63

Fought Until Killed.

On one occasion two scouts, Wheeler and
Moore, were sent with dispatches for Gen.
Sheridan. They made the trip to a point
near Fort Sill, I. T., in safety, and faithfully
delivered their papers. A package of official
documents was given them in return, with
orders to deliver the same to Col. McKeever
at Fort Hays. The papers never reached
their destination. Guided by Indians, a detachment
of soldiers found on Beaver Creek,
in the summer of 1869, a human
skull, pelvis, and other bones which
had been picked clean of flesh by the
wolves and coyotes. The Indians said that the
preceding year they had caught sight of the
scouts making their way northward through
the pan-handle portion of Texas, south of the
Adobe walls, on the Canadian, and surmised
that the couriers had purposely made a long
detour westward in order to avoid the region
the hostiles infested. The savages alleged
that they intercepted the two men near Beaver
Creek and first killed their horses. Thus
dismounted and more than a hudnred miles
from friendly aid moore and Wheeler were
killed after a resistance desperate enough to
impress the Cheyennes with respect for their
bravery.

Another of the scouts was a man named
Ransome, alias Ledford. He claimed to have
been captured by rebel forces during the war
while engaged as a spy. According to his
own story, Ransome was bound to the back
of a horse behind the leader of the guerrillas,
with a view of execution as soon as a camping
place was found. He had a small pistol hidden
below his arm-pit, and succeeded in
killing his captor and making his escape
in half-Mazeppa wise. Ledford was an apparently
frank, cheery, handsome fellow, of
splendid physical proportions, and a magnificent
shot. He owned a black horse, docile to
him, but a fiend incarnate to others. The
man was a great favorite with army officers
whom he often bantered for friendly shooting
matches, and was rarely beaten in contests of
skill in that line. He took more chances and
more often volunteered for dangerous service
than any other scout; was never derelict, but
was killed in 1872 at Witchita, Kas., by Lieut.
Hargous, an officer of the Fifth Infantry, who
was on duty with a posse aiding a Deputy
United States Sheriff named Bridges to arrest
him on a charge of horse stealing.
When arrested by Lieut. Hargous, Ledford
fired first at the army officer, who
dropped as if killed. Lieut. Hargous was not
hit, however. Ledford was maddened by
liquor and strode over the prostrate body of
the officer, firing at Jack Bridges as he advanced
and wounding him in the arm. The
scout then made a rush at a soldier who had
accompanied as a member of the posse, when
his further shooting was prevented by a bullet
through the heart. Like Hickok, the original
"Wild Bill," Ledford respected the army
[blue], and the affray in which he was killed was
the only occasion that he was ever known to
shoot at any person in the permanent military
establishment.

Ledford's Devil-Dare Bravery.

The winter before his death Ledford, then
in government service, accompanied a detachment
of the Third Infantry, acting as escort
for Maj. Rodney Smith, paymaster United
States Army, on a pay trip from Fort Dodge,
Kas., to Camp Supply, Indian Territory, and
return. The route for about 200 miles was
over a broken and undulating region so covered
with snow as to appear level. Thus a
ravine, snow-filled, appeared at a distance no
different from an elevation, snow covered.
There were no trees or bushes above the
dead level of the snow. Buffalo were
numerous and were often seen floundering
in a ravine, struggling to get away
from the soldiers. The soldiers were intent
only on making their way through the drifts
to their point of designation and could not afford
to lose time in shooting buffalo, but Ledford
would urge his horse up to and into the
herd, fire both revolvers in order to further
frighten the buffalo, and then throw himself
astride the nearest bull buffalo and stab him.
The steam from the animals, the snow swirls,
the whoops of the scout, the red gouts from