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Welcome to Talk with History.
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I'm your host, Scott, and my wife and historian, Jen, is traveling
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for a special project this week.
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So I thought I would bring you a story from our past travels.
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So I hope you enjoy this history road trip.
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We stopped along the ridge that outlined the battlefield of Little
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Bighorn, overlooking the river.
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Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tall figure walking straight
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towards Jen and not stopping.
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That's odd.
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Traveling through Montana with the family had been an otherworldly experience.
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It really is someplace you have to be.
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We had driven up from Wyoming via Devil's Tower, and I couldn't stop
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gaping at the wide open plains that had inspired so many songs.
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Cowboys and western tall tales.
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There it was.
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The sign indicating that we were entering the Crow Indian Reservation.
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The little bighorn battlefield monument is on the reservation.
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It's beautiful, isn't it?
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And about 70 miles from both Sheridan, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana.
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It's pretty out there.
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As we drove up to the monument, I wondered what it must have been
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like the morning of June 25th, 1876.
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147 years before our trip across these great plains.
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Nobody survived Custer's Last Stand.
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Or so they thought.
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It was supposed to have been an easy ride, at least according to Custer.
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We had ridden many days and weeks to get to this river.
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What was it again?
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Little?
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Big?
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Something?
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I could barely think of that now, that we were surrounded by the
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very people we had been chasing.
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Bullets and arrows whizzed through the air as chaos and fear took over the plains.
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I felt the ground tremble beneath me from the onslaught
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of warriors and soldiers alike.
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My heart pounded in rhythm with the beat of the war drums
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that echoed from the distance.
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My best friend and partner the past couple years, Captain Kyo, rode with
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me, guiding me through the pandemonium.
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Together we had pressed forward, his steady hand and firm voice reassuring
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me despite the chaos around us.
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We had been through many battles together, but this one felt different.
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There was a sense of desperation in his voice, a tension in his demeanor.
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Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted in my flank, my legs gave way, but I fought
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to stay standing, to continue fighting.
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But the pain was too much, and I stumbled, accidentally bringing Captain Keo with me.
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I tried to rise, but the pain overpowered me.
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I watched as he was swallowed up by the chaos, disappearing from my sight.
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I lay there in the dust, the battle raging around me, the noise slowly
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faded, replaced by a strange silence.
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The Indian warriors had moved on, leaving behind the fallen and the broken.
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Days passed in a haze of pain and fear, the battlefield was a grim sight,
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littered with the casualties of war.
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I was alone, nursing my wounds, waiting for the end, but it never came.
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Instead, I saw the blurs of blue uniforms appear.
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They approached cautiously, their eyes scanning the
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devastation across the hilltop.
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They found me, injured and barely able to move.
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They spoke in hushed voices, their hands gentle as they tended to my wounds.
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Their touch was kind, their voices soothing.
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I felt the pain recede, replaced by a warm, comforting sensation.
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They fed me, gave me some water, and slowly, they left.
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I regained my strength.
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In the days that followed, I gained enough strength to show my
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gratitude and accept their help.
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They seemed to understand my loss, my pain.
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They treated me with respect, almost reverence.
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I was a survivor, a living testament to the battle that had consumed so
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many at the Little Bighorn River.
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As I regained my strength, people said I was more than just a survivor.
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They said I was a symbol.
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A beacon of hope amid the devastation.
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I just knew that I was Comanche, the horse of Captain Keo.
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I was the lone survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
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The man walking towards Jen briefly disappeared as he walked behind a truck.
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I started to turn and walk towards Jen as well.
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I had lost sight of her for a moment as a tour group passed in front of me, but
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then, surprisingly, I heard laughter.
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The group passed, and there was the man chatting happily away with my better half.
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He recognized me from the channel, she burst aloud.
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He grinned sheepishly, almost as if embarrassed.
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I saw the collaboration you guys did with JD, and I've
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followed your channel ever since.
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I smiled.
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JD's a friend of ours with another history YouTube channel.
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Great guy, super supportive.
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Of course, the first time Jen ever gets recognized from the channel, we're about
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as far away from home as we've ever been.
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In fact, we were a little over 2000 miles away and we got a picture with him and
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he went on his way, all of us smiling.
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Quite a different interaction with a stranger than Custer had.
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The story here at Little Bighorn was so much more complex than I expected, with
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broken promises, ominous forewarnings, and ultimately the decimation of
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Custer's troops on Last Stand Hill.
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The story of Comanche, the horse of Captain Miles Keough, is true, The
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horse was found on the battlefield by U.
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S.
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soldiers who presumed he hadn't been taken due to his two gunshot wounds.
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He was standing over his captain.
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And the soldiers eventually nursed him back to health.
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The horse stayed at Fort Meade until 1887 when he was shipped to Fort Riley, Kansas.
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He remained at Fort Riley for the rest of his life.
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Comanche received hero attention at Fort Riley.
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On April 10, 1878, General Order No.
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7 was issued stating, The horse known as Comanche being the only living
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representative of the bloody tragedy of Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876, his
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kind treatment and comfort shall be a matter of special pride and solicitude
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on the part of every member of the 7th Calvary to the end that his life
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be preserved to the utmost limit.
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Further, company, I will see that a special and comfortable stable is fitted
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for him and he will not be ridden by any person whatsoever under any circumstances,
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nor will be put to any kind of work.
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Having led near every parade at the fort during his time there, he became
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something of a celebrity and was treated with reverence and pride by every soldier.
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On November 7th, 1891, Comanche died of colic, a digestive disorder
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not uncommon in elderly horses.
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He was 29 years old.
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I
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highly recommend, if you ever have a chance to go to Little Bighorn,
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you're in the Montana, Wyoming area.
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You go do it.
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It's a must see, and it really takes you back in time.
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Thank you for listening to the Talk with History podcast, and please
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reach out to us at thehistoryroadtrip.
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com, where you can chat with us and our community of fellow history travelers.
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That is thehistoryroadtrip.
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com.
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Thank you, and we'll talk to you next time.
