Picketwire Vaquero by James D. Crownover

Author:James D. Crownover
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

WAR

1861–1865

Maybe that storm was an omen of things t’ come, for it was that same April that th’ Civil War started. It sure stirred things up here in th’ West. There was a great shaking in th’ military, most soldiers being transferred back east, a goodly number headed for south of th’ Mason-Dixon. Jake an’ me were in a quandary about what t’ do. We were southerners at heart, but dead set agin th’ institution of slavery because o’ those experiences our family had. We couldn’t support a Southern cause and if we fought with th’ North, we would be fightin’ agin some of our kin and friends.

Mr. Bent settled that question for us by insistin’ we stay with him an’ move freight for th’ Union. Since that seemed our best way t’ avoid slingin’ lead at our friends, we agreed along with Ben Lott and John Prowers. Tom Boggs went t’ work for Lucien Maxwell and did good. Some time later he drove a herd of Maxwell cattle to th’ Purgatory an’ set up ranchin’. John Prowers married the Cheyenne warrior One-Eye’s daughter an’ ranched along th’ Arkansas east o’ th’ Purgatory startin’ out with a hundred head of cattle.

We spent that whole war runnin’ supplies for th’ Union military—not that it was th’ safest thing t’ do, with Indians growin’ more belligerent because of an absence of soldiers an’ both sides takin’ shots at us across Bloody Kansas. Missouri weren’t no cakewalk. It had been saved for th’ Union by a hair’s breadth an’ was actually a battleground for such bushwhackers as Quantrill and Anderson. History books tell you that th’ war ended in April, 1865, but anyone in th’ South and West will tell you that it went on long after that. Some’ll auger it’s still goin’ on in places . . .

We hauled a lot of freight across th’ prairies in those years, but towards th’ end it got awful hard. We had t’ fight Injuns goin’ an’ comin’. It all come to a head in th’ summer of ’64. We were headed for Westport when we were met by a company of troops headed for Fort Larned led by a Lieutenant Eayre. He boasted about whipping a village of Cheyennes on Ash Creek in Kansas. When Mr. Bent asked him why, he said he had been ordered t’ kill Cheyennes wherever found.

Mr. Bent was furious. “How could eighty soldiers defeat a camp I know has at least five hundred warriors? That man was lying!”

He sure ’nough was right, for that very next day we met a messenger from th’ tribe who told us what really happened. Those soldiers had murdered Lean Bear when he went out alone and unarmed to talk peace, then the Indians had attacked and were driving those soldiers back when Black Kettle rode out and stopped them.

Mr. Bent gave us instructions t’ proceed on to Missouri an’ he rode back t’ see what he could do. We hurried on, loaded, and turned around in record time.

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