The Story of a Horse
I suppose there’s not much more mobile than music, so it makes sense when tunes associated with one land end up associated with another.
That said, I’ve always felt uncomfortable that Garryowen was adopted by the US 7th Cavalry, even if it was a good cinematic choice.
I can’t speak for Limerick people though.
The story of a horse you all know as Comanche, is recounted in a book by Deanne Stilman, and is excerpted in New West.
Some of it doesn’t ring true for me from what I’ve read over the years - but I don’t have any specific sources to quote you, and anyway the author makes a defence of her writing and research in the comments that follow the New West piece by somebody who questions her knowledge of horses.
The book is called Horse Latitudes: Last Stand for the Wild Horse in the American West, and is not due out until 2008, but here is a small section from that excerpt that focuses on Comanche, including his times in Kansas:
On April 3, 1868, Comanche was sold to the army for the average price of $90. A week after his purchase, Comanche and an unknown number of horses were loaded onto railroad cars and shipped west to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where they arrived around the middle of May and were each branded with the letters US on the left shoulder, the regiment number on the left thigh and the letter C for cavalry. Sometimes the letter of the company to which the horse was assigned was added to the brand. Custer’s 7th cavalry unit had been stationed in Kansas and had lost a number of horses that spring. Custer sent his brother, First Lieutenant Tom W. Custer, to buy remounts. After looking them over in the corrals, he purchased 41, including the horse that would soon be named Comanche. Once again the horses were loaded onto a train, where they stood head to tail in crowded cars and shipped the short distance to Hays City, near Ellis, Kansas where Custer and his troops were encamped. Eight years later, in the year of our centennial, more horses than cavalry soldiers would perish at the Little Bighorn.
Do read the entire piece though, especially if you like horses, history, the West, or romance. And then you can read Part 2 which of course ends up in Lawrence, Kansas.
The man who died on Comanche was of course Irishman Myles Keogh from County Carlow. There is an excellent account of his life by Brian Pohanka at The Wild Geese Today which includes several great pictures.
Keogh witnessed few of Custer’s exploits on the frontier. The Captain was absent on staff duty during the winter campaign of 1868 that culminated in the 7th Cavalry’s attack on Black Kettle’s encampment at the Washita. From 1871 to early 1873 the regiment was widely dispersed on Reconstruction Duty in the South, and Keogh rarely served at the same place as Custer. In the summer of 1873, while Custer was fighting the Sioux and Cheyennes on the Yellowstone River, Keogh’s company was detached to the Canadian border as part of an Army escort to the Northern Boundary Survey. And the next summer, as Custer led his controversial expedition through the Black Hills, Keogh was enjoying a welcome seven-months leave of absence among his family in Ireland. It was the second time he had been able to return to his birthplace since joining the 7th Cavalry, and it was during this sojourn among his beloved family that Myles deeded his inheritance of the Clifden estate in Kilkenny to his sister Margaret.
Again I’d urge those interested in history, war, the West, and dashing melancholic Irishmen with moustaches to read the whole piece over at WGT.
See More History on Irish KC:
• The Irish Book of Bog
• Ireland as England as seen on TV
• Titanic Anniversary News
• Boss Tom Pendergast Photos
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
I remember reading once that the it was easier to get the soldiers to ride in formation when Garryowen was played — since so many were “right off the boat” and in many cases could not understand the English commands of their officers.
The story is likely apocryphal — as well as racist of course. In any event, it was a cruel fate that had Irish immigrants hired to assist with the oppression of another race. That much is a true, and old, story.