chapel.
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But Traveller’s story didn’t end with his death. In 1875, Custis Lee, who had succeeded his father as President of the institution that was renamed Washington and Lee University after the General’s death, exhumed Traveller and sent his bones to Henry Augustus Ward, a University of Rochester faculty member who traveled the world acquiring a massive assortment of geological and zoological specimens and taxidermy samples for museums.

CLIPPED FROM The Times-Picayune New Orleans, Louisiana 15 Dec 1875, Wed

An undated image of Traveller’s skeleton on display in Lexington.

The skeleton was returned to Washington and Lee in 1907, and later moved to the basement of Lee Chapel. By the time his bones were reburied in front of the chapel in 1960, the bones had deteriorated and were covered with the penned signatures of visitors. 

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Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. You can read about her on her website. You can read another story about a horse from history,  Sergeant Reckless, an Army horse during the Korean war, here.

Horses in History: The Four Legged Sergeant

 

http://www.horsestarhalloffame.org Photo courtesy U.S. Marines The horse that came to be known as Sergeant Reckless was bred to be a runner, but she earned her fame by standing firm in battle. Part Jeju, a sturdy breed of small horse native to an island in South Korea, the sorrel mare was born at a Seoul racetrack and was destined for a racing career. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 changed all that. In October 1952, the owner of the three-year-old filly, whose original name was “Ah Chim Hai,” which means “Morning Flame,” sold her to Lieutenant Eric Pedersen of the 5th Marine Regiment’s Recoilless Rifle Platoon so that he could buy a prosthesis for his sister, who had lost a leg in a land mine explosion. ​ Pedersen was willing to pay $250 for her because he needed help supplying his positions in mountainous terrain that had proven too difficult for motorized vehicles. To prepare her for her new job, Technical Sergeant Joe Latham put her through “hoof camp,” a boot camp for horses where she learned to accept the chaos and noise of battle and to carry the 24-pound ammunition shells that the Marine’s 75mm recoilless rifles required. The filly also learned how to step over communication lines and barbed wire, and she learned to respond to a shouted ‘Incoming!’ by running to a bunker or trench and lying down. By the time she was ready for service, she had learned to navigate all the service roads between the supply depot and the front lines by herself.  ​Sgt Reckless with a recoilless-rifle. (Credit: Archive PL/Alamy Stock Photo) There are two different stories about how she got her name. One is that she was named after the recoilless rifles, called "reckless rifles" in Marine jargon, which she carried to the troops. That the unit themselves were nicknamed the Reckless Rifles supplies the other explanation. ​ Once she was named after them, Reckless became "one of the men." She followed them everywhere, sleeping with them in their tents and eating with them in the mess hall. Reckless ate bacon, scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast, and she liked to snack on candy bars and Coca-Cola. She even drank beer with her fellow Marines.  Reckless carried supplies to the front and evacuated wounded Marines back down the slope for medical treatment without a human escort. On a single day in March 1953, when the unit was entrenched at a place called Outpost Vegas, so named because it would be a gamble to hold, Reckless made 51 rounds trips through a no-man’s land of rice paddies and steep hills. She delivered almost 9,000 pounds of ammunition from the supply point to the gun teams and probably saved the lives of the dozens of men she brought back to the medical unit.  Reckless received two shrapnel wounds that earned her a pair of Purple Hearts. She was given a battlefield rank of corporal in 1953 and promoted to sergeant after the war, when she was also awarded a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. She was the only animal ever awarded an official rank in the Marine Corps. Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction that is suitable for middle grade readers and older. Her novel Code: Elephants on the Moon is set in Normandy, France during World War Two and features Galopin, a Breton horse who helps his owner in the Resistance.