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Wild Bill Hickok: His Own Best Press Agent

James Butler Hickok never knew he was a glamorous gunfighter, defender of the helpless, and scourge of evil, until he read an article about himself in the February 1867 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine.

When the Civil War broke out, Hickok enlisted as a civilian scout at Fort Leavenworth. He took part in the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861, in which Union General Nathaniel Lyon was killed and his command routed. Hickok escaped and appeared that fall in Sedalia as a wagon master.

A legend without confirmation has Hickok losing a train to rebel guerrillas while transporting supplies for General Samuel H. Curtis, commanding the Union armies in southwestern Missouri. He made his way to Independence where he recruited enough volunteers to go back and recover his train.

Again it is legend that insists Hickok won his nickname of "Wild Bill" during his stay in Independence. The popular version has a bartender friend, who had killed a drunken teamster, appealing to Hickok for protection. When a number of the dead man's friends marched on the saloon, Hickok drew his revolver and pointed it at the crowd. "Leave or there will be more dead men around here than the town can bury," he warned them.

The teamsters hesitated; they could have rushed him but the cold eyes of the man behind the gun never wavered. And, of course, they had heard the story of Rock Creek. After a few jeers and curses they turned away. A large crowd had gathered to silently watch the outcome of what had looked to be a lynching party. When Hickok holstered his gun a woman called out: "Good for you, Wild Bill."

The legends and exploits of Wild Bill Hickok during the Civil War are varied and numerous - narrow escapes from Confederate pistols, swimming rivers under intense rifle fire, and a horse named Black Nell so wonderfully trained the animal once hid in tall grass while enemy troops passed the spot.

Nichols included some of the tales in his Harper's article; for years they were picked up by other writers and the myths gradually became accepted as facts. Wild Bill, who was his own best press agent, did not dispute them. Official documents reveal Hickok enlisted as a scout in 1864 at five dollars a day; his duties probably included spying on enemy movements. In the winter of 1865, Brigadier General John Sanborn, based in Springfield, assigned him to report on Confederates "now on Crowley's Ridge." It was his last wartime mission. On June 9 he was discharged and went on to Springfield, Missouri, and another killing . . .

In 1867-1869, Hickok served both as a deputy United States marshal with Fort Riley as his headquarters and an army scout in the Indian Wars. Surviving documents indicate his marshal's duties consisted of recovering stolen government property, mainly horses and mules, arresting the thieves, returning deserters to the army, and escorting prisoners to Topeka. He was assisted by William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody.

In the fall of 1867, the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho under Little Raven, Santana, Kicking Bird, and Ateal began raiding. The Overland Stage Company's stages were burned, horse herds driven off, wagon trains annihilated, and women and children taken captive. Companies of weary troopers from Fort Wallace's tiny frontier garrison rode out again and again to track down and battle the hostiles.

On March 26, 1867, Custer, who commanded Fort Riley, joined General Winfield S. Hancock, commander of the Department of Missouri, in his expedition from Fort Harker against the Indians west of Fort Larned. Hancock reached Harker in April. A few days later he moved out with Custer's Seventh Cavalry, Captain John Rziha's Twenty-seventh Infantry, an artillery company, and an engineer corps.

Included in the civilian scouts was Wild Bill, William Comstock, and Edward Guerrier, Custer's French-Indian interpreter. A council was held with the chiefs on April 14, twenty-one miles from Fort Larned. When the tribes slipped out of their lodges during the night, Custer and his command, Wild Bill, and a party of Delaware Indians took up the chase. After several days they were forced to return on account of lack of forage for the horses.

During this period Henry M. Stanley, who would utter the immortal phrase "Dr. Livingston, I presume?," then correspondent for the Weekly Missouri Democrat, interviewed Wild Bill at Fort Zarah. Like Colonel Nichols, Stanley was captivated by the picturesque frontiersman. Stanley left a vivid pen picture of Hickok but it was the Nichols incident all over again; he swallowed Hickok's lies without protest. This time Wild Bill's story was how he had captured a band of fifteen killers who tried to rob him in a Fort Leavenworth hotel. However, Stanley's interview added another dimension to Hickok's growing legend. Other large city newspapers sent correspondents to interview Wild Bill, who made sure they never left without enough implausible adventures to thrill their readers.

When the Indians became restless and war drums echoed along the Republican, Hickok returned to the army as a scout for the Tenth Cavalry. In the winter of 1869, while delivering dispatches between Fort Lyon and Wallace, he was attacked by a Cheyenne war party. In a running fight he was severely wounded in the thigh by an Indian lance.

Hickok's wound, inflicted by a broad-bladed spearhead, refused to heal. After weeks in the fort's hospital he decided to return home to Troy Hills to recuperate. Hickok, now thirty-two, was soon restless and bored with the all-female company. Still limping, he traveled to Chicago to visit Herman Baldwin, a boyhood friend. Dressed in buckskin and moccasins, he met Baldwin at the La Salle Station and they quickly found a saloon.

After several drinks they decided to play billiards in a pool hall. Hickok's long hair and buckskins soon became the butt of jeers and comments. Several thugs gathered around Hickok and Baldwin and began fingering Wild Bill's costume, calling him "leather britches." "Everybody in your part of the country wears rawhide and picks his teeth with a Bowie knife?" one asked, as his companions roared. "No," Bill replied mildly, "but everyone where I come from knows who his father is."

The gang picked up cues and came at Hickok. The greatest gunfighter in the West soon proved he was as good with a pool cue as he was with a Colt. The affair ended with most of Hickok's tormentors sprawled on the floor, bloody and defeated."

A short time later Hickok left Troy Hills to guide Senator Henry S. Wilson's party of politicians and their wives on a tour of the plains. After five weeks the Wilson party returned to Fort Hays. The senator, chairman of the powerful Military Affairs Committee and the secret lover of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, the glamorous Confederate spy, is said to have paid Hickok five hundred dollars and gave him a gift of a brace of ivory handled, custom-made army Colts, the famous "white-handled guns" he wore for the rest of his days.

Wild Bill never returned to the army as a scout but the men under whom he served, such as Custer, never forgot him. Though there is no official confirmation for the often repeated story that he was chief of Custer's scouts, the general and his wife obviously admired Hickok and left vivid memories of him.

General Custer Recalls Wild Bill Hickok

Whether on foot or on horseback he [Hickok] was one of the most perfect types of physical manhood I ever saw. Of his courage there could be no question: it has been brought to the test on too many occasions to doubt. His skill in the use of the rifle and pistol was unerring; while his deportment was exactly the opposite of what we expected for a man of his surroundings. It was entirely free of bluster and bravado. He seldom spoke of himself unless requested to do so. His conversation, strange to say, never bordered either on the vulgar or blasphemous. His influence among the frontiersmen was unbounded, his word was law, and many are the personal quarrels and disturbances which he has checked among his comrades by the simple announcement that "This has gone far enough," if need be followed by the ominous warning that when persisted in or renewed the quarreler "must settle it with me."

Wild Bill is anything but a quarrelsome man; yet no one but himself can enumerate the many conflicts in which he has been engaged, and which have almost invariably resulted in the death of his adversary. I have personal knowledge of at least half a dozen men whom he has at various times killed, one of these being a member of my command. [One of a group of cavalrymen who tried to gang up on Hickok in Hays City in the summer of 1870.]

Others have been severely wounded, yet he always escaped unhurt. On the plains every man openly carried his belt with its invariable appendages, knife and revolver, often two of the latter. Wild Bill always carried two handsome ivoryhandled revolvers of the large size; he was never seen without them. [Probably the handguns given to Hickok by Senator Wilson.]

Wild Bill as Mrs. Custer Remembered Him

Physically he was a delight to look upon. Tall, lithe and free in every motion, he made and walked as if every muscle was perfection, and the careless swing of his body as he moved seemed perfectly in keeping with the man, the country, the time in which he lived. I do not recall anything finer in the way of physical perfection than Wild Bill when he swung himself lightly from his saddle, and with graceful, swaying steps, squarely set shoulders and well pointed head, approached our tent for orders. He was rather fantastically clad but that seemed perfectly in keeping with the time and place. He did not make an armoury of his waist, but carried two pistols. He wore top-boots, riding breeches, and dark blue flannel shirt, with scarlet set in front. A loose neck handkerchief left his fine firm throat free. I do not at all remember his features but the frankly, manly expression of his fearless eyes and his courteous manner gave one a feeling of confidence in his word and in his undaunted courage."

In August 1869, Hickok was appointed sheriff of Ellis County, which included Hays City, a tough, boisterous army town. From the very first night he took office, Hickok made it known he intended to keep the peace. Guns dangling from his hip, the butt of an ugly bowie knife showing above his boot, a shotgun in one hand, Wild Bill impressed the rowdiest of citizens.

But there were still some who sought to make a reputation by killing Hickok. Once a small man named Sullivan jumped out of an alley, his six-shooter pointed at Wild Bill's head. "I got you, Hickok . . . now I'm going to kill you," he cried gleefully. While Sullivan was calling out to the gathering crowd to watch while he dispatched the great gunfighter, Hickok's hand inched toward his holster. Suddenly he drew his gun and with one shot killed Sullivan. "He talked his life away," was Hickok's only comment.

James D. Horan. The Authentic Wild West. The Gunfighters. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York. Copywright 1976.

Wild Bill Hickok Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok's Gunfights Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876) was a Civil War spy and scout, Indian fighter, gambler, and peace officer. He was also one of the greatest gunfighters in the West. His peers referred to his reflexes as "phenomenal" and to his skill with a pistol as "miraculous." In Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter, Joseph G. Rosa, the world's foremost authority on Hickok, provides an informative examination of Hickok's many gunfights. Rosa describes the types of guns used by Hickok and illustrates his use of the plains' style of "quick draw, " as well as examining other elements of the Hickok legend. He even reconsiders the infamous "dead man's hand" allegedly held by Hickok when he was shot to death at age thirty-nine while playing poker. Numerous photographs and drawings accompany Rosa's down-to-earth text.

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