[1] However, two, or possibly three, of Keogh's siblings did die young, apparently from typhoid – a disease associated with the famine and an illness that Myles also suffered as a boy.

By 1860, a twenty-year-old Myles Keogh had volunteered, along with over one thousand of his countrymen, to rally to the defence of Pope Pius IX following a call to arms by the Catholic clergy in Ireland.

By August 1860, Keogh was appointed second lieutenant of his unit in the Battalion of St. Patrick, Papal Army under the command of General Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière.

After his quick release by exchange, Keogh went to Rome and was invited to wear the spirited green uniforms of the Company of St. Patrick as a member of the Vatican Guard.

During his service, the Holy See awarded him the Medaglia for gallantry – the Pro Petri Sede Medal – and also the Cross of a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great – Ordine di San Gregorio.

With civil war raging in America, Secretary of State William H. Seward began seeking experienced European officers to serve the Union, and called upon a number of prominent clerics to assist in his endeavour.

John Hughes, Archbishop of New York, travelled to Italy to recruit veterans of the Papal War, and met with Keogh and his comrades.

Thus in March 1862 Keogh resigned his commission in the Company of Saint Patrick, and with his senior officer – 30-year-old Daniel J. Keily of Waterford – returned briefly to Ireland, then boarded the steamer "Kangaroo" bound from Liverpool to New York, where the vessel arrived 2 April.

Through Secretary Seward's intervention, the three were given Captains' rank and on 15 April assigned to the staff of Irish-born Brigadier General James Shields, whose forces were about to confront the Confederate army of Stonewall Jackson.

After McClellan's removal from command in November 1862, the admirable traits identified in his first six months in the Union army came to the fore when he and his Papal comrade, Joseph O'Keeffe, were reassigned to General John Buford's staff.

His intelligent defensive troop alignments, coupled with the bravery and tenacity of his dismounted men, allowed the 1st Corps, under General John F. Reynolds, time to come up in support and thus maintain a Union foothold at strategically important positions.

Significantly, Myles Keogh received his first brevet for "gallant and meritorious services" during the battle and was promoted to the rank of major.

Keogh was held for 2½ months as a prisoner of war before being released through Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's efforts.

"Major Keogh is one of the most superior young officers in the army and is a universal favourite with all who know him"At the war's end, brevet Lt.

Colonel Keogh chose to remain on active duty and accepted a Regular Army commission as a second lieutenant in the 4th Cavalry on 4 May 1866.

When depressed he occasionally drank to excess, though he seems not to have fallen prey to the chronic alcoholism that destroyed the careers of many fellow officers of the frontier Regular Army.

[3]Keogh was also fond of the ladies, though he never married: My great weakness is the love I have for the fair sex, and pretty much all my trouble comes from or can be traced to that charming source.

[2] Captain Keogh's frustration with an enemy who did not fight in a conventional manner is evident from a comment he wrote in a personal letter to his family in Ireland: I have never before appreciated the difficulty of finding Indians, and have concluded that without knowing exactly where to surprise their camp, or having a guide who can track them at a run, it is a waste of horseflesh and time to endeavor to come up with them.

As a precaution, he purchased a $10,000 life insurance policy and wrote a letter of warning to his close friends in the Throop-Martin family, Auburn, New York, outlining his burial wishes: We leave Monday on an Indian expedition & if I ever return I will go on and see you all.

When the sun-blackened and dismembered dead were buried three days later, Keogh's body was found at the center of a group of troopers that included his two sergeants, company trumpeter and guidon bearer.

The slain officer was stripped but not mutilated, perhaps because of the "medicine" the Indians saw in the Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God") he wore on a chain about his neck or because "many of Sitting Bull's warriors" were Catholic.

The badly injured animal was found on the fatal battlefield, and nursed back to health as the 7th Cavalry's regimental mascot, which he remained until his death in 1890.

26 October: Promptly at 2pm the funeral procession moved from the St James Hotel, where the pallbearers had assembled, and marched in the following order: The Pall-Bearers; Auburn City Band; Military, Lt. Judge, commanding; Post Crocker, G.A.R.

Volunteers from the several Auburn organisations of the 49th NY Militia were formed into a company, charged with the duties of escort and firing party, according to military etiquette.

The grave was laid with evergreens and flowers, and at its head, the base of a handsome monument to be erected in memory of this dead soldier, was strewn with other floral tributes.

A dirge was then executed by the band, after which three volleys of musketry were fired by the military, and the procession marched from the cemetery in the same order as on its entry, the immediate friends remaining until the grave was closed.

At the base of decorative, white obelisk there is an inscription taken from the poem, The Song of the Camp by Bayard Taylor:[9] "Sleep soldier still in honored rest, Your truth and valor wearing; The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring."