49

47

was in, manfully came to the rescue, and proposed to make the trip to Dodge, though he had just finished his long and perilous ride from Larned. I gratefully accepted his offer, and after short rest, he mounted a fresh horse and hastened on his journey, halting but once to rest on the way, and then only for an hour, the stop being made at Coon Creek; where he got another mount from a troop of cavalry. At Dodge he took some sleep, and then contineud on his own post --Fort Larned--with more dispatches. After resting at Larned, he was again in the saddle with tidings for me at Fort Hays, General Hazen sending him, this time, with word that the villages had fled to the south of the Arkansas. Thus, in all, Cody rode about 350 miles in less than sixty hours, and such an exhibition of endurance and courage at that time of the year, and in such weather, was more than enough to convince me that his services would be extremely valuable in the campaign, so I retained him at Fort Hays till the battalion of the Fifth Cavalry arrived, and then made him CHIEF OF SCOUTS."

Read through the fascinating book, "Campaigning with Crook (Major General George Crook, U. S. A.), and Stories of Army Life," due to the graphic and soldierly pen of Captain Charles King, of the U. S. Army: published only last year (1890).

Incidentally the author refers in various pages to COL. CODY as Scout, etc., and testifies to the general esteem and affection in which "BUFFALO BILL" is held by the army.

The subjoined extracts from the book will give our readers an excellent idea of the military scout's calling and its dangers:

"By Jove! General," says "BUFFALO BILL," sliding backward down the hill, "now's our chance. Let our party mount here out of sight, and we'll cut those fellows off. Come down every other man of you."

Glancing behind me, I see CODY, TAIT and "CHIPS," with five cavalrymen, eagerly bending forward in their saddles, grasping carbine and rife, every eye bent upon me, watching for the signal. Not a man but myself knows how near they are. That's right, close in, you beggars! Ten seconds more and you are on them! A hundred and twenty-five yards--a hundred--ninety--"Now, lads; in with you."

There's a rush, a wild ringing cheer: then bang, bang, bang! and in a cloud of dust, CODY and his men tumble in among them, "BUFFALO BILL" closing on a superbly accoutred warrior. It is the work of a minute; the Indian has fired and missed. CODY'S bullet tears through the rider's leg into the pony's heart, and they tumble in a confused heap on the prairie. The Cheyenne struggles to his feet for another shot, but CODY'S second bullet hits the mark. It is now close quarters, knife to knife. After a hand to hand struggle, CODY wins, and the young chief "YELLOW HAND," drops lifeless in his tracks after a hot fight. Baffled and astounded, for once in a lifetime beaten at their own game, their project of joining "SITTING BULL" nipped in the bud, they take hurried flight. But our chief is satisfied--"BUFFALO BILL" is radiant: his are the honors of the day.
From Page 35.

"BUFFALO BILL" and "BUFFALO CHIPS."--From Page 111.

In all these years of campaigning, the Fifth Cavalry has had varied and interesting experience with a class of men of whom much has been written, and whose names, to readers of the dime novel and the New York Weekly style of literature, were familiar as household words: I mean the "Scouts of the Prairie," as they have been christened. Many thousands of our citizens have been to see "BUFFALO BILL'S" thrilling representations of the scenes of his life of adventure. To such he needs no introduction, and throughout our cavalry he is better known than any general except Miles or Crook.

A motley set they are as a class--these scouts: hard riding, hard swearing, hard drinking ordinarily, and not all were of unimpeachable veracity. But there was never a word of doubt or question in the Fifth when "BUFFALO BILL" came up for discussion. He was chief of scouts in Kansas and Nebraska in the campaign of 1868-69, when the hostiles were so completely used up by General Carr. He remained with us as chief scout until the regiment was ordered to Arizona to take its turn at the Apaches in 1871. Five years the regiment was kept among the rocks and deserts of that marvelous land of cactus and centipede: but when we came homeward across the continent and were ordered up to Cheyenne to take a hand in the Sioux war of 1876, the "SITTING BULL" campaign, the first addition to our ranks was "BUFFALO BILL" himself, who sprang from the Union Pacific train at Cheyenne, and was speedily exchanging greetings with an eager group of his old comrades, reinstated as chief scouts.

Of his services during the campaign that followed, a dozen articles might be written. One of the most thrilling incidents of our fight on the 17th of July with the Cheyenne Indians, on the War Bonnet, was when he killed the warrior "YELLOW HAND," in as plucky a single com-

47

was in, manfully came to the rescue, and proposed to make the trip to Dodge, though he had just finished his long and perilous ride from Larned. I gratefully accepted his offer, and after short rest, he mounted a fresh horse and hastened on his journey, halting but once to rest on the way, and then only for an hour, the stop being made at Coon Creek; where he got another mount from a troop of cavalry. At Dodge he took some sleep, and then contineud on his own post --Fort Larned--with more dispatches. After resting at Larned, he was again in the saddle with tidings for me at Fort Hays, General Hazen sending him, this time, with word that the villages had fled to the south of the Arkansas. Thus, in all, Cody rode about 350 miles in less than sixty hours, and such an exhibition of endurance and courage at that time of the year, and in such weather, was more than enough to convince me that his services would be extremely valuable in the campaign, so I retained him at Fort Hays till the battalion of the Fifth Cavalry arrived, and then made him CHIEF OF SCOUTS."

Read through the fascinating book, "Campaigning with Crook (Major General George Crook, U. S. A.), and Stories of Army Life," due to the graphic and soldierly pen of Captain Charles King, of the U. S. Army: published only last year (1890).

Incidentally the author refers in various pages to COL. CODY as Scout, etc., and testifies to the general esteem and affection in which "BUFFALO BILL" is held by the army.

The subjoined extracts from the book will give our readers an excellent idea of the military scout's calling and its dangers:

"By Jove! General," says "BUFFALO BILL," sliding backward down the hill, "now's our chance. Let our party mount here out of sight, and we'll cut those fellows off. Come down every other man of you."

Glancing behind me, I see CODY, TAIT and "CHIPS," with five cavalrymen, eagerly bending forward in their saddles, grasping carbine and rife, every eye bent upon me, watching for the signal. Not a man but myself knows how near they are. That's right, close in, you beggars! Ten seconds more and you are on them! A hundred and twenty-five yards--a hundred--ninety--"Now, lads; in with you."

There's a rush, a wild ringing cheer: then bang, bang, bang! and in a cloud of dust, CODY and his men tumble in among them, "BUFFALO BILL" closing on a superbly accoutred warrior. It is the work of a minute; the Indian has fired and missed. CODY'S bullet tears through the rider's leg into the pony's heart, and they tumble in a confused heap on the prairie. The Cheyenne struggles to his feet for another shot, but CODY'S second bullet hits the mark. It is now close quarters, knife to knife. After a hand to hand struggle, CODY wins, and the young chief "YELLOW HAND," drops lifeless in his tracks after a hot fight. Baffled and astounded, for once in a lifetime beaten at their own game, their project of joining "SITTING BULL" nipped in the bud, they take hurried flight. But our chief is satisfied--"BUFFALO BILL" is radiant: his are the honors of the day.
From Page 35.

"BUFFALO BILL" and "BUFFALO CHIPS."--From Page 111.

In all these years of campaigning, the Fifth Cavalry has had varied and interesting experience with a class of men of whom much has been written, and whose names, to readers of the dime novel and the New York Weekly style of literature, were familiar as household words: I mean the "Scouts of the Prairie," as they have been christened. Many thousands of our citizens have been to see "BUFFALO BILL'S" thrilling representations of the scenes of his life of adventure. To such he needs no introduction, and throughout our cavalry he is better known than any general except Miles or Crook.

A motley set they are as a class--these scouts: hard riding, hard swearing, hard drinking ordinarily, and not all were of unimpeachable veracity. But there was never a word of doubt or question in the Fifth when "BUFFALO BILL" came up for discussion. He was chief of scouts in Kansas and Nebraska in the campaign of 1868-69, when the hostiles were so completely used up by General Carr. He remained with us as chief scout until the regiment was ordered to Arizona to take its turn at the Apaches in 1871. Five years the regiment was kept among the rocks and deserts of that marvelous land of cactus and centipede: but when we came homeward across the continent and were ordered up to Cheyenne to take a hand in the Sioux war of 1876, the "SITTING BULL" campaign, the first addition to our ranks was "BUFFALO BILL" himself, who sprang from the Union Pacific train at Cheyenne, and was speedily exchanging greetings with an eager group of his old comrades, reinstated as chief scouts.

Of his services during the campaign that followed, a dozen articles might be written. One of the most thrilling incidents of our fight on the 17th of July with the Cheyenne Indians, on the War Bonnet, was when he killed the warrior "YELLOW HAND," in as plucky a single com-