Civil War Travels With Ms. Rebelle

Captain/Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Myles Walter Keogh

             “Unsurpassed in dash” is the way the late local historian Brian Pohanka described Myles Keogh.  According to Keogh’s citizenship papers, he was 6’ ½” tall, blue eyes, brown hair, and had a florid complexion.  It seems that Brian had a lifelong interest in Keogh and the Battle of Little Big Horn. 

             In August Ms. Rebelle and her sister went to the Little Big Horn Battlefield near Billings, Montana.  Little Big Horn was on my bucket list, and if you haven’t been there, it should be on your bucket list as well.  The terrain remains unchanged from that fateful day of June 25, 1876 when Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked a village of hostile Indians camped along the Little Big Horn River.

            My goal was to find the death marker site for Keogh on the battlefield and place a flag there.  It turned out to be more of a challenge that I thought it would be.  Keogh’s Company “I” was in between Calhoun Hill and Last Stand Hill.  He and his men died in a clump at the bottom of a hill.  1st Sergeant Frank Varden, Corporal John Wild, trumpeter John Patton, and others would die with Myles.  Even though it had been 103 degrees the day before our visit there, August 15th was cold, windy, and rainy.

          We took a bus tour of the battlefield given by the Crow Native Americans.  Our tour guide was a Crow woman who told us what happened along the battlefield road and also used Indian sign language to tell the story.  She was very interesting, extremely knowledgeable, and she knew the oral history from her people.  When I told her that I wanted to walk down to Keogh’s marker, she told me it would be a good day to do it as the rattlesnakes would not be out.  A Park Ranger had previously tried to discourage me from doing it.  Nonetheless, Ms. Rebelle walked down the long winding path passing many markers of the unknown until I got to the far right on the path, and there he was.  Someone a long time ago had placed a 7th Cavalry flag on his marker that was now very ragged.  Myles Keogh now has a new U.S. flag on his marker.  My sister wasn’t as brave as me and remained towards the top of the path.  I must say I walked very fast up and down that hill just “in case.”

             Myles Keogh was born in March 25, 1840 in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland to a well-to-do family.  Myles was one of 13 children.  He was the youngest of five boys and had seven sisters.  The potato famine in Ireland didn’t have an effect on his family as they farmed barley, had land, and money.  His father died at an early age.  His maternal aunt, Mary Blanchfield, willed him the family estate, Clifden Castle.  Myles craved adventure so at age 20  in 1860, he joined the Papal Guard donning the green uniforms of the Company of Saint Patrick.  After the war Keogh was invited to be a member of the Vatican Guard.  He was awarded the Order of St. Gregory and the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) medals for his Papal War service. 

          His mother died in 1862.  During that year, Secretary of State William Seward went to Europe to recruit members of the Papal Army to fight in our American Civil War.  Myles and two Irish & Papal Army friends, Joseph O’Keefe and Daniel Keily, were recruited, and went to America.  Keogh and Keily set sail from Liverpool on the steamer Kangaroo with first class accommodations on March 17, 1862 (a fitting day for two Irishmen).  O’Keefe joined them a week later in New York City.  All three of them went directly to Washington to sign up for the Union Army and were given the rank of captain.  They were all assigned to the staff of General James Shields on April 9, 1862.  Their first battle was Port Republic, VA on June 9, 1862 where the Union forces very nearly captured General Stonewall Jackson.

         He was briefly on the staff of General George McClellan where he met George Armstrong Custer and his good friend Andrew Alexander.  On July 31, 1862 he was assigned to the personal staff of General John Buford.  Keogh served in the Valley Campaign, Port Republic, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Upperville, was on Buford’s staff at Gettysburg campaign,  Funkstown, Williamsport, Bristoe Station, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta Campaign, and marched in the Grand Review in Washington in 1865.   

          When Buford became ill with typhoid fever in the fall of 1863, Keogh stayed with him in Washington at the home of General George Stoneman until Buford died on December 16, 1863.  The general died in Keogh’s arms.  After the funeral service at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, Keogh accompanied General Buford’s body to West Point where he was buried alongside Lt. Alonzo Cushing who died defending General Buford’s high ground at Gettysburg. 

          He was assigned to General George Stoneman’s staff after the death of General Buford in December 16, 1863.  In 1864 he and Stoneman were captured trying to liberate Andersonville and sent to the Charleston, SC City Jail.  General William Tecumseh Sherman later arranged for their release.  After the war he was assigned to General Stoneman in Knoxville where he shared quarters with Emory Upton, and also did court martial duty in Nashville.

          His friend Joseph O’Keefe was wounded at Brandy Station and then wounded again at Five Forks.  O’Keefe died at Providence Hospital in Washington on May 30, 1865 with Keogh by his side.  His friend Daniel Keily would die in Louisiana of yellow fever in 1867.       

         In researching Keogh, I came across a possible connection to General Kearny (see The Ox Hill Generals published January 3, 2013) at the battle of Ox Hill/Chantilly.  There is a very likely possibility that Keogh was sent down to Difficult Run (near present day Route 66 & West Ox Road) with the 9th NY Cavalry to receive the Confederate ambulance bearing the body of General Kearny.  I am trying to verify this fact with the National Archives, but it is interesting to know that Keogh perhaps had a connection to Ox Hill/Chantilly.

          After the Civil War, still  devastated by Buford’s death, he transferred to the Western Theatre.  The rest is history. 

         On May 4, 1866 Keogh was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Texas Cavalry but would not serve with them.  Instead he took an assignment as captain of Co. “I” 7th U.S. Cavalry under Brevet Major George Armstrong Custer.  The Crow woman who gave us the bus tour at Little Big Horn said Keogh was the bravest of the brave.  Many Indian accounts have Keogh fighting to the end with tenacity and bravery.  Most of his men and Custer’s men shot their horses and used them for cover.  Keogh did not kill his horse Comanche.  There are reports that Keogh took cover between Comanche’s front legs and died with the reins in his hand.  Even though he was stripped naked by the Indians, his body was not mutilated like the others.  Since he had the reins of his horse in his hand and his Papal medal around his neck, the Indians believed it would be a bad omen to desecrate his body.  Comanche was found with bullet wounds and seven arrows in his body.  He was the only living survivor of Little Big Horn other than the Indians. 

         Comanche was taken to Fort Lincoln, North Dakota on the U.S.S. Far West and cared for by Gustave Kern who would later die at Wounded Knee.  Comanche had seven scars – four to the back of his shoulder, one on each of his back hind legs, and another through a hoof.  General Samuel Sturgis, whose own son James was killed at Little Big Horn, wrote a three paragraph General Orders No. 7 detailing the care of Comanche.  He was never to be ridden again, never to work, to live in a comfortable stable fitted for him, and would be saddled, bridled, and draped in mourning with boots reversed and paraded at special events and on the anniversary of Little Big Horn.  Comanche would die at Fort Riley, Kansas on November 7, 1891 when he was around 29 years old.  He remains are now preserved and on display at the University of Kansas in Lawrence where he has 120,000 visitors a year.  He is one of only two horses to be buried with full military honors.  The other horse honored was Blackjack, the caparisoned, riderless horse of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment – the Old Guard, who took part in the funerals of President Hoover, Kennedy, Johnson, and hundreds of others at Arlington National Cemetery.

         Keogh seemed to have a keen sense of humor as evidenced by the pictures taken of him.  The group photo of him on the steps was taken on the front steps of Custer’s home at Fort Lincoln, North Dakota where Keogh sits on the front porch (left of Nellie Wadsworth, front middle, third from the right) holding a ladies fan in his hand.  Another photo of him with General Andrew Alexander has him tugging at Alexander’s beard.  There is another picture of him standing on the very edge of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee with a group of soldiers.  He also lent one of his Papal medals to one of the Wadsworth sisters who donned the uniforms of Tom Custer (George’s brother) and W.W. Cooke.  Emma and Nellie both had medals on in the picture with Tom Custer’s two Congressional Medals of Honor.  Myles loved the ladies but never married.

            Lt. Colonel Myles Walter Keogh was disinterred at Little Big Horn in 1877 and is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York between his two friends Generals Andrew Alexander and Emory Upton.  His wishes were to be buried in  Auburn as he spent many happy times with the Throop Martin and Alexander families at Willowbrook.  The inscription on his stone reads:  “Sleep Soldier!  Still in Honored Rest, Your Truth and Valor Wearing; The Bravest are Among the Tenderest!  The Loving are the Daring!” 

          When Keogh’s stone became discolored over the years, Brian Pohanka asked permission to clean it in 1989.  Brian also had his marker at Little Big Horn moved 65 feet after archaeological  digs found the base of Keogh’s original marker.  Keogh’s medals were said to be secured by Major Frederick Benteen after the battle and sent to his family in Ireland.  Keogh had taken out a $10,000 life insurance policy on his life in October, 1875.  The money was sent to his family in Ireland.  Along with Brian Pohanka’s interest in Myles Keogh, the late Gene Autry has several items belonging to Keogh in his Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles.  There is also a stained glass window dedicated to Keogh in St. Joseph’s Church in Tinryland, County Carlow, Ireland.  His family still lives at Clifden Castle which Myles gave to his sister Margaret.