“They Died with Their Boots On” is my second favorite western. I especially liked the sequence where they make “Garryowen” the official tune of the “Immortal Seventh Cavalry.” My favorite western? “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”
That’s one of my favorite scenes, too. The Brit who taught them “Garryowen” is a fictional character, but Capt. Myles Keogh was born in Ireland and may have been the real source of that song. He died with Custer at Little Big Horn.
You might be interested in the connection between “Garryowen,” the film “We Were Soldiers,” and a hero of 9/11, Rick Rescorla. Check out http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1560l9657l0l10140l22l22l1l10l11l0l250l1717l2.6.3l11l0&q=cache:H2dKf0SR69sJ:http://www.stolinsky.com/news/news/default.asp?PagePosition=258+stolinsky+garry+owen+rescorla&ct=clnk
The photos in my previous link have disappeared from the Web. A better link is http://www.stolinsky.com/news/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=603
I’ll bet you’ll enjoy them.