<h2 class="vspace"><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XVIII.<br/> <span class="subhead">SCOUT, GUIDE, AND INDIAN FIGHTER.</span></h2>
<p>After the great buffalo-killing match the name of Buffalo
Bill became familiar all over the country, and his exploits
were topics people never grew tired of discussing. All his
great battles with the Indians, valuable services as a scout,
and hairbreadth escapes were told and retold, not only at
the fireside, but around the camp-fires.</p>
<p>In the spring of 1868 a violent Indian war broke out in
Kansas, and General Sheridan, in order to be on the field, made
his headquarters at Hays City. Sending for Buffalo Bill General
Sheridan appointed him chief of scouts. From that
time on Buffalo Bill acted as scout and guide in all the
principal military operations upon that part of the frontier.</p>
<p>He was also appointed chief of scouts for the Fifth Cavalry
to proceed against the Dog Soldier Indians. The campaigns
of the Fifth Cavalry are matters of history, as are also the
services of Buffalo Bill, the letters of the commanding officers
speaking for themselves.</p>
<p>During his services as scout he served directly under
General Forsyth, Colonel Royall, Gen. E. A. Carr, General
Hazen, General Penrose, and others.</p>
<p>These officers, who had won fame upon the battle-fields of
the Civil War, many of them wearing the stars of a general,
found themselves ordered to the far frontier—when the South
had given up the struggle—to oppose the Indians, who were
making desperate efforts to kill off their pale-face foes.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</SPAN></span></p>
<div id="ip_152" class="figcenter" style="width: 371px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_152.jpg" width-obs="371" height-obs="581" alt="" />
<div class="caption">BUFFALO BILL AS A SCOUT.</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</SPAN></span>
The truth was that the Indians regarded the Civil War
with feelings of delight, and as a blessing to them, as they
supposed that one side would utterly wipe out the other side,
and their victors being weakened by the struggle the redskins
could consolidate their forces, and attacking the remaining
whites drive them off the face of the earth.</p>
<p>They certainly made a bold effort to do so, and in the war
that followed the general officers were glad indeed to have
the services of Buffalo Bill as scout, guide, and Indian fighter.</p>
<p>In all the operations of the army upon the frontier Buffalo
Bill’s identity with them was such that to recount his valuable
services would be only to go over the pages of history.
The stories of his adventures, scouting expeditions, hunting
down desperadoes as a Government officer, and guiding of the
armies through trackless wildernesses have been told and
retold until every school-boy is familiar with them, and the
name of no one man is better known than that of Buffalo Bill.</p>
<p>Early in September of 1871 a grand hunt was projected
by General Sheridan for the purpose of giving a number of
prominent gentlemen a buffalo-hunt. James Gordon Bennett
of the New York <i>Herald</i>, Gen. Anson Stager of the Western
Union Telegraph, Lawrence R. and Leonard W. Jerome, and
Generals Davis, Fitzhughes, and Rucker, with Sergeant-General
Arsch, Carrol Livingston, and others, formed the party.
Immediately upon their arrival at Fort McPherson General
Sheridan sent for Buffalo Bill, introducing him with flattering
remarks to each one of the hunting-party and telling him
that he was to be their special guide and scout. The party
hunted over a large extent of territory, killing many buffaloes,
turkeys, jack-rabbits, and antelopes, and greatly enjoyed their
visit to the plains.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</SPAN></span>
In 1872 Buffalo Bill was visited by General Forsyth, who
arranged with him a grand buffalo-hunt for the Duke Alexis,
who was then visiting this country. Buffalo Bill at once
conceived the idea of engaging a large number of Indians to
join in the hunt, to make the affair a more pleasurable one
for the grand duke. On the day of the hunt Buffalo Bill
loaned the grand duke his splendid buffalo horse Buckskin
Joe, and riding by his side instructed him in the manner
of shooting buffaloes.</p>
<p>That night in camp numbers of glasses of champagne were
disposed of in drinking to the great success of the Grand Duke
Alexis as a buffalo-hunter. It was soon after the Alexis hunt
that Buffalo Bill received an invitation from James Gordon
Bennett, August Belmont, and others of equal prominence to
visit the East. At the earnest solicitation of General Sheridan
Bill accepted the invitation, and thus it was that he entered
upon the life so different from that in which he had passed
his earlier years.</p>
<p>Attending the theater one night to see a frontier play
bearing his own name—J. B. Studley taking the character of
Buffalo Bill—he conceived the idea of going upon the stage
and playing himself, and thus it was that he became an
actor, winning fame and fortune through his enterprises.
Having introduced upon the stage Indians as actors, Buffalo
Bill decided upon reproducing in miniature scenes in wild life
upon the frontier, and from this sprung the Wild West, the
greatest exhibition ever known.</p>
<div id="ip_154" class="figcenter" style="width: 364px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_155.jpg" width-obs="364" height-obs="611" alt="" />
<div class="caption">GENERAL MILES AND BUFFALO BILL VIEWING THE HOSTILES’ VILLAGE IN THE
LAST INDIAN WAR.</div>
</div>
<p>During his life as an actor and his career as the head of
the Wild West exhibition Buffalo Bill obeyed every call to the
frontier whenever there was any trouble among the Indians, and
at once resumed his duties as scout, guide, and Indian fighter,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</SPAN></span>
winning added laurels thereby and conclusively proving that
through his life in cities his heart, brain, and hand had not
lost their cunning or courage and the nobility of his nature
had not suffered through contact with the world, nor had he
been spoiled by applause and praise.</p>
<p>After the massacre of Custer’s band there was great
activity in military movements in the Northwest, and as chief
of scouts under Merritt, Crook, and other generals Buffalo
Bill’s career was a most brilliant one. During the last Indian
campaign Buffalo Bill’s valuable services were publicly recognized
by Gen. Nelson A. Miles, one of our greatest Indian
fighters, and who so quickly crushed the Indians in their late
rising, when Sitting Bull lost his life.</p>
<p>Buffalo Bill is one of the few famous scouts who has justly
won the renown which encircles his name. His exploits
have been so numerous, involving a display of such extraordinary
daring and magnificent nerve, that language can not
exaggerate them. General Sheridan often asserted that
Buffalo Bill had “slain as many Indians as any white man
that ever lived.” It would be no credit to this daring scout
if these Indians had fallen without justification; but since
they were the victims of legitimate warfare and were slain in
the performance of a sworn duty, Buffalo Bill may properly
wear the laurels and deserve the plaudits of civilization—whose
effective instrument he has been—for the friendship
he has displayed for the red man in times of peace.</p>
<p>As the noted scout is revealing to the eyes of the whole
world the scenes in which he has been a participant, there are
few indeed who do not care to see the Wild West in miniature
as he portrays it with the aid of his Indians and cowboys,
and give him praise for his phenomenal success. Having<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</SPAN></span>
produced the Wild West in all the large cities of America,
Buffalo Bill decided, so to speak, to “carry the war into
Africa,” and the result was that with his partner, Mr. Nate
Salisbury, an actor of renown, he invaded first the English
capital, then the other capitals of Europe, his enterprise everywhere
winning the plaudits of royalty, the press, and the
public.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</SPAN></span></p>
<div id="ip_158" class="figcenter" style="width: 544px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_158.jpg" width-obs="544" height-obs="280" alt="" />
<div class="caption">AFTER THE BATTLE.</div>
</div>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</SPAN></span></p>
</div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.