The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN - Dec. 13th, 2002

http://www.cbhma.org/history.shtml ^ | Joe Sills, Jr.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks. Jen's done a great job on the HTML. Once I figure out the subjsct for the day it takes 2 to 3 hours, since Jen has it set up to pretty much just "plug in" my article.

[SAMWolf]

June 25th, 1876, Captain Myles Walter Keogh rides into action with 7th Cavalry at the Battle of The Little Big Horn. His horse, 'Comanche' will be the only Cavalry survivor of Custer's Last Stand!

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I was at the Little Bighorn Battlefield a couple of years ago and spent quite a bit of time there. I also went to the Rosebud Battlefield area not far away.

I am fascinated by a puzzle. I have never heard anyone answer the question. There were more than two hundred soldiers killed at the LBH. Each soldier was issued a "trapdoor" Springfield carbine in .45-70 caliber. Each soldier also carried a Colt's Model 1873 Single Action Army pistol with a 7.5 inch barrel, in .45 caliber. The indians stripped and mutilated everyone killed (with Custer the exception on mutilation). The indians took the clothes and equipment. The question?

Where are the guns?

To my knowledge, not one of more than two hundred carbines and pistols, taken from the battlefield by the indians, has ever surfaced. One account of an old Cheyenne grandfather(a boy during the battle period) said specially-chosen Cheyenne warriors took the guns and hid them in a place sacred to the Cheyenne. If true, the guns must still be there.

Indian accounts indicate they feared being caught by pursuing cavalry with any looted equipment carrying 7th Cavalry markings.

If ever found, the guns would have enormous value.

I saw a rifle at a gun show documented to have been picked up from the battlefield apparently during burial of bodies and under supervision of Capt. Benteen. That rifle was for sale for something in excess of $100,000.

I find the missing guns to be an interesting lost treasure.

[SAMWolf]

Interesting question.

One of history's unsolved questions, that would be quite a find.

[Ravenstar]

Then you should support at least a competition for Senate Majority Leader and get someone else, perhaps Inhofe, in as Majority Leader. Trent has tried to appease and he hasn't learned it doesn't work note his not taking power immediately.

Ravenstar

[Ravenstar]

Please ignore previous post was supposed to be for another thread and I miss hit the proper reply button.

Ravenstar

[fatima]

bump

[cavtrooper21]

Just a quick note. Did anyone notice that 9 of the MoH winners were not born here! Yet they fought and served our country well. How many others fought and died or were not recognized for their service. When we stop allowing the rest of the world's unwanted coming to our shores, we stop being Americans.
I also served in the 7th (in a different war), and the troopers of the Seventh still remember this day with a memorial service and other activities.

[cavtrooper21]

Comanche is stuffed and resides in the U of K Natural History M. in Lawrence, Kansas. anlong with artifacts from the battlefield.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for your Service.

I too noticed that some of the MOH winners were foreign born. Just goes to prove that the U.S. has always been a nation of immigrants.

[SAMWolf]

Comanche was rescued from the battlefield a few days after Custer's defeat and was transported by steamship down the Missouri River to Fort Lincoln, along with wounded and dying members of the Reno-Benteen group (a group that fought their own battle a few miles away, while Custer's 280 men were being wiped out). At Fort Lincoln, Comanche was cared for by a private in Keogh's Company, Gustave Korn.

Korn, it seems, led an interesting life. He was with Keogh and Custer at the beginning of the Battle of the Little Bighorn but his horse bolted and, after retrieving it, he joined the Reno-Benteen group and thus survived the battle. After returning to Fort Lincoln, Private (later Sergeant) Korn took care of Comanche for the next 14 years at Fort Lincoln and later at Fort Meade, South Dakota when the 7th Cavalry was transferred there. By the way, after Comanche returned from the Little Big Horn, orders were issued that no one should ever ride him again -- the only time in American history that the Cavalry ever issued such an order -- and no one ever did, not even Korn.

Sergeant Korn was killed in the last conflict of the Indian wars, the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890, and was one of the few U.S. troops to die in that one-sided massacre. It's said that Comanche lost his will to live when Korn didn't return and he died a year later. Comanche was stuffed -- a rather odd fate for such a noble horse -- and can been seen today at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

[jmc813]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/806028/posts

Please check out this thread and send your prayers out to Jeff Head's father (a WW2 combat veteran).

[cavtrooper21]

Not such an odd fate, and he inspired me to go Cav, instead of some other branch! (yes, kids, the Cavalry is a branch of the combat arms, just ask any Cavalry trooper!) Hey, why walk when you can RIDE!!! I also thought it was rather ironic that almost no one in the Seventh even knew that Comanche even existed, or where he was! I have since corrected that small oversight!
Still, I must confess that the unit I most closely identify with is the First Regiment of Dragoons, known as the "Blackhawks". Not many of us left anymore, but a long and proud tradition of service. I served in the Second Squadron, A Troop.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the ping.

[Darksheare]

Going to go shut myself down.
After 21:00, I end up getting wierder.

[sistergoldenhair]

Thanks.
An excellent account.

[SAMWolf]

I knew about Comanche since I was a kid. Disney even had a movie called "Tonka" about him. We're not teaching our hstory to our children anymore.

[MistyCA]

Thank you, tonk. That is good information to know. I think it is a very good idea to have cross links to the sites that provide daily support to the military.

[MistyCA]

I love that picture, Sam.

[MistyCA]

Great question! Is anyone actively pursuing them?