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Dodge's extract on page 10. This privileged position, and the nature of its services in the past, may be more fully appreciated when it is understood that it commanded, besides horses, subsistence and quarters, $10 per day ($3, 650 per year), all expenses, and for special service, or "life and death" volunteer mission, special rewards of from $ 100 to $ 500 for carrying a single dispatch, and brought its holder the confidence of Commanding Generals, the fratenal friendship of the Commissioned Officers, the idolization of the ranks, and the universal respect and consideration of the hardy pioneers and settlers of the West. " BILL" CODY'S chidlern can point with pride to recorded services under the following officers of world-wide and national fame :
General Sherman General Smith Gernral Royall
" Miles " King " Penrose
" Crook " Van Vliet "Brisbin
" Carr " Anson Mills "Sandy Forsythe
" Auger "Reynold "Plamer
" Bankhead "Harney "Dudley
" Fry " Greeley "Gibbon
" Cittenden " Sheridan "Canby
" Merritt "Terry " Blunt
" Switzer " Emory "Hayes
" Tony Forshthe " Custer " Guy Henry
" Duncan "Ord " Hazen
" Rucker " Hancok And others.
The extracts on the following pages speak for themselves, and will form interesting
reading as authenticated references.
----------
From Gen. " PHIL" SHERIDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
GENERAL SHERIDAN refers to his meeting "BUFFALO BILL" "He undertakes a dangerous task," chapter xxi, pp.281-289, in his autobiography, published in 1888. The world- renowned cavalry commander maintained continous friendly relations with his old scout, even to soical correspondence, friendly assistance, and recognition in his present enterprise up to the year of his death. After relating his conception of the first winter of the first winter campain against Indians on the then unihabited and bleck plains, in the winter of 1868, he says. " The difficulties and hardships to be encountered had led several experienced officers of the army and some frontiersmen like old Jim Bridger, the famous scout and guide of earlier days, to discourage the project. Bridger even went so far as to come out from St. Louis to discourage the attempt. I decided to go in person, bent on showing the Indians that they were not secure from punishment because of inclement weather--an ally on which they had hitherto relied with much assurance. We started, and the very first night a blizzard struck us and carried away our tents. The gale was so violent that they could not be put up again; the rain and snow drenched us to the skin. Shivering from wet and cold I took refuge under a wagon, and there spent such a miserable night that, when morning came, the gloomy predictions of old man.
Bridger and others rose up before me with greatly increased force. The difficulties were now fully realized, the blinding snow mixed with sleet, the piercing wind, thermometer below zero---with green bushes only for fuel---occasioning intense suffering. Our numbers and companionship alone prevented us from being lost or perishing, a fate that stared in the face of the frontiersmen, guides and scouts on their solitary missions.
" An important matter had been to secure competent guides for the different columns of troops, for, as I have said, the section of country to be operated in was comparatively unknown.
" In those days the railroad town of Hays City was filled with so-called 'Indain Scouts' whose common boast was of having slain scores of redskins, but the real scout---that is, a guide and trailer knowing the habits of the Indians---was very scarce, and it was hard to find anybody familiar with country south of Arkansas, where the campaign was to be made. Still, about the various military posts there was some good material to select from, and we managed to employ several men, who, from their experience on the plains in various capacities, or from natural instinct and aptitude, soon became excellent guides and courageous and valuable scouts, some of them, indeedm gaming much distinction. Mr. William F. Cody ( ' Buffalo Bill') , whose renown has since become world-wide, was one of the men thus selected.
He received his sobriquet from his marked sucess in killing buffaloes to supply fresh meat to the construction parties on the Kansa Pacific Railway. He had lived from boyhood on the
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Dodge's extract on page 10. This privileged position, and the nature of its services in the past, may be more fully appreciated when it is understood that it commanded, besides horses, subsistence and quarters, $10 per day ($3, 650 per year), all expenses, and for special service, or "life and death" volunteer mission, special rewards of from $ 100 to $ 500 for carrying a single dispatch, and brought its holder the confidence of Commanding Generals, the fratenal friendship of the Commissioned Officers, the idolization of the ranks, and the universal respect and consideration of the hardy pioneers and settlers of the West. " BILL" CODY'S chidlern can point with pride to recorded services under the following officers of world-wide and national fame :
General Sherman General Smith Gernral Royall
" Miles " King " Penrose
" Crook " Van Vliet "Brisbin
" Carr " Anson Mills "Sandy Forsythe
" Auger "Reynold "Plamer
" Bankhead "Harney "Dudley
" Fry " Greeley "Gibbon
" Cittenden " Sheridan "Canby
" Merritt "Terry " Blunt
" Switzer " Emory "Hayes
" Tony Forshthe " Custer " Guy Henry
" Duncan "Ord " Hazen
" Rucker " Hancok And others.
The extracts on the following pages speak for themselves, and will form interesting
reading as authenticated references.
----------
From Gen. " PHIL" SHERIDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
GENERAL SHERIDAN refers to his meeting "BUFFALO BILL" "He undertakes a dangerous task," chapter xxi, pp.281-289, in his autobiography, published in 1888. The world- renowned cavalry commander maintained continous friendly relations with his old scout, even to soical correspondence, friendly assistance, and recognition in his present enterprise up to the year of his death. After relating his conception of the first winter of the first winter campain against Indians on the then unihabited and bleck plains, in the winter of 1868, he says. " The difficulties and hardships to be encountered had led several experienced officers of the army and some frontiersmen like old Jim Bridger, the famous scout and guide of earlier days, to discourage the project. Bridger even went so far as to come out from St. Louis to discourage the attempt. I decided to go in person, bent on showing the Indians that they were not secure from punishment because of inclement weather--an ally on which they had hitherto relied with much assurance. We started, and the very first night a blizzard struck us and carried away our tents. The gale was so violent that they could not be put up again; the rain and snow drenched us to the skin. Shivering from wet and cold I took refuge under a wagon, and there spent such a miserable night that, when morning came, the gloomy predictions of old man.
Bridger and others rose up before me with greatly increased force. The difficulties were now fully realized, the blinding snow mixed with sleet, the piercing wind, thermometer below zero---with green bushes only for fuel---occasioning intense suffering. Our numbers and companionship alone prevented us from being lost or perishing, a fate that stared in the face of the frontiersmen, guides and scouts on their solitary missions.
" An important matter had been to secure competent guides for the different columns of troops, for, as I have said, the section of country to be operated in was comparatively unknown.
" In those days the railroad town of Hays City was filled with so-called 'Indain Scouts' whose common boast was of having slain scores of redskins, but the real scout---that is, a guide and trailer knowing the habits of the Indians---was very scarce, and it was hard to find anybody familiar with country south of Arkansas, where the campaign was to be made. Still, about the various military posts there was some good material to select from, and we managed to employ several men, who, from their experience on the plains in various capacities, or from natural instinct and aptitude, soon became excellent guides and courageous and valuable scouts, some of them, indeedm gaming much distinction. Mr. William F. Cody ( ' Buffalo Bill') , whose renown has since become world-wide, was one of the men thus selected.
He received his sobriquet from his marked sucess in killing buffaloes to supply fresh meat to the construction parties on the Kansa Pacific Railway. He had lived from boyhood on the
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