Beschreibung:

This sentimental 2pp letter from the famous cavalry officer Myles Keogh to his sister Margaret was written at Fort Hays, KS, in 1869, according to postmarks on the cover. Fort Hayes served as the headquarters of the US 7th Cavalry during its 1868-1869 campaign against the Cheyenne and Kiowa tribes on the Great Plains. In the letter, Keogh reacts to the news that his uncle has died: I am glad he left what little there was to the family. I only wish it was ten times the sum.... I am sorry I could not see him again. He says that he can't wait to get a furlough to come home to Ireland and see the family. I did not think anything could interest me again, but I find myself castle building about my trip. Keogh had become melancholy after the war, greatly affected by his friend and mentor General John Buford dying in his arms in 1863, and his ordeals as a POW in 1864 - an experience he once described as nearly killing him. He closes the letter by promising to send home a photo of himself, which he says will be of him sitting with an Indian squaw. The letter is accompanied by a monogrammed cover postmarked Hays City Kan May 9 [1869], with subsequent New York, London, and Carlow postmarks. Myles Keogh was a famous Union cavalry officer who served under generals Shields, Buford, and Stoneman in the Civil War. Considered the most trusted of his aides by General Buford, Keogh was part of the Union cavalry vanguard that held off A.P. Hill's Confederates at Gettysburg until the Union infantry could arrive. Despite his heroics throughout the Civil War, Keogh is best remembered for leading Company "I" of the 7th Cavalry in its own "last stand" at Little Big Horn. His body was found in the center of small ring of his dead troopers, the bugler and standard bearer nearby. The victorious Sioux stripped his body, but did not mutilate it as they did the others, supposedly because of the Papal medal he wore around his neck that was given to him by Pope Pius IX for his bravery in the Papal War of 1860.