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| 05 - Robert Huntington and "Old Tom" |
photographer unknown
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Acquisition Number:
Medium: Photograph
Robert W. Huntington Collection,
Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Huntington (1840-1917) sits astride Old Tom, the horse he rode up San Juan Hill, Cuba, in 1898. Huntington left college in 1861 to serve as a Marine during the Civil War and retired as a colonel 38 years later. Old Tom became a military mount in 1894, assigned to the Portsmouth Navy Yard, New Hampshire. After his return from Cuba, Huntington rode his horse in a parade in Portsmouth, where the local paper declared Old Tom to be a “magnificent, valuable, and intelligent animal.” He was retired in 1928, after which Marines at the Yard continued to care for him until his death in 1933. He is buried behind the Marine Barracks.
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