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17
LETTERS OF COMMENDATION FROM PROMINENT MILITARY MEN
FROM AN OLD COMMANDER.
[COPY.]
5th Avenue Hotel, New York, June 29, 1887.

HON. WM F. CODY, London, England.
DEAR CODY:- In common with all your countrymen, I want to let you know that I am not only gratified, but proud of your management and general behavior; so far as I can make out you have ben modest, graceful and dignified in all you have done to illustrate the history of civilization on this Continent during the past century.

I am especially pleased with the graceful and pretty compliment paid you by the Princess of Wales, who rode in the Deadwood Coach while it was attacked by the Indians and rescued by the cow-boys. Such things did occur in our days, and may never again.

As near as I can estimate there were in 1865 about nine and a half millions of buffaloes on the plains between the Missouri River and the Rockey Mountains; all are now gone-killed for their meat, their skins and bones.

This seems like desecration, cruelty, and murder, yet they have been replaced by twice as many neat cattle. At that date there were about 165,000 Pawnees, Sioux, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes, who depended on these buffaloes for their yearly food. They, too, are gone, and have been replaced by twice or thrice as many white men and women, who have made the earth to blossom as the rose, and who can be counted, taxed, and governed by the laws of nature and civilization. This change has been salutary, and will go on to the end. You have caught one epoch of the world's history; have illustrated it in the very heart of the modern world- London, and I want you to feel that on this side of the water we appreciate it. This drama must end; days, years, and centuries follow fast, even the drama of civilization must have an end.

All I aim to accomplish on this sheet of paper is to assure y9ou that I fully recognzie your work and that the presence of the Queen, the beautiful Princess of Wales, the Prince and British public, are marks of favor which reflect back on America sparks of light which illuminate many a house and a cabin in the land where once you guided me honestly and faithfully in 1865-'6 from Fort Riley to Kearney in Kansas and Nebraska. Sincerely your friend,
W.T. SHERMAN.
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WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL's OFFICE,
To whom it may concern: WASHINGTON, AUGUST 10, 1886
Know Ye, that I, JOHN M. THAVER, Governer of the State of Nebraska, reposing special trust and confidence in the integrity, patriotism and ability of the HON. WILLIAM F. CODY, on behalf and in the name of the State, do hereby appoint and commission him as Aide-de-Camp of my Staff, witht the rank of Colonel, and do authorize and empower him to discharge the duties of such office according to law.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State.

GRAND SEAL OF THE Done at Lincoln this 8th day of March, A.D., 1897.
STATE OF NEBRASKA JOHN M. THAYER.
MARCH 1ST 1867. By the Governor,
G.L. LAUR, Secratary of State.
___________________
NEW YORK, December 25, 1886.

To COL. WM. F. CODY:- With the best compliments of one who, in 1866, was guided by him up the Republican, then occupied by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes as their ancestral hunting grounds, now transformed into farms and cattle-ranches, in better harmony with modern civilazation, and with his best wishes that he succeed in his honorable efforts to represent the scenes of that day to a generation then unborn. W.T. SHERMAN, General