Bat Masterson

Born in Eastern Canada in 1863 (smack in the middle of the American Civil War timeframe), Bartholomew Masterson, aka William Barclay Masterson, aka "Bat" Masterson grew up with his family moving from Quebec to New York to Illinois before finally settling on a farm in the Wichita, Kansas area.  Both of his parents were Irish.

I remember the TV show, "Bat Masterson," starring Gene Barry.  Barry portrayed Masterson as a right-honorable high-class gambler dude, but the real "Bat" started out with his brothers as a buffalo hunter at the age of 20-ish.

By 1874, Bat had (without his brothers) moseyed down into the Texas panhandle and found himself caught up in the Red River Wars.  Along with about 25 other buffalo hunters, he fought in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls defending the town from Comanches.  (The first battle at Adobe Walls was fought by Kit Carson and 335 soldiers and 70 Ute and Jicarilla Apache scouts from New Mexico against 1,000 Comanche, Kiowa, and Plains Apache.)  The Second battle started on June 27, 1874.

William "Billy" Dixon later recalled, "There was never a more splendidly barbaric sight. In after years I was glad that I had seen it. Hundreds of warriors, the flower of the fighting men of the southwestern Plains tribes, mounted upon their finest horses, armed with guns and lances, and carrying heavy shields of thick buffalo hide, were coming like the wind. Over all was splashed the rich colors of red, vermillion and ochre, on the bodies of the men, on the bodies of the running horses. Scalps dangled from bridles, gorgeous war-bonnets fluttered their plumes, bright feathers dangled from the tails and manes of the horses, and the bronzed, halfnaked bodies of the riders glittered with ornaments of silver and brass. Behind this headlong charging host stretched the Plains, on whose horizon the rising sun was lifting its morning fires. The warriors seemed to emerge from this glowing background." (Dixon, O., Life and Adventures of "Billy" Dixon, 1914, Guthrie: Co-operative Publishing Company

Once the appreciation of the stupendous sight had registered, the men got down to the business of warring.  Less than 30 white men and 1 woman defended the sod-hut settlement of Adobe Walls against an unknown (but estimated from 300 - 1,000) Indian force led by none other than Quanah Parker.  The white men were spread out in three structures:  Bat and Billy were in Hanrahan's Saloon along with seven others, eleven were in Myer's and Leonard's Store, and seven in Rath & Wright's.  The next day a few more men made it to Adobe Walls.

Amazingly, as if 30 to 1,000 odds weren't bad enough, on the second day of the battle, one guy rode off to Dodge City, Kansas 250 miles away for help, and two others went to sound the alarm at other buffalo hunter camps and settlements in the area.  Some of the remaining men darted out and dragged the dead livestock as far away as possible from the dwellings so the besieged didn't have to smell their rotting flesh.

On the third day, a group of Indians went to high ground to check out the attack options.  One of the buffalo hunters suggested Billy Dixon use Hanharan's Sharps .50 caliber rifle to try and pick off one of the group.  The shot had to be at least a mile away.  Billy later said, "I was admittedly a good marksman, yet this was what might be called a 'scratch' shot."  I mean, it wasn't like today's snipers who have their own rifles, have practiced and set the sights, had a spotter to help with wind estimates and distance... At the age of 24, using a borrowed rifle, Billy Dixon, at the distance of one mile (+/-), drops that Indian right off his horse!  Boom!  That was the deciding factor for the Indians.  They packed up their stuff and faded back into the Texas scrub.

In a few days, Masterson, Dixon and Hanharan lit out for Dodge City to get someone to go over to Adobe Walls and bring the woman back along with some of the menfolk.  By August, Masterson and Dixon had led the cavalry back to Adobe Walls where there were still a dozen men forted up.  They joined up with the cavalry and headed south to link up with the main command. Masterson continued as an Army scout during the Plains Indians War.

In 1876 in Sweetwater, Texas, Masterson got crosswise with a soldier (a saloon girl was the reason) and when the dust and smoke settled, the girl was dead, the soldier was dead, and Masterson was seriously wounded.   It was self-defense on Masterson's part, but the episode was enough to make him into a believer that the right side of the law was a better path to walk - so he became a Dodge City sheriff.  His main hangout was the Long Branch Saloon.  After five years of that he became a gambler and drifter for awhile, finally settling into Tombstone with his friend, Wyatt Earp.

Masterson's last gun battle was fought on behalf of his brother.  He heard Jim was in some trouble back in Dodge, hopped a train, stepped down in Dodge, found the men that were givin' Jim grief, called 'em out, announced his intentions, and the gunplay started.  One of the men was shot through the lung and a by-stander wounded by a ricochet, but that's about the size of it.  The sheriff said Bat acted legally (by Dodge City standards in 1882), had him pay a $8 fine, and by sundown Bat was back on the train to Tombstone. From then on his reputation pretty much preceded him, and no others were inclined to pick a fight with him.

A little more traveling and few more stints at sheriff brings Bat to New York City.  There his interest in sports (men never change) leads him into being a sports writer (of all things!)  From 1883 until his death in 1921, Bat Masterson lived and worked there.  Eventually he worked his way up to vice president of the New York Morning Telegraph.

Masterson dropped dead of a heart attack sitting at his desk typing his final column.  Amazing!  From buffalo hunter to typist!  He's buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

(Just an aside, Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles in 1929, the year of the big stock market crash that ended the Roaring Twenties.)

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