General George Crook - Indian Warfighter

Born 1828 and died 1890, General George Crook was considered the Army's greatest Indian fighter. It is by no coincidence that he maximized use of Indian Scouts, particularly members of the particular Indian Nation he was fighting.

General Crook earned his reputation as a relentless enemy of the Indians however personally he had a healthy respect for Indian culture and was in turn respected by the Indians.

Crook graduated from West Point in 1852 and spent the next several years in California and Oregon fighting Indians. It was here he first not only developed his expertise in irregular warfare but learned how to integrate scouts and local volunteers into his military campaign plans.

In 1861 the outbreak of the Civil War brought Crook back to the east where he participated in battles, most notably the Second Battle of Bull Run and Chickamauga. After the war, Crook was assigned back to the West and against Indian tribes again,....this time fighting the Paiute. Because of his successes, Crook was assigned to pacify the Arizona Territory where beginning in 1871 he fought Apache attempts to stay off designated reservations.

It is here in the Apache campaign that Crook's reputation soared, being relentless and successfully integrating Apache and White Scouts (notably Al Seiber and Tom Horn) into his hunts for Apaches renegades.  Crook became to be known by the Apache as "Gray Wolf" and for his honest treatment of the Apache during capture and negotiations.  Honest meaning honest like a horse because you knew what to expect from Crook.

 In 1875 General Crook was transferred to the Northern Plains first to protect and remove Gold miners who illegally entered the Black Hills to prospect and subsequently incurred Indian attacks by the Lakota (Sioux).

In 1876, he led one of several columns against Sitting Bull's Lakota and Cheyenne bands, however be forced to retreat at the Battle of Rosebud while Custer's 7th Cavalry unit was essentially wiped out.

In 1882 Crook again returned to Arizona to go after Chiricahua Apaches who had fled the reservation. This band was led by Geronimo, who conducted a very serious guerilla campaign against the white settlers.

In 1886, General Crook was replaced by General Nelson Miles, a man with little respect for the Apache or Indians for that matter. General Miles finally captured Geronimo and exiled him to an internment camp in Florida.

The campaign against Geronimo and the Chiricahua was Crook's last military campaign. He ended his career being an advocate for the Indian Nations and lobbying for fair treatment for his former enemies until he died in 1890.


 

Army Scout - John Colter

I was taken to task by Jumpin Johnny on the post about Army Scout Jim Bridger. Johnny wrote: “Jim Bridger was a consummate liar. The Yellowstone area was first discovered and explored by John Colter. It was known for many years as "Colter's Hell". Colter was intrigued by accounts of the area when the Lewis & Clarke expedition he was a member of in 1806 skirted the area to the north on their trip west. Colter returned immediately to investigate after the expedition returned to the St. Louis area in 1807. Jim Bridger is the only person to say he "discovered" Yellowstone ... and it was a lie that seems to persist today.”

Johnny you are right that John Colter first explored the Yellowstone in 1806 soon after he was released from his duties as a scout and hunter from the Lewis & Clarke expedition. From 1806 to 1812 (a six year time span) Colter went back and forth between the West and civilization in St Louis. He enlisted in the Army for the War of 1812, dying as a soldier from disease. John Colter is mostly well known for “Colter’s Run” where he was captured by Blackfeet, given a chance to run, and he was able to escape covering some 200 miles until he reached safety. Jim Bridger on the other hand spent over 40 years in the West, scouting, guiding, surveying and mapping not just for the Army but for gold miners, wagon trains, railroads and even the Pony Express, as short lived as it was.

I am not taking anything away from Colter. His escape from the Blackfeet is legendary. I had planned on writing a post about him as well. But I am prone not to judge historical features too closely as all we know of them is through the fog of time.

John Colter (1774?-1813) - An American trapper and guide, Colter was born in Augusta County , Virginia about 1774. Sometime around 1780, Colter's family moved to Kentucky near present-day Maysville. In 1803, Colter enlisted in the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a private and during the expedition, Colter was considered to be one of the best hunters and scouts in the group.

As the expedition was returning to St. Louis, Missouri in 1806, Colter met up with two trappers, Forest Hancock and Joseph Dickson, who were headed to the Yellowstone River. Colter was granted a discharge and join them heading into the Yellowstone country.

After this expedition Colter hired on to guide trappers from the Missouri Fur Company taking them into Big Horn River country. This expedition lead to the establishment of Fort Raymond on the Yellowstone River.

In October, 1807, Colter was sent out to linkup with Indian tribes in their winter encampments to negotiate Missouri Fur Company trapping and intent to trade with the Indians. Colter is thought to have traveled traveled by himself crossing the Wind River Mountains, the Teton Range, and was probably the first white man to see Jackson's Hole and Yellowstone Lake. About six months later, in 1808, Colter described this trip alerting other white men on the Yellowstone country and the hot springs.

Later in 1808, Colter joined another trapping expedition in Montana where he and another trapper named John Potts were wounded in a fight with Blackfoot warriors. About a year later another fight with Blackfeet resulted in Potts being killed and Colter captured. This was the start of colter's famous run where the Blackfeet stripped Colter and set him free so they could have sport chasing him.

Colter evaded the Indians, reportedly killing one Indian brave, successfully escaping and covering some 200 miles over the next 11 days until he made it back to Fort Raymond, albeit half dead.

History finds Colter guiding trappers again in 1810, surviving attacks from Blackfeet and probably Crow as well. Reportedly Colter provided much information to William Clarke for Clarke's development of maps.

Colter married and in 1812 enlisted in the Army during the War of 1812. He is known to have enlisted and fought under the name, Nathan Boone, and subsequently died from disease.

Here's where the Colter story takes a strange twist. Colter's wife, Sallie, receiving his body but unable to bury him for some reason, apparently kept his body in a cabin on their farm in Missouri where it remained until 1926 where his bones were found, linked to Colter by possessions with his name on it, and buried at a site over looking the Missouri River.

Army Scout - Frank North

Frank Joshua North, born in New York 1840, was better known as William (Buffalo Bill) Cody's partner in a cattle ranch in Nebraska and as a show manager with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show than he is an Army Scout. But Frank North has a relatively distinguished 10+ year career as an Army Scout and, in particular, Chief of Pawnee Scouts during some of the Plains Indian Wars, known for his mastery of the Pawnee language.


North began his service in 1860 as a clerk at the Pawnee Agency in Nebraska where he learned the Pawnee's language and provided services as an interpreter. Prior to 1860, North was reported to have ben a teamster for a number of years, transported goods between Army forts and towns.

In 1864 Frank North served as a guide for the Army and so impressed the Army with his knowledge of the Pawnees and their language that he was asked to raise a unit of Pawnee Scouts. So North entered military service as a Lieutenant of Scouts.

The next year, North was promoted to Captain and again asked to raise a unit of Pawnee Scouts. Most Indian Scouts in the day were mustered in and out based on campaigns and not under contract for a number of years like regular Army soldiers. North's Pawnees Scouts were involved with several successful battles mainly against Sioux and Cheyenne, and sometimes hostile Arapaho.

In 1867 North was commissioned a Major of Scout under General Auger and directed to guard the Union Pacific Railroad and it's workers, reportedly engaging in at least one major battle with the Cheyenne.

Major North and his Pawnee Scouts played an important role in the victory over Tall Bull and his warriors at Summit Springs, Colorado, in July, 1869. North is sometimes accredited with Tall Bull's death. Throughout the next couple of years North and his men were stationed at Fort Russell, Wyoming with the 3rd Cavalry.

During 1871 to 1872, North served a term in the Nebraska Legislature.

Frank North and his Scouts again served the Army, this time under General George Crook in the wars against the Sioux. Based out of Fort Laramie, Wyoming the North led Pawnee Scouts combined with the men led by General Mackenzie to defeat the Cheyenne at Powder River on 25th November, 1876, fives months after Custer's massacre.

The Pawnee Scouts were finally disbanded for good in May, 1877. North also left the army and joined up with William (Buffalo Bill) Cody and Frank's younger brother Luther North to buy a ranch on the Dismal River in Nebraska.

In 1883 Buffalo Bill persuaded North to join his Wild West Show. The following year he was badly hurt when he was thrown from and trampled by his horse during a show in Hartford, Connecticut. North subsequently dies in 1885, supposedly from conditions brought about by his horseback injuries.

Army Scout - Texas Jack Omohundro

"He was an expert trailer and scout. I soon recognized this and... secured his appointment in the United States service...In this capacity I learned to know him and to respect his bravery and ability. He was a whole-souled, brave, generous, good-hearted man...who was one of my dearest and most intimate friends.” --William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, 1910

John Baker Omohundro was born July 27, 1846 in Fluvanna County, Virginia where he grew up on horseback and was said to be a natural born hunter and crack shot, who loved adventure and danger.

When the war between the states broke out, Jack tried to follow his older brother into service but was denied until he reached 16 years of age. Finally accepted into the Confederate Army, Jack gained an exceptional reputation as a scout working directly under Col. J.E.B. Stuart's renowned Cavalry.

After the war, Jack worked his way west towards the great ranches in Texas, where he was eventually hired on at the Taylor Ranch becoming a foreman and being involved in local adventure where he and his famed ability with a rifle reportedly kept a kidnapping of a local woman from happening.

Omohundro participated in cattle drives on the famous Chisholm Trail where he saw the result on Indian attacks on small settlements and was involved in several Indian fights. Apparently it was as a Cowboy, driving cattle to Tennessee, where Jack received his nickname "Texas Jack".

On one of the cattle drives up North, Omohundro met Col. William F. Cody, a scout in the U.S. Army and more popularly known as "Buffalo Bill". Jack became good friends with Buffalo Bill, and Cody, admiring Jack's ability as a horseman, hunter and marksman, got him stay on as an Army Scout. Reportedly a special act had to be passed through political fiends of Buffalo Bill's to obtain a waiver for the ex-Confederate soldier to enlist as an Army Scout.

Omohundro was famous for learning Indian language and signs, was one of the few white men that Indians would trust. He became known to the Pawnee as "White Chief" who also called him "Whirling Rope" due to his ability with a lariat.
Incidentally, later on in life, Texas Jack taught a young man by the name of Will Rogers how to do tricks with the lariat.

Jack later joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show and toured the world giving insights to the Wild American West. Texas Jack Omohundro, War Veteran, Cowboy and Army Scout died in Leadville, Colorado, unexpectedly from pneumonia in 1880 cutting short a great life at the young age of 34 years old.

Army Scout - Billy Dixon

William "Billy" Dixon (September 25, 1850 – March 9, 1913) scouted the Texas Panhandle for the Army, hunted buffalo for the train companies, defended the Adobe Walls settlement against Indian attack with his legendary buffalo rifle, and was one of eight civilians in the history of the U.S. to receive the Medal of Honor.

Dixon was born in Ohio County, West Virginia on September 25, 1850 and was an orphan at age 12. He lived in Missouri until 1864. He worked in various capacities along the Missouri River until he started working as an mule skinner for the government.

He was a skilled marksman and occasionally scouted for Eastern excursionists brought by the railroads. In 1869, he joined a venture in hunting and trapping on the Saline River northwest of Fort Hays in Kansas.

He scouted Texas as far south as the Salt Fork of the Red River when the buffalo hunters moved into the Texas Panhandle in 1874. He and his group hunted along the Canadian River and its tributaries.

Dixon led the founders of Adobe Walls to the Texas Plains, where he knew buffalo were in abundance. The group of 28 men and one woman occupied the outpost of five buildings 15 miles northeast of Stinnett.

The outpost was attacked on June 27, 1874 by a band of 700 Indians, and that is when Dixon went into the history books for firing "The Shot of the Century."

The stand-off continued into a third day, when a group of Indians were noticed about a mile east of Adobe Walls. It is said that Dixon took aim with his Big 50 Sharps rifle and fired, knocking an Indian off his horse almost a mile away. The Indians then left the settlement alone. Commemorative "Billy Dixon" model reproduction Sharps rifles that supposedly recreate the specifications of Dixon's famous gun are still available today.

Billy Dixon quit buffalo hunting and, the following August, became an army scout. In September 1874, just three months after Adobe Walls, an army dispatch detail consisting of Billy Dixon, another scout Amos Chapman, and four troopers from the 6th Cavalry Regiment (United States) were surrounded and besieged by a large combined band of Kiowas and Comanches, in the Battle of Buffalo Wallow. They holed up in a buffalo wallow located in Hemphill County and, with accurate rifle fire, held off the Indians for an entire day. An extremely cold rainstorm that night discouraged the Indians, and they broke off the fight; every man in the detail was wounded and one trooper killed. For this action Billy Dixon, along with the other survivors of 'The Buffalo Wallow Fight', were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (for Gallantry in Battle). A Texas Historical Marker documents the battle site.

In 1883, Dixon returned to civilian life and built a home near the Adobe Walls site. He was postmaster there for 20 years and also was the first sheriff of Hutchinson County, Texas. He also served as state land commissioner and a justice of the peace.

In 1894, he married Olive King Dixon of Virginia and fathered seven children. They eventually moved to Oklahoma around 1906.

Dixon died from pneumonia at his Cimarron County homestead in 1913 and was buried in Texline. In 1929, his body was reinterred at Adobe Walls near where he stood when he first saw the Indians riding up the valley.

Army Scout - Tom Horn

Tom Horn, Army Scout, Range Detective but best known for a murder conviction and hanging, was born in 1860 in northeast Missouri. He reportedly left home as a young teen, heading west in search of adventure, because of an abusive father.

He eventually headed for the Southwest, where he became a wrangler and scout for the Army in the Apache wars working under famous Army Scout Al Sieber. Becoming Chief of Scouts under Generals Crook and Miles, he was instrumental in capturing Geronimo for the final time. Horn had a very good reputation as a Scout and tracker for the U.S. Cavalry.

After the Apache campaign Tom Horn became a “Stock Detective” hired primarily for his skills with a rifle against rustlers. He took part in the Pleasant Valley War in Arizona between cattlemen and sheepmen, but it is not known for certain as to which side he was allied, and both sides suffered several killings to which no known suspects were ever identified, however it is pretty well believed that Horn worked for the Cattlemen who were better funded and more politically connected. Plus Sheepmen were universally disliked in the West.

Horn was arrested, tried in a controversial trial and hanged the day before his 43rd birthday in 1903 for the murder of a young boy. A drunken omission of guilt, plus evidence that the boy’s body was found with Horn’s trademark,…a rock placed underneath the head, helped convict Tom Horn, who was never previously known to be an indiscriminate killer.

After his death a retrial was held in 1993 in which he was declared innocent. The New York Times described the trial, “Once Guilty, Now Innocent, But Still Dead.”

Tom Horn remains an enigma, but his service and reputation as an Army Scout was never questionable.

Army Scouts - Forsyth's Scouts and the Battle of Beecher's Island

A little known fight between 48 Army Scouts and 3 Army Officers, one of which was a Army Surgeon, against a mixed group of between 400 and 700 Cheyenne and Arapaho, and perhaps Sioux warriors, occurred 142 years ago today. This fight, called the defense of Beecher’s Island, took place near present day Wray (Yuma County), Colorado from 17 to 25 September 1868, near the "Dry Fork of the Republican River", sometimes called the "Delaware Creek" and also called the "Arikaree River".

Due to Indians attacks on the Railroad and wagon trains, General Phillip Sheridan, on August 24th, 1868, gave the order for the Army to organize 50 frontiersmen, to be used as Scouts against the hostile Indians. These Scouts were organized and placed under Brevet Colonel George A. Forsyth, with Lieutenant Beecher, Third Infantry, as his subordinate.

The Scouts were paid $50.00 per month with most of the scouts receiving an additional $25.00 per month for furnishing their own horse and saddle. Scout's carried the following individual equipment: Spencer repeating rifle or carbine with 140 rounds of rifle ammunition, Colt's Single Action Army revolver with 30 rounds of revolver ammunition, Blanket, Saddle and Bridle, Lariat, picket-pin, Canteen, Haversack, Seven days' cooked rations, Butcher knife, Tin plate and cup. Furthermore, the Scouting expedition was equipped with four pack mules carrying camp kettles, Picks and shovels (to dig for water), 4,000 rounds of rifle and revolver ammunition, Medical supplies, and, Extra rations of salt and coffee.

A total of 57 Scouts were hired, called Forsyth’s Scouts, from Fort Harker and Fort Hays, Kansas. A total of these 48 Army Scouts were present for the scouting expedition which culminated with the Beecher ’s Island fight.

Forsyth’s element, while on patrol attempting to locate Indians, encountered a large Indian force which forced them to occupy a defensive position on what came to be known as Beecher’s Island. Additional Indian forces converged to help in the attack. All of the Scouts animals were either killed or run off.

During the 8 or 9 day fight, a total of five Scouts were killed, another later dying of wounds received. Colonel Forsyth was wounded very badly. Lieutenant Beecher and Army Surgeon (Doctor) Moores were both killed as well. It is estimated that the combined Indian force suffered at least 70 dead and over 100 wounded. The successful defense was attributed to the rifle marksmanship skills of the Army Scouts.

A couple of Scouts snuck past the Indian’s surrounding the island and were successful in making their way to Fort Wallace for help, where a relief column that comprised of Company H of the famed 10th US Cavalry - Buffalo Soldiers - under Lt. Col. Carpenter arrive to relieve Col. Forsyth, led by eight other Forsyth Scouts who were previously detailed to another Scouting mission, plus nine Scouts of the 10th Cavalry.

Forsyth Scouts were formally disbanded on December 31, 1868.

Army Scouts - William "Wild Bill" Hickok

William “Wild Bill” Hickok was born in Illinois in 1837. His upbringing on the farm was attributed to his exceptional skills with firearms notably pistols. In 1855 when Hickok was 18 years old he moved to Kansas Territory where he joined General Lane ’s vigilante Free State Army.


In 1858 Hickok was elected as a constable in Monticello Township Kansas. In 1859 he joined the Russell, Waddell and Majors freight company called the Pony Express.

In 1861 he was involved in the McCanles Gang shootout where Hickok was accredited with a 75 yard off hand shot with a handgun killing David McCanles.

At the start of the Civil War in April 1861, at age 34, Hickok signed on as a Teamster and later became a Wagon Master for the Union Army in Missouri. Hickok was discharged in 1862 and does not resurface until late 1863 then as a member of the Springfield Missouri police. It is thought that during the missing year Hickok worked undercover scouting and spying in the South for the Union Army.

From 1864 to 1865 Hickok was hired as an Army Scout and worked for General John B. Sanborn. Then in 1865 Hickok had the famous long range, quick draw duel killing David Tutt, an ex-Confederate soldier.

Later on in 1865 Hickok is elected City Marshall of Springfield then appointed to the position of Deputy United States Marshal at Fort Riley Kansas, where he served occasional as a Scout for General George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry.

Hickok again in 1867 began scouting for the Army near Fort Harker and involved in several clashes with Indians.

In 1868, Hickok while serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Hays, Kansas scouted for the 10th Cavalry, the famous African-American Buffalo Soldiers, where he was wounded during a rescue of some ranchers hear Bijou Creek Basin . Hickok was also reported to have tracked down and recovered Army deserters. In 1869 Hickok was elected City Marshal of Hays and Sheriff of Ellis County, however there were some election irregularities and Hickok lost the Sheriff position. Hickok killed two men during in Hays further cementing his reputation as a gunfighter.

In 1870, also in Hays, Hickok was involved in a gunfight with disorderly soldiers from the 7th Cavalry, killing one and wounding the other.

In 1871 Hickok became Marshal of Abilene, Kansas where he met and befriended noted gunfighter John Wesley Hardin. Hickok killed Phil Coe in a gunfight with resulted in Hickok also accidentally killing his deputy Mike Williams.

In 1873, Hickok joined William “Buffalo Bill” Cody in the famous stage play “Scouts of the Plains” but eventually left before Buffalo Bill established his Wild West Show.

In 1876, Hickok was diagnosed with glaucoma and possibly other vision disorders. Later on this year he married Agnes Thatcher Lake , some 10 years his elder, in Cheyenne Wyoming . Martha Jane Cannary (Calamity Jane) was known to claim that she was married to Hickok but divorced him so he could marry Agnes Lake.

Wild Bill reportedly had a premonition that he would die in Deadwood, South Dakota . He was right; he would never leave Deadwood alive as on 2 August, 1876, just 5 weeks after the Custer Massacre, he was shot in the back of the head by John “Jack” McCall while he was playing poker in Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon. When he was shot, Hickok was holding 5 cards: a pair of Aces, a pair of eights, and an unknown 5th card – this has become widely known as the “Dead Man’s Hand”.

Army Scouts - Al Sieber

Albert Sieber was born in Germany on 29th February, 1844. His family emigrated to the United States and they settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Later they moved to Minnesota.

During the American Civil War Sieber joined the Union Army and as a member of the 1st Minnesota Infantry fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.
After the war Siebler he went to Nevada where he unsuccessfully searched for silver. He travelled to California and worked as a cowboy in San Bernardino. Sieber also managed the Williamson Valley ranch until joining General George Crook as a scout. By 1872 he was appointed chief of scouts and was placed in charge of 80 Hualapais.

In 1875 Sieber was one of those involved in escorting 1,500 Native Americans from Camp Verde Reservations to San Carlos, Arizona. In 1876 he helped move the Chiricahuas from their reservation in Arizona to San Carlos.

Sieber remained in the army and was chief scout to Major Tullius Tupper in the Sonora campaign. In 1882 Sieber took part in the fighting that took place at Big Dry Wash in Arizona.

In 1883 General George Crook appointed Sieber as chief scout on the Sierra Madre Expedition. On his return he was stationed at San Carlos. In 1887 Sieber was involved in a dispute with the Apache Kid. During the dispute someone (not the Apache Kid) shot Sieber in the leg. The Apache Kid escaped but later surrendered to the authorities.

After Major John Bullis sacked him as chief of scouts at San Carlos in December, 1890, Sieber became a prospector. He continued with this work until he was killed by a falling boulder in Arizona on 19th February, 1907. In the made for television movie “Geronimo”, Al Sieber was played by Robert Duvall. I imagine Al Sieber was much like how Robert Duvall portrayed him.

Great Old Pictures

Because of a number if reasons, maybe foremost my heritage, I love to look at old photographs of the West. I thought I would share these photos as they are classic examples of the old West, late 1800's time period, and also represent icons of that era: The Custer debacle which hastened the defeat of the plains Indian Nations, as well as influenced Indian policy for some time afterward; A view of a Lakota (Sioux) Indian encampment; a photograph of U.S. Army Calvary Scouts; and, a photograph that has come to represent of the American Cowboy.

Commanche - Sole Survivor of the Custer Massacre

Lakota Encampment

Captain Taylor and Army Scouts

The American Cowboy

Army Scouts - Custer's Scouts at the Little Big Horn

Last week was the 134th Anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand. I thought I would write about some of the Army Scouts, both Anglo and Indian, that supported Custer’s campaign

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known as Custer's Last Stand and by Native Americans as the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It occurred on June 25 and June 26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, near what is now Crow Agency, Montana. As most people know it was an overwhelming defeat for Custer, however it marked the end of the Native American Plains Nations, primarily the Sioux and Cheyenne ’s freedom of movement and life as they knew it.

Custer, as well as all other Army Commander’s employed Army Scouts, both Native Americans and Anglos to help scout, guide the columns, interpret and generally provide their expertise to facilitate movement and planning. Although Custer had an Army Officer as Chief of Scouts, effective control of the Scouts was under Mitch Bouyer and there was another Anglo with the Scouts named Lonesome Charlie Reynolds. Custer’s 7th Cavalry was reported to have 35 Native American Scouts from the Crow, Arikara (aka Ree) and Dakota tribes. Most notably among these Scouts were White Mans Runs Him, Hairy Moccasin, Goes Ahead and Curley.

Another well known Indian Scout was a mixed blood Hunkpapa Sioux - Arikara named Bloody Knife (shown to the left). After Custer split his command, Bloody Knife as well as two Crow Scouts, Half Yellow Face and White Swan, went with Major Reno. Bloody Knife was reportedly killed while on Horseback standing next to Major Reno.

What these Scouts are famous for was locating the giant concentration of Sioux and Cheyenne in the encampment on the Little Big Horn River, and telling Custer that because of the size encampment and number of horses (indicating warriors), Custer should not attack the camp. Custer decided to attack the camp without waiting for the approaching supporting columns of General Alfred Terry and Col John Gibbon’s 7th Infantry and 2nd Cavalry, General George Crook’s column of 3rd Cavalry and some 2nd Cavalry companies as well as elements of the 4th and 9th Infantry. When informed of this decision, the Crow Scouts knew they faced their death that morning. They changed from their mixed Anglo-Indian garb to Native American dress, not in order to pass as Indians, but to go to the afterlife as Warriors and not Army Scouts.

Indispensable to Army operations, Army Scouts continued to serve through the Indian Wars and well into the future.

Army Scouts - William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody

In a life that that is hard to separate fact or friction from, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody came to embody the face and spirit of the West for millions. Enduring today as a National Legend and perhaps the most famous Army Scout.

Born in Iowa, in 1846, Cody grew up on the prairie. When his father died in 1857, his mother moved to Kansas, where Cody worked for a wagon-freight company as a mounted messenger and horse wrangler. In 1859, he became a prospector in the Pikes Peak gold rush, and the next year, joined the Pony Express, which had advertised for "skinny, expert riders, preferably orphans, willing to risk death daily." Already a seasoned plainsman at age 14, Cody fit the bill.

During the Civil War, Cody served first as a Union scout in campaigns against the Kiowa and Comanche, then in 1863 he enlisted with the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, which saw action in Missouri and Tennessee . After the war, he married Louisa Frederici in St. Louis and continued to work for the Army as a scout and dispatch carrier, operating out of Fort Ellsworth, Kansas.

Finally, in 1867, Cody took up the trade that gave him his nickname, hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. By his own count, he killed 4,280 head of buffalo in seventeen months. He is supposed to have won the name "Buffalo Bill" in an eight-hour shooting match with a hunter named William Comstock, presumably to determine which of the two Buffalo Bill’s deserved the title.

Beginning in 1868, Cody returned to his work for the Army. He was chief of scouts for the Fifth Cavalry and took part in 16 battles, including the Cheyenne defeat at Summit Springs , Colorado , in 1869. For his service over these years, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872, although this award was revoked in 1916 on the grounds that Cody was not a regular member of the armed forces at the time. (The award was restored posthumously in 1989).

All the while Cody was earning a reputation for skill and bravery in real life, he was also becoming a national folk hero, thanks to his exploits articulated in the dime novels of Ned Buntline.

In 1872 Buntline persuaded Cody to assume this role on stage by starring in his play, The Scouts of the Plains, and though Cody was never a polished actor, he proved a natural showman. Despite a falling out with Buntline, Cody remained an actor for eleven seasons, and became an author as well, producing the first edition of his autobiography in 1879 and publishing a number of his own Buffalo Bill dime novels.

Between theater seasons, Cody regularly escorted rich Easterners and European nobility on Western hunting expeditions, and in 1876 he was called back to service as an army scout in the campaign that followed Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn.

On this occasion, Cody added a new chapter to his legend in a "duel" with the Cheyenne chief Yellow Hair, whom he supposedly first shot with a rifle, then stabbed in the heart and finally scalped "in about five seconds," according to his own account. Others described the encounter as hand-to-hand combat, and misreported the chief’s name as Yellow Hand. Still others said that Cody merely lifted the chief’s scalp after he had died in battle. Whatever actually occurred, Cody characteristically had the event embroidered into a melodrama--Buffalo Bill's First Scalp for Custer--for the fall theater season.

Cody’s own theatrical genius revealed itself in 1883, when he organized Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, an outdoor extravaganza that dramatized some of the most picturesque elements of frontier life: a buffalo hunt with real buffalos, an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage with real Indians, a Pony Express ride, and at the climax, a tableau presentation of Custer’s Last Stand in which some Lakota who had actually fought in the battle played a part. Half circus and half history lesson, mixing sentimentality with sensationalism, the show proved an enormous success, touring the country for three decades and playing to enthusiastic crowds across Europe.

In later years Buffalo Bill’s Wild West would star the sharpshooter Annie Oakley, the first "King of the Cowboys," Buck Taylor, and for one season, "the slayer of General Custer," Chief Sitting Bull. Cody even added an international flavor by assembling a "Congress of Rough Riders of the World" that included cossacks, lancers and other Old World cavalrymen along with the vaqueros, cowboys and Indians of the American West.

Though he was by this time almost wholly absorbed in his celebrity existence as Buffalo Bill, Cody still had a real-life reputation in the West, and in 1890 he was called back by the army once more during the Indian uprisings associated with the Ghost Dance. He came with some Indians from his troupe who proved effective peacemakers, and even traveled to Wounded Knee after the massacre to help restore order.

Cody made a fortune from his show business success and lost it to mismanagement and a weakness for dubious investment schemes. In the end, even the Wild West show itself was lost to creditors. Cody died on January 10, 1917, and is buried in a tomb blasted from solid rock at the summit of Lookout Mountain near Denver, Colorado.

Army Scouts - Yellowstone Kelly

Famous Army Scout Yellowstone Kelly was born Luther S. Kelly in 1849 in New York. Kelly served very late in the Civil War, finishing up his Army enlistment in the West where he served in the Montana area around the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone River Valley.

He became an Army Scout and earned his nickname “Yellowstone” through scouting for the Army on the Yellowstone River in the 1870’ sand 1880’s, as well as hunting, trapping and guiding.

Yellowstone Kelly served as a Chief of Scouts for General Nelson Miles from 1876 to 1878 where served participated and scouted for the Tongue River and Wolf Mountain battles. He also scouted for the Army during their chase down of the Nez Perce.

Kelly later served as a guide to several expeditions into Alaska as well as serving as an Army Captain in the U.S. Volunteers in the Philippines Insurrection. He later became an Indian agent at the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona.

Yellowstone Kelly moved to California dying in 1928. At his request he was buried near Billings, Montana part of the land he scouted early in his career and became so fond of.

Army Scouts - Kit Carson

Christopher "Kit" Carson was born December 1809 in Kentucky.

At 16, Carson took a job as a “mule skinner” taking care of horses, mules and oxen on a wagon train heading from Missouri to New Mexico. He stayed in New Mexico becoming a fur trapper and Mountain Man working and living with Indians where he was reported to become fluent in several languages among them Navajo, Apache, Cheyenne, Arapaho as well as Spanish.


After moving back to Missouri in 1842 Carson met General John Fremont and signed on to scout and guide his successful expedition to find a pass through the Ricky Mountains.

Following that a year later Kit Carson scouted and guided an expedition from the Great Salt Lake into Oregon . This expedition became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where Caron was accredited with saving the expedition through his wilderness skills accumulated through his years as a Mountain Man.

In 1846 Carson scouted for and guided General Kearney’s troops during the Mexican-American War. His exploits scouting and guiding troops from California to New Mexico and back further heightened Carson ’s reputation.

During the American Civil War, Kit Carson organized the New Mexico volunteer infantry for the Union. During the Navajos uprising at the beginning of the Civil War, then Colonel Carson was tasked with settling the uprising. He accomplished much of his mission through a rather humane method of economic warfare destroying crops and livestock, rather then decimating the Navajo population. He succeeded in forcing the Navajos back to reservation by 1864.

In 1864, Carson was again sent to quell an Indian uprising, this time in West Texas against the Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne which resulted in the famous Battle of Adobe Walls where Carson inflicted heavy losses on the attacking warriors.

Shortly afterward Colonel John Chivington led a massacre at Sand Creek where he boasted that he was a batter Indian killer than Carson . Carson was enraged at the massacre and openly denounced Chivington.

After the Civil War, Carson took up ranching but remained an advocate for the Indian, escorting Ute Chiefs to Washington D.C. to meet President Johnson seeking additional government redress.

Carson died in Colorado in May 1868 at age 58, one month after his wife passed away from complications during childbirth. He is buried in Taos, New Mexico.

Army Scouts – Jim Bridger

Beginning with this post, I am going to do a series on Army Scouts of the Old West. I am interested in this as I am a former Army Range Rider; my Grandfather was in the U.S. Cavalry from 1878 to 1880; and, my Uncle was in the U.S. Cavalry in 1913 through 1917. These Army Scouts had to be good Horsemen as they often rode alone in very dangerous country trusting their lives by relying on their skills and their horses.

Born in March 1804 in Virginia, Jim Bridger had several successful careers one of which was that of an Army Scout overshadowed by his exploits as an explorer, fur trapper and Mountain Man.

Bridger was credited with numerous accomplishments enabled by his courage to explore the untamed West on horseback. He was the first to discover the Great Salt Lake in 1824 as well as the steam geysers in what we now know as Yellowstone National Park.

He first explored the West in 1822 at the age of 18, trapping beaver before he ventured further West. He established Fort Bridger on the Green River in then Wyoming Territory where he based an operation to guide prospectors to the Gold fields in Montana and surveyed stage routes to the West.

He eventually scouted and guided General Dodge establishing route for freight wagons, stage coach lines and for what would become the Overland route, Pony Express routes and eventually railroad lines for the Union Pacific.

In 1867 due to failing eyesight, Jim Bridger left the West and returned to Missouri where he died in July 1881.