THIRTY HIRED ASSASSINS AND TWENTY REPRESENTATIVE STOCKMEN LEAVE
CHEYENNE TO MURDER, BURN AND DESTROY--THE FINAL PREPARATIONS AND THE
START--ARRIVAL AT CASPER AND DEPARTURE, MOUNTED, ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Monday and Tuesday, April 4th and 5th, 1892, will always be remembered
as red letter days in the criminal history of Cheyenne, the capital
city of Wyoming, the baby state of the American Union. Leading members
of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association were engaged on these two
days branding a bunch of seventy-odd, picked and highly fed horses with
the unrecorded or “Maverick” brand “A” on the left shoulder, loading
them in cars, and putting in other cars, saddles, harness, tents,
ammunition, giant powder, provisions, etc. Late in the afternoon of
the 5th a special train came in from Denver, Colorado, carrying the
southern contingent of hired murderers. Stopping for an hour in the
east end of the switching yards, the cars were then taken across the
Crow Creek bridge to the stockyards, where the stock and baggage cars,
already loaded, were attached, and at 6 o’clock the start was made
for Casper, two hundred miles to the northwest. The mob consisted of
somewhere between fifty and sixty men, divided about equally between
hired helpers from the South and Wyoming citizens. These latter were in
the proportion of about two stockmen to one hired man. Each person was
armed with a brace of pistols and a Winchester rifle.
The leaders were anxious for a start at their bloody work, Major
Walcott, in command, as a parting salute, saying to the railroad
superintendent, “Hurry up; put us at Casper and we will do the rest.”
The track was clear and a fast run was made to Casper, that point being
reached three or four hours before daylight the next morning. The train
was stopped at the stockyards, some distance outside of the town, and
before sunrise the wagons were loaded, the horsemen mounted, and the
cavalcade on the move across the open prairie, following the guides who
had been summoned to be in waiting.
Before reaching Casper a stop was made at the Fort Fetterman
stockyards, where Ed David, the general range manager for Senator
Carey, was taken aboard with two well-caparisoned saddle horses,
blankets, guns, etc. But there was heaps of trouble on young David’s
mind. He had promised, and was expected, to go on the raid. Serious
consideration of the matter, however, had caused him to reconsider and
cancel his engagement. Asked for his reason, he stated that as Carey’s
foreman, if he went on the trip, it would connect the United States
Senator directly with the invasion and destroy his future political
advancement, a thing not to be tolerated for a moment. There was a
good deal of back talk on the part of the commanding officers, but it
was finally agreed that David should give his horses and outfit to a
man who had been hired to cut the telegraph wires, this man joining
the band and David taking his place as the official wire-cutter of the
expedition. The hired man accompanied the gang and the telegraph wires
were cut--presumably by Ed David in accordance with his promise so to
do. (This information comes under oath, and is reliable.)
There was a little music on the train as it rolled away that will
probably never reach the ear of the public in its sweetest tones.
Several of our “best citizens” had pledged themselves to be of the
party, and had gone so far as to purchase their outfits, but as the
hour of departure drew near and the possibilities and realities of the
campaign presented themselves, the spotless “white feather” lured them
away from their professed allegiance to the cause, and they were--not
on the train. The discussion of why these bovine worshippers were not
present is reported as being more forcible than elegant, and yet withal
exceedingly musical in its rythmic changes.
Seven miles out the invaders camped for breakfast. The balance of that
day and the following were consumed in the march to Tisdale’s ranch,
forty-odd miles from Casper. Two or three men were met on the road and
forced to turn back and travel for hours. Then they were permitted to
go their way on a promise of secrecy as to having met any force of men.
Friends of the outfit at Casper and Douglas had been instructed to give
out the information, should the mob be discovered and suspicions be
aroused, that the passing men were a crowd of railroad surveyors going
to locate and hold a pass in the mountains. Major Walcott was supposed
to be in command of the forces, with Canton as captain of the Wyoming
men and Tom Smith over the Texans.
Just before reaching Tisdale’s ranch Mike Shonsy, foreman of the
Western Union Beef Company, rode up to the advancing column with the
information that there were rustlers in the neighboring ranch, and
after consultation among the leaders of the band that night, a change
of route and plan was agreed upon.