HorseAddict

The Battle of Greasy Grass was Custer’s Last Stand.

Here is another War Horse Hero who survived the Battle of Greasy Grass aka Custer’s Last Stand. This is a reblog from 2017

HorseAddict

The Lakota and the Plains tribes refer to the Battle of Little Big Horn as the Battle of Greasy Grass and it was the scene of an ignominious defeat for the 7th Cavalry and the Custer Battalion. But one survivor has gone down in history as the sole survivor of the Battalion; Comanche, the mount of Captain Myles Keogh.

Although Comanche’s date of birth and his breeding were uncertain Captain Keogh of the 7th Cavalry liked the 15 hand horse. In 1868, when the army was fighting the Comanche tribe in Kansas, the horse was wounded by an arrow but continued to carry Keogh in the battle. He named the horse Comanche as a tribute to his bravery.

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June 25, 1876 was the day of a great defeat for the 7th Cavalry of the US Army and a great victory for the combined forces of the Northern Cheyenne, Lakota, and…

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anne leueen

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2 responses to “The Battle of Greasy Grass was Custer’s Last Stand.”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Cavalry horses were taught how to lie down and provide cover for their trooper when a dismount order was given. The horse losses could be significant during an engagement. During the Indian Wars, one of the primary objectives of the Native Americans was to take as many horses when the dismounted troopers fought on foot. The horses would be kept to the rear, controlled by three or four troopers to control upwards of a hundred horses, which is no small feat.

    The Custer battlefield is more than Last Stand Hill. It is pretty much spread out across 4-5 miles of open prairie, which hasn’t changed much since the 1870s. There is no real estimate of how long the battle was fought. Estimates range from 90 minutes to a half day. The way the markers on the battlefield are set-up, it tends to favor the half day estimate as dismounted troopers fought in classic skrimish lines of the day, with the intensity of the fighting ebbing and flowing. They do know they lost most of the horses within the first 30-45 minutes, not as battlefield loss but cutting them loose.

    Yes, I’ve been there.

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    1. anne leueen Avatar
      anne leueen

      Thanks David for this extra information. I have been there too but did not know all these things about the battle.

      Liked by 1 person

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