Comanche: The Only Survivor Found at the Battle of Little Bighorn
On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led five companies of the 7th Cavalry into the valley of the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. They did not come back. In one of the most decisive defeats in United States military history, Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse killed every soldier who rode with Custer into that valley, somewhere between 210 and 268 men. The battle lasted less than an hour.
When the 7th Cavalry returned to bury the dead two days later, they found one survivor. A clay-colored mustang with multiple bullet wounds, standing in a ravine, barely able to move. His name was Comanche.
The Horse Who Lived
Comanche was a mixed-breed cavalry horse, described in records as a clay-bank sorrel, approximately 15 hands and around 925 pounds. He had been assigned to Captain Myles Keogh, who died in the battle. When soldiers found Comanche after the engagement, he had seven bullet wounds and was severely dehydrated. His wounds included a gunshot to the right hind leg that had been treated and re-injured, and multiple additional hits from the engagement itself. Army surgeons treated him at the battlefield and transported him by steamboat down the Missouri River to Fort Lincoln in present-day North Dakota.
He recovered. It took months. But he recovered fully enough that the 7th Cavalry issued a formal regimental order in 1878 declaring him the property of the regiment and exempting him from any form of service for the rest of his life. The order, signed by Colonel Samuel Sturgis, specified that Comanche was to be "kept and cared for at the expense of the regiment" and would appear "saddled, bridled, and draped in mourning" at all regimental ceremonial formations, but was never to be ridden again. He was given free access to forage, grooming, and the company of the regiment's horses, and was allowed to roam freely around the post.
Comanche at Fort Riley
For the next 13 years, Comanche lived at the regiment's various postings, most notably Fort Riley in Kansas. Soldiers brought him extra oats and beer on occasion, the latter reportedly a personal preference he had developed. He was something between a regimental mascot and a living monument, the only creature present at Custer's Last Stand who could still be seen and touched by the people who came after. According to the Smithsonian, Comanche became one of the most photographed horses in America during the 1880s.
He died on November 6, 1891, at approximately 29 years of age. His body was preserved by the University of Kansas at the request of the regiment, and he remains on display at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, one of the few mounted horses in American museum history.
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Sources
- National Park Service — Little Bighorn Battlefield — Comanche — the battle, the discovery of Comanche, his recovery and regimental order
- Smithsonian Magazine — Comanche: The Horse Who Survived Little Bighorn — life at Fort Riley, photography, death, and preservation
- History.com — Battle of Little Bighorn — Custer's Last Stand context, soldier casualties, force composition
- University of Kansas Natural History Museum — Comanche — taxidermy and current display; preservation history
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