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Post by Diane Merkel on Sept 10, 2005 20:37:22 GMT -6
If you enjoy playing detective, you will love this! I received a phone call last week from the owner of a pair of silver candlesticks which are made from a pair of horse hooves. The owner was told that the candlesticks were made from Vic's hooves. On the front of each hoof is "VII," apparently in silver. There is a small rounded plaque on the top of the silver portion that says, "25th JUNE 1876." The owner obviously wants to determine if they are, in fact, Vic's hooves. In his book General Custer's Thoroughbreds, Larry Frost tells the story of Col. Homer Wheeler and Capt. John Bourke going to the Battlefield in 1877 and cutting the hooves off of Vic's skeleton. Capt. Bourke supposedly had his two hooves made into inkstands, one of which was donated to a Philadelphia museum, and Col. Wheeler stated that his were placed in a grain sack which was later lost or stolen. That story is retold by Evan Connell in Son of the Morning Star (pages 411-412), but there is at least one major problem with the story. The candlesticks' owner has contacted many museums throughout the country, including those in Philadelphia, and was told that there were no museums in Philadelphia at that time. There has been speculation that the inkstand may have been donated to the Centennial Exhibition, but the Exhibition closed in December 1876. The owner has given me permission to share the photos with you. If you have any additional information about this story or have any ideas how the candlesticks might be authenticated, please help us solve this mystery! Here they are:
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Post by jdmackintosh on Sept 11, 2005 5:53:45 GMT -6
Interesting photos and question. See Custer Battle Casualties II where Hardorff has Vic in the Survivors category. Burkman is quoted as saying that he never saw or heard of Vic being found there, that he did go to Custer Ridge. As you know, he is a great source on actually knowing this horse, since he cared for it.
Also there are a number of Indian accounts about them claiming Vic, recognizing him as belonging to the "Long Hair." As they couldn't and didn't recognize Custer, how could they know his horse? Anyway, it is interesting reading.
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Post by Scout on Sept 11, 2005 6:07:49 GMT -6
John,
Great story! But in G. Wagner's 'OLD NEUTRIMENT' Burkman says he was denied a request to go to the battlefield...'' A lot went over to bury the dead. I stayed on the hill and worked.''He laments about never seeing the General again.
If they are fakes, they are really exciting fakes! They could be from a horse believed to be Vic, but would someone have carried a saw with them to the battlefield? Don't know, but these could be the 'Holy Grail' of historic finds! Great story!
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Post by Scout on Sept 11, 2005 6:12:48 GMT -6
They were supposedly cut off in 1877, but the photos that Fouch took show the horse carcasses to be bleached white.....how would they have known, after a year of decay, which one was Vic?
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Post by elisabeth on Sept 11, 2005 7:37:40 GMT -6
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Post by elisabeth on Sept 11, 2005 7:57:44 GMT -6
Have just discovered that Bourke's diaries are on microfilm!!! -- at the Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis. So if anyone lives neat there AND has the patience of Job, there might be confirmation to be found in a diary entry. The abstracts, which mention everything the archivist thought specially interesting, don't make any mention of Custer, hooves, or candlesticks ... but maybe it didn't strike him/her as important? swcenter.fortlewis.edu/inventory/Bourke.htm
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Post by Diane Merkel on Sept 11, 2005 9:36:19 GMT -6
Thanks, All. I guess the true mystery here is what really happened to Vic? The owner is aware of the stories of Vic's survival, and they just add to the confusion. In addition to the problem of IDing Vic a year later, there's another thing that's been bothering me: If the hooves were lost or stolen from the back of a wagon, how would the person finding them know what they were?
Elisabeth, thanks as always for your research, and I'm sure the museum will be checked if it hasn't been already. I can't find Chuck's copy of Frost's book to see if Bourke's diary was the source of the story, but I'll ask Chuck to look for it today. You may be interested to know that the candlesticks were recently purchased from the UK!
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Post by Scout on Sept 11, 2005 13:10:40 GMT -6
If they are fakes somebody sure went to a lot of trouble, but I have to say it is one of the more imaginative fakes I've ever seen. Excellent point Diane, how would the person who stole them know what they were? Another mystery of the LBH...ain't it great!
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Post by Diane Merkel on Sept 12, 2005 17:31:17 GMT -6
I spoke with the owner this afternoon. More examinations have been made by silversmiths and museum curators, and all agree that the candlesticks are of the LBH period.
I'm wondering, since we may never know for sure if they are Vic's and someone obviously felt these important enough to spend the money to have them made, what other horse would have been so important to someone that they would have saved the hooves in such a manner? One of the Reno-Benteen survivors? A non-military man passing through shortly after the battle and taking the hooves for souvenirs? It's too bad he didn't supply more information on the plaque.
Hey, Scout, maybe Billy Heath really was a sole survivor!
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Post by elisabeth on Sept 13, 2005 0:28:45 GMT -6
Maybe a horse expert would be able to tell whether the hooves were those of a Kentucky thoroughbred or not? True that there might have been several of those on LSH (I'd assume Tom, for instance, shared GAC's taste in horses) but it might narrow down the possibilities ...
Myself, I share Scout's scepticism that, after a year of coyotes and the like messing about with the carcasses, there'd be much certainty as to which heap of scattered bones belonged to Vic. Assuming that he wasn't safe and well in Indian hands at the time!
As a footnote: in the British army, I believe, it was standard practice for the farrier to cut off one hoof from any killed horse, as a record. Indeed, the farriers of the Household Cavalry still carry axes as part of their ceremonial dress as a token of their duties. Not sure if the US Cavalry followed the same practice -- though I seem to remember reading somewhere that they did?
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Post by Lawtonka on Sept 13, 2005 10:23:37 GMT -6
This is pretty neat! I would be great to be able to prove they are indeed Vic's hooves, but, at any rate, to me it would be just as exciting to know they came from any one of the soldiers horses from that fatefull day.
I am no expert, but I do have a horse of my own and from my limited knowledge, I think there is some association with hoof color to horse color. For instance mots bays that I have seen have dark hooves while palimino and other lighter colored horses have light colored hooves. I don't know for hsure if this is exact in every case , but something to think aout.
At any rate, a spectacuar pair of candle stick holders!
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Post by ma dawg got et on Sept 16, 2005 3:14:57 GMT -6
well, allowing for years of use, the hooves could very likely at least be from a sorral. Sorrals have light colored, often straited, hooves.
alfuso
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Post by Diane Merkel on Sept 16, 2005 9:08:42 GMT -6
Elisabeth found the link below for an article that states the hooves of horses in the British cavalry were numbered. Does anyone know if that was also the practice for the US cavalry? Of course, then we'd have to hope that the hoof with the number was one that was made into a candlestick. www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/factsheets/makhist/makhist3_prog6d.shtml
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Post by schrack on Sept 16, 2005 21:43:41 GMT -6
This is absolutely fascinating and since I live near Philadelphia will try to see if the Phiadelphia Museum of Art or the Historical Society has anything on the Centenials of the period.
Doug
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Son of a Cavalryman
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Post by Son of a Cavalryman on Sept 17, 2005 21:20:45 GMT -6
If you dig a little deeper I think you will find narrative that indicates Vic was killed during the battle. The horse captured by a Santee Sioux warrior who claimed it belonged to "Long Hair" and subsequently rode the horse for the next twenty years, was not Vic. This horse was a powerful sorrel with four white stockings and a white or "bald" face. It belonged to a Company C officer.
SOACM
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