SCOUT, GUIDE, AND INDIAN FIGHTER.
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.
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.
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.
During his services as scout he served directly under General Forsyth,
Colonel Royall, Gen. E. A. Carr, General Hazen, General Penrose, and
others.
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.
[Illustration: BUFFALO BILL AS A SCOUT.]
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.
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.
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.
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 _Herald_,
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.
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.
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.
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.
[Illustration: GENERAL MILES AND BUFFALO BILL VIEWING THE HOSTILES’
VILLAGE IN THE LAST INDIAN WAR.]
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, 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
[Illustration: AFTER THE BATTLE.]