Here are two more military horse heroes
During the Indian Wars of the 19th century, Myles Keogh, a captain in the U.S. 7th Cavalry, rode a mustang/Morgan horse named Comanche. The horse was fast, strong, and brave, and Keogh gave him his name after a particularly fierce fight with a Comanche tribe in Kansas. The horse was wounded in the battle, but he let Keogh keep riding—and fighting.
In 1876, Keogh and his men took off for the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand). Keogh rode Comanche, of course, but the battle was a disaster for the cavalry. The Cheyenne and Lakota tribes soundly defeated them, and Custer (who led the charge) was killed. Keogh also died, but two days after the fight was over, Comanche emerged, severely wounded but alive.
Nursing him back to health took months, but the horse eventually recovered. The U.S. military then officially retired him to a life of luxury—during his retirement he was fed a regular diet of “whisky bran mash and buckets of beer.” Comanche died in 1897 at the age of 29. His loyalty and stoicism led to stories that he was the only military survivor at Little Bighorn, but he wasn’t. Apparently, several of the other horses and a bulldog also survived the battle. Comanche remains the most famous, though, and the most revered: he was the first of two horses in U.S. history to be buried with full military honors.
The second horse buried with full honors? Black Jack. If any military horse can be said to have captured American hearts in the 20th century, it was Black Jack. Named after General John “Black Jack” Pershing of World War I fame, the Morgan/quarter horse was born in 1947 and was the last horse to carry the “U.S.” brand of the army.
Black Jack was the riderless horse who attended the funerals of four presidents (Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon Johnson) and one general (Douglas MacArthur). It was Kennedy’s funeral procession, though, that made Black Jack famous. Millions of people worldwide watched him following behind the president’s casket, the boots and stirrups he carried turned backward. Black Jack retired from military service in 1973 and died in 1976.
For more military horses, turn to page 155.
Wild horse herds usually have just one stallion.