Life and adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas panhandle : $b A narrative in which is described many things relating to the early SouthwestDixon, Billy
History
Life and adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas panhandle : $b A narrative in which is described many things relating to the early Southwest
Dixon, Billy
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895
We learned that a relief party, composed of buffalo-hunters and
residents of Dodge, had started south in command of Tom Nixon. There
were about forty men in the party. Nixon was killed a year or two
later by "Mysterious Dave" Mathews. He was a well-known frontiersman.
We did not take life nor ourselves very seriously those days, and were
soon entering into the fun at Dodge with the greatest enthusiasm,
forgetful of the perils and hardships that so lately beset us. Things
at Dodge were run for the fullest enjoyment of the present--there was
not much material to occupy students of ancient history. The town had
changed little since we had gone away. Several of the men who had come
north from the Walls went straight to the depot and bought tickets for
their homes in the east. They had enough of the Indians to last them
several years, and were not ashamed to stand up and say so. Most of us
were "locoed" with the sports and pastimes of the land where the wool
was long and the customs wild. Drouth, scarcity of water-holes,
"northers," rattlesnakes, Indians, even the United States Army, could
not have driven us east of the ninety-ninth meridian of longitude.
The details of the fight at Adobe Walls were telegraphed to Fort
Leavenworth. Troops were not despatched at once to the scene of the
uprising, the Government taking the view that it would be best not to
move until an expedition large enough to whip the Indians to a
standstill could be sent into the field, General Miles reached Dodge
City about August, going south about ten days later.
My old friend Jack Callahan, of whom I have frequently spoken, had
just been employed as wagonmaster to go with the expedition. Meeting
me in the street, he offered to make me his assistant. I had made up
my mind to accept the position, but further down the street I came
across John Curley, whom I had known at Hays City in 1868, when he was
corral-master. Curley said that he believed he could get me placed as
scout and guide with General Miles, which exactly suited me. We went
at once to General Miles headquarters, where Curley introduced and
recommended me. After asking me a few questions, General Miles turned
to his adjutant and told him to put my name down. I held this position
from August 6, 1874, to February 10, 1883, a period of nine years.
The troops moved out of Dodge City to the Arkansas and camped. General
Miles assembled his scouts and tested their marksmanship by having
them shoot at a snag in the river, calling our names as he pointed out
the objects each was to shoot at. I never missed a single time.
Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin, now a brigadier-general, was sent to
Adobe Walls with two scouts, six Delaware trailers and a troop of
cavalry to ascertain the situation of those who had remained at the
Walls. We got there in five days. Baldwin had not recently seen much
mounted service, and was very tired and saddle-worn by the time we
reached Adobe Walls Creek.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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