Comanche was a United States Cavalry horse, reputedly so-named by Captain Myles Keogh, whose personal mount he was, after the horse screamed “like a Comanche” when struck by an arrow during an altercation with the Native American tribe of the same name in 1868. A mixed-breed horse of uncertain ancestry, Comanche was greyish-brown in colour and stood a modest 15 hands high. Although by no means an impressive physical specimen, Comanche nonetheless found fame as, to all intents and purposes, the sole survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in Missouri Territory, on June 25, 1876.
Despite a final, desperate defence, which became known as ‘Custer’s Last Stand’, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and all the men in his immediate command – five companies of the Seventh Cavalry, numbering approximately 210 in total – were killed. When relief arrived the following day, the only living being in the vicinity of the engagement was Comanche, albeit grieviously injured by opposition gunfire.
Comanche was transported to Fort Abraham Lincoln,near Bismarck, North Dakota, where he was slowly nursed back to health, before being retired from active duty in April 1878. Indeed, at that point, Colonel Samuel Sturgis issued a ceremonial order guaranteeing his comfort and well-being during his retirement. In fact, Comanche was not the only horse that survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but it was he who became the living embodiment of the spirit of the Seventh Cavalry, and the United States Army in general, much beloved by soldiers.
Comanche died on November 7, 1891, probably aged 29, and was given a dignified farewell, including military honours. Rather than being buried, though, his remains were preserved for posterity and his taxidermy mount, which was first displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, stands in the Kansas University Natural History Museum.