Custer Died Today: The Horse that Survived the Last Stand

Today is the 132nd anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lakota descendants of the warriors who routed Custer describe them as "the original homeland security." Among the 6000 books written about the battle, few have to do with Native American accounts of the conflagration that changed the country's history. Fewer still tell the story of the horses that carried cavalry troops and Indian soldiers alike.
Two days after Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and their men defeated the cavalry, General Terry arrived and saw the horror on the battlefield -- no survivors, to a man, and all except Custer himself horribly mutilated. Many horses lay dead or dying; some had been killed by their own men to serve as breastworks. But amid the carnage, there appeared a miracle: a badly wounded horse, bleeding from seven bullet holes, still standing with his head low, in the cottonwoods along the banks of the Little Big Horn River. Should he be shot? One man said no, perhaps longing for a survivor on this field of death, and sensing that the horse could endure.
The horse was Comanche, named, according to legend, for the courage he exhibited when a farrier removed an arrowhead from his flank after he was wounded during a previous battle. Like many cavalry horses, he had been taken from the wild and pressed into service for the frontier wars. More horses than soldiers perished in the greasy grass on June 25, 1876 in the fateful clash of civilizations that concluded in about twenty minutes ("the time it took the sun to pass the width of one teepee pole," according to a Native American witness).
A couple of years ago, I visited the Little Bighorn battlefield. Here many four-leggeds, weary after a long march with little food, had been killed by doomed soldiers to serve as a breastworks, and here, some of them were buried in a little known horse cemetery. Comanche was taken by steamer to Ft. Lincoln, where he was nursed back to health and retired with full honors, although he did serve on the pack train at Wounded Knee, where the man who had spoken up for him long ago was killed.
Known as "the only survivor of the Little Bighorn," Comanche became a celebrity of the era, and, like many who have seen terrible things, went a little crazy and developed a taste for beer. For his complete story, here is an excerpt from my forthcoming book about wild horses in the West.