The debacle at Little Big Horn shocked the nation on the eve of its Centennial celebration. Shock turned to revulsion when the press reported that all but two of the bodies of the slain cavalrymen had been stripped and horribly mutilated. The two exceptions were Custer, whom the Indians feared and admired, and an Irishman, Capt. Myles W. Keough.
Keough was born in County Carlow on March 25, 1840. The Keoughs were wealthy Catholic landowners whose resources enabled them to survive the Famine. Eager for adventure, Keough, after graduating from St. Patrick’s College, went to Africa to find work as a mercenary soldier. But when he learned of Pope Pius X’s call for volunteers to defend the papal states against revolutionaries bent on creating a unified Italy, he headed for Rome. Made a lieutenant in the Battalion of St. Patrick, he distinguished himself in several battlese. Despite the defeat of the papal army, the pope awarded him the Medaglia di Pro Petri Sede (Medal for the See of St. Peter). He wore it proudly for the rest of his life.
By now the American Civil War had begun, so Keough joined the Union army. His experience, limited as it was, exceeded that of many officers in the Union forces and earned him a position as a staff officer in the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee. Over the next four years he saw action in scores of battles and earned a reputation as a fearless warrior.
Like many Civil War veterans, Keough remained in the military after the war by signing on for service in the American West. The army was now engaged in a major offensive to pacify Indian tribes that resisted efforts to remove them from tribal lands and force them onto reservations. The westward migration of white settlers brought increased conflict with Native American tribes that believed they had a right to the lands where they had lived for generations. Native Americans lacked the firepower and unity to withstand the army, but nonetheless put up fierce resistance.
Keough was hardly the only Irishman on the western frontier. With hundreds of thousands of Irish-born and Irish Americans having served in the Union Army, it was only natural that many of the soldiers who headed west were of Irish lineage. In the Seventh Cavalry, for example, 21 percent (128 of 600) of the men were Irish-born. Irish Americans likely comprised another 10-20 percent.
Accounts vary as to Keough’s reputation as an officer. Several contemporaries recorded favorable impressions of him and said he enjoyed the respect of the men he commanded. Others, however, speak of him as a harsh disciplinarian and an alcoholic who, like Custer, had a weakness for flashy dress and women. All seem to agree that he was a brave and capable officer in the field. Custer certainly thought so and placed him in charge of the Seventh’s Company I.
The road to Little Big Horn began in 1874 when prospectors (acting illegally) discovered gold in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. Only six years earlier the Ft. Laramie Treaty (negotiated by a fair-minded Irishman named Thomas Fitzpatrick) had granted this land to the Sioux and Cheyenne and prohibited white settlement. But news of gold brought thousands of white fortune seekers into the territory and hostilities soon erupted. The U.S. government reneged on its promise to prevent white incursion and demanded the tribes renegotiate the treaty to allow it. When the Indians refused and continued to defend their lands, the government dispatched a force under Gen. Alfred Terry that included the Seventh Cavalry.
The army eventually closed in on a large band of Indian warriors near the Little Big Horn river. The Seventh made first contact on the morning of June 25, 1876. Custer, eager to earn glory, decided to attack before the rest of the army (and other officers who might overshadow him) arrived. He believed there were only a few hundred Indian warriors when in fact the number was as high as 4,000. He divided his force into thirds and ordered an attack. It quickly disintegrated in the face of superior numbers and several tactical blunders. Within an hour more than 200 men of the Seventh lay dead (more would die the next day as remnants of the Seventh fought their way to safety).
The precise reason why Keough was spared the mutilations that followed will forever remain a mystery. The Sioux apparently mutilated enemy fighters in the belief that it prevented the dead from entering heaven. Many believe the Sioux were awed by Keough’s large papal medal and decided to pass him over rather than risk angering his god. This theory is supported by the fact that the Indians did not kill or take Keough’s prized horse, Commanche, who remained tethered to his rider’s body. Commanche, incidentally, became a sort of folk hero.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
June 26, 1970: MP Bernadette Devlin is arrested for her activities on behalf of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.
June 28, 1922: The Free State Army launches an attack against the anti-Treaty forces at Four Courts in Dublin, starting the Irish Civil War.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
June 25, 1870: Nationalist Erskine Childers is born in London.
June 27, 1846: Home Rule movement leader Charles Stewart Parnell is born in Avondale, Co. Wicklow.
June 28, 1844: Nationalist and poet John Boyle O’Reilly is born in Drogheda, Co. Louth.