LIFE AS A CAVALRY SCOUT
Billy Dixon has long craved excitement and adventure.
On the High Plains of the Panhandle, he didn’t have to look far.
Billy Dixon and the large caravan of wagons that left Adobe Walls two weeks after the attack arrived in dodge city on July 17th, 1874. They were the first survivors to arrive in Dodge City after the battle. The trip took four days, which included the time it took to bury Charley Sharp. Charley was the partner of Henry Lease, the fellow who had came to Adobe Walls for supplies, and subsequently was paid one-hundred twenty five dollars to go to Dodge City for reinforcements after the battle. The group found Charley dead in his buffalo camp, killed by Indians, and took time to bury him. Unknown to the group, Henry had made it to Dodge City safely, but the Government wouldn’t send reinforcements, so a man named Tom Nixon had raised a group of riders and departed Dodge City for the Adobe Walls camp.
Details of the Adobe Walls fight were telegraphed to Fort Leavenworth, but troops were not sent until a significant contingent could be raised. The Battle had driven most all of the hunters back into dodge City.
Along the dusty streets of Dodge City, Billy soon ran across his old friend and partner Jack Callahan, who offered him a job as his assistant on a wagon train forming up for the expedition to the Texas Panhandle, which Billy nearly accepted. Just shortly after, Billy found another old acquaintance, John Curley, who was corralmaster at Fort Hays. Curley told Billy he could probably help him become a part of a Scouting Unit being formed by Colonel Nelson Miles. This interested Dixon greatly, and his friend led him to the headquarters, where he introduced and recommended Billy.
Colonel Miles had been directed to stage and organize his troops in Dodge City, where the railroad connection made the assembly easier. He commanded the fifth Infantry from Fort Leavenworth, and brought four companies with him to Fort Dodge. Miles appointed Lt. Frank Baldwin as chief of the scouts .
“After asking me a few questions, General Miles turned to his adjutant and told him to put my name down”, Billy remembered. “I held this position from August 6, 1874, to February 10, 1883, a period of nine years.”
Miles, at left, was a decorated Civil War veteran. His actual Army rank was Colonel, but because of his brevet rank of General from the Civil War, most men addressed him as General.
Billy Dixon’s first duty as a United States Army Scout? To guide Lt. Frank Baldwin, six Delaware Indian Trailers, and a troop of Cavalry to survey Adobe Walls. A combat veteran and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient for actions during the Battle of Atlanta he had ended the war as a twenty three year old Lieutenant Colonel. Baldwin would earn another Medal of Honor in less than a month. As the Chief of Scouts, he and his scouts were the first to depart Dodge City.
Dixon reports five grueling days of water-less travel through intense August heat. Baldwin ordered he and fellow Scout Bat Masterson, to travel ahead and inform the hunters that were staying and guarding the site that the troops were en-route, as he did not wish to be mistaken for an attacking war party. About a dozen or so men were there, with horses put up in the stockade, prepared for any attack. They were very glad to see Billy and Bat, and learn that the Cavalry was close by. The two Scouts were given “a hearty reception”. A hot supper was provided “and I was telling them news of the outside world when the soldiers arrived around nine o’clock.”
The next morning, the Scouts toured Lt. Baldwin and the other soldiers around the Battle site, answering questions and telling stories of the Battle. Having walked about a mile away from their guns, they could only watch from the distance, helplessly, as an Indian war party suddenly appeared horseback at a gallop and swooped down and lanced and killed one of two civilians who had ridden from camp to pick wild plums. the group stared in shock as the Indians rounded up the poor mans horse and rode away with it. Unfortunately, the soldiers horses had to be caught and saddled, as they were all grazing in the pasture. After a futile chase of the Indians and finding only two abandoned Indian ponies, the men returned to the Walls and buried the poor man “close beside the others; this made five graves” Billy said.
All of the men who had stayed at the Walls departed when Baldwin’s contingent rode away. Later, in early September, Lt. Henry Farnsworth and his Eighth Cavalry detachment rode past the complex finding a large supply of corn in one of the abandoned buildings and taking 5000 pounds of it for the use of his column. The next visitors were warriors who set fire to everything they could find that would burn. Dixon later rode through with General Miles and a large column of soldiers in October. Only the old Saloon walls still stood. “The ruins were still smoking,” Dixon reported.
This was Billy Dixon’s first outing as a Government Scout, and he would spend the next nine years of his life riding the Panhandle prairie as a Scout. He was an integral part of the upcoming Battles, and his time roaming the Panhandle Plains would engrave his name in the chronicles of Texas History. He would help make the Plains safe for settlement, and eventually return to the Adobe Walls again. There he would build his home, bring his Bride, and raise his family.
In the meantime, Colonel Nelson A. Miles was departing Dodge City with a small Army. The arrival of the Sixth Cavalry had added eight mounted troops in two battalions. His contingent consisted of seven hundred and forty four men, Gatling guns and mountain howitzers. Miles had enough men and artillery to start a war.
He was headed to Texas to do just that.
NEXT: THE BATTLE OF BUFFALO WALLOW
