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MYLES W. KEOGH Autograph Letter Signed

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Autographs

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Myles Keogh Civil War Dated Field Letter to His Mother

MYLES W. KEOGH, American Military Officer, Captain in the 7th Cavalry, Killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, along with George Armstrong Custer.
September 17, 1860, Autograph Letter Signed, "Myles" in brown ink, [Italy, in the field], on 2.5" x 6.5" piece of paper, Very Fine. Written to his mother. In part: "My dearest Mother, We expect to have an engagement every day. Our 450 men with 200 others & 2 pieces of cannon made a reconnaissance on Saturday eve. We saw the enemy who keep his outposts within five miles of this [?] …expect an engagement tomorrow. Do not fear for me dearest Mother. I am prepared. Myles".
Rough bottom edge, else very fine. In March 1860, Pope Pius IX called upon the young men of Ireland to help preserve the sovereignty of the Papal States, which were threatened with annexation by the armies of Piedmont-Sardinia. Keogh was among the 1,400 Irishmen who traveled to Italy, and in July was appointed lieutenant in a four-company battalion garrisoned in the Adriatic port city of Ancona. On September 18, 1860 the main body of the 18,000-man Papal Army was defeated in the battle of Castelfidardo, and the Papal defenders finally surrendered on September 29. Following a brief incarceration in Genoa, Keogh and 45 Irish comrades were finally freed. Fine content, rare!

Myles Walter Keogh (1840-1876) was an Irish soldier who was also an American Civil War military officer and later a member of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment during the Indian Wars of the 1870s. He was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

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