The Adventures of Buffalo Bill

MP3 Audio CD. The Adventures of Buffalo Bill

I

CROSSING THE PLAINS


In the early settlement of Kansas common-school advantages were denied us,
and to provide a means for educating the few boys and girls in the
neighborhood of my home, a subscription school was started in a small log
cabin that was built on the bank of a creek that ran near our house. My
mother took great interest in this school, and at her persuasion I
returned home and became enrolled as a pupil, where I made satisfactory
progress until, as the result of a quarrel with a schoolmate, I left the
town and started across the plains with one of Russell, Majors & Waddell's
freight trains.

The trip proved a most enjoyable one to me, although no incidents worthy
of note occurred on the way. On my return from Fort Kearny I was paid off
the same as the rest of the employés. The remainder of the summer and fall
I spent in herding cattle and working for Russell, Majors & Waddell.

In May, 1857, I started for Salt Lake City with a herd of beef cattle, in
charge of Frank and Bill McCarthy, for General Albert Sidney Johnston's
army, which was then being sent across the plains to fight the Mormons.

Nothing occurred to interrupt our journey until we reached Plum Creek, on
the South Platte River, thirty-five miles west of old Fort Kearny. We had
made a morning drive, and had camped for dinner. The wagon masters and a
majority of the men had gone to sleep under the mess wagons. The cattle
were being guarded by three men, and the cook was preparing dinner. No one
had any idea that Indians were anywhere near us. The first warning we had
that they were infesting that part of the country was the firing of shots
and the whoops and yells from a party of them, who, catching us napping,
gave us a most unwelco