Wild Bill Hickok And The World's Most Dangerous Job

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Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

Well guys when I left off last time in the story of Wild Bill's life and
times he had just gone through a trial for shooting a rival by the
name of Tutt and had been cleared in that case with a no guilty
verdict as it was very obviously self defense.

I also wanted to shed a little more light on the subject of the lady that
he allegedly got pregnant when he was serving in the Union Army.
Tutt held a fearsome grudge against Wild Bill because it was Tutt's
sister who got pregnant and Tutts family and friends claimed the
same story was true.

After I posted the last segment I had questions about what happened
to the lady and her son and I realized it sounded like Wild Bill had
abandoned them but that's not the case. He was off serving in the
war as a scout and spy when she left to go back East.

About 30 years later a researcher tracked her down and spoke with
her or attempted to at least, and she was 50 years old by that time.
But she didn't admit that Wild Bill was the father and so it was never
proven beyond a doubt that he was or wasn't.

But by all indications of his character I believe he would have done
what was right and supported her if not marry her if she had stayed.
So the bottom line is: he didn't abandon her like it probably sounded
because of my sloppy story telling. lol.

Ok, so after the trial he was summoned to Forty Riley, Kansas and
offered a Deputy United States Marshall position which entailed
mostly hunting down horse and mule thieves who had stolen
livestock from the Army. By my calculations he was about 28
years old at the time.

Now, for Wild Bill this wasn't the most exciting work he'd ever done
but tracking down horse thieves and taking them back to Fort Riley
sounds pretty interesting to me. He also worked as a scout and
guide for wagon trains during this time.

Fort Riley, Kansas in 1870

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It was in this time that many of the myths and legends got out of
hand because Wild Bill and his other scouting friends loved to tell
tall tales to the green horns who were making it out West for the first
time and they would laugh and joke about it amongst themselves.

That wasn't the problem. The problem was that there were always
reporters around hearing these wild stories and then writing them up
in their papers or for Dime Novels to sell back East. Then in later
years researchers going through old newspaper stories about him
would read these wildly "enhanced" stories and present them as fact!

I think Wild Bill was addicted to danger though because his next
choice of work was the most dangerous job in the country at that
time which was as a scout for the Army.

Scouting for the Calvary..

I have to give a little bit of background information here so you'll
have a clear picture of what was going on. During the Civil War many
Indian tribes took advantage of a lack of troops in the West to take
back territory and carry out raids on settlements.

I mean, you can't blame them. They were losing their lands to the
White man who wanted their land and didn't really care how he got it.
So there was havoc in many areas of the West so Washington ordered
the Army to go out there and put an end to it and to reopen the mail
carrying operation which had been lost during the war.

So this is where the Calvary scouts came in. Their job was to run
information or dispatches, between Army units and carry letters also.
They were also tasked with keeping the Army informed of the
location of Indians and the movements of the Indians....all of this
done on their own.

They would travel at night and rest during the day. Does this sound
dangerous enough to you? They used, hardy, fast ponies like the
Indians used and they owed their lives to their horses, their wits,
their speed, their knowledge of the land which they raced for their
lives through, and their ability to shoot.

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Unfortunately many of them were killed.. many disappeared without
a trace, others their scalped and mutilated bodies were found by
their fellow scouts or a patrol.

Sometimes their fate could be guessed by a riderless pony returning
to the fort with a blood splattered saddle and wounded with a bullet
or arrow in the horse.

It was common along the mail route for people to receive mail with
the blood stains of the rider who gave their lives getting the mail
through. So this is the work that Wild Bill volunteered to take on.

Wild Bill wore buckskin when he scouted:

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There is only one verified account of his scouting during this time.
There are lots of tall tales and I'm sure some of them have an
element of truth to them but no proof.

The one incident was recorded by the Army but is short on details.
We know that he got into a skirmish or they tried to take him out
on his way to the fort. He had a lance in his leg, he eventually lost
his horse so the horse must have been wounded too.

A patrol from the fort found him on foot and using the lance as a
crutch but he made it. But then again, he always made it..either
by Lady Luck or the Hand of Providence!

By the way, I found this copy of an original poster for Pony Express
riders which I found profoundly interesting. The Pony Express was
not the same task as Army Scout but the dangers were similar.
Check out the small print:

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I'll continue with his life, hopefully in the next post.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!

-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

Redman sends you a Christmas card!
lol. I love this one but for those who don't know, Redman is
famous for their chewing tobacco.