Roger Hatch takes time out from nutrition to remind us of perhaps one of the greatest Endurance riders of all time.
One of the most compelling reasons for believing the reports of William F Cody’s riding exploits is the matter of a fact tone in which they are reported and the general lack of interest that readers of the hundreds of penny dreadfuls, books and albums had in his riding expertise as opposed to those of him as a frontiersman, army scout and adventurer. Add to this the actual archived records of the time he was employed by the US Army and with the postal services and it is possible to be more accurate as to Cody’s phenomenal association with horses than other details of his quite extraordinary life.
As with most youngsters reared in Kansas during the 1840’s young William Cody would not have known a time when he could not ride though it was always to the consternation of his Mother. His elder brother Samuel had been crushed to death when a bad tempered mare suddenly reared and toppled backwards on to him. Though it would not stop her, in desperation sending William at the age of only 9 years old galloping 35 miles on his pony Prince to warn his Father Isaac that marauding pro-slavers from Missouri had discovered his whereabouts and threatened to kill him, and then without dismounting, ride with him another fifteen miles through the night to safety.
When Isaac, friend of the abolitionist John Browne, whose soul goes marching on through American history, died Cody was eleven and due to a conspiracy over debts he and his Mother were left penniless. Determined to do what he could he rode to Fort Leavenworth to the offices of Russell, Major & Waddell overland freighters who operated twenty five wagon trains sometimes spread hundreds of miles apart. On arriving he announced he had his Mother’s permission to be a messenger, as if it necessitated only her word to be given a job. He was told he was too young but his insistence finally won the day and a month later he dutifully spread 40 Dollars on the kitchen table for his Mother. Russell had drawn him a man’s wage because he had ridden as hard as any man.
Undoubtedly his time as a wagon train messenger conditioned him to ride many hours without rest. Conditions were hard and on more than one occasion he not only rode for his pay but rode for his life. It was whilst working with the wagons that he first discovered his uncanny accuracy with gun. Following a day long run from Indian attack along the South Platte River he had seen fleeting silhouettes of feather moving above the bank unslung his gun and fired. There was a scream and for a moment he thought it would bring the entire raiding party down on to him but instead his shot terminated the attack. Shortly after that before his twelfth birthday he was to survive a winter of utter deprivation and desperate cold. Reaching Fort Bridge in November his wagon train found it burnt out and with next to no supplies. He lived every day in the saddle tested to the utmost. Fortunately he had the strength and appearance of a boy 4 to 5 years older and by all accounts had an easy manner and was particularly good looking.
Following a period where he joined forces with a trapping party and had more adventures than most men would have in a lifetime Cody joined the famous Pony Express. At first he was again refused on account of his age but thanks to references was given a trial. The Pony Express was similar to the European fast riding courier service of the eighteenth century. Each rider rode a stage that varied according to the terrain and frequency of habitation where the horseman would jump to the ground with his bag of letters, remount and ride to the next stage. Three stages were the riders ‘run’. Then he retraced his way back. Some stations were in settlements, others in such bleak outposts that one good authority today has suggested that the unusually high level of woman reported to have died in childbirth in the west at that time was really a cover up for suicides. A result of the sheer loneliness the settlers experienced.
To ride the Pony Express took great physical endurance and courage, the dangers being the speed at which the horses ran and the possibility of hostile Indians and bandits. The letters carried weighed a maximum of twenty pounds slung in leather bags from the saddle. The entire length of the post was two thousand miles long and accomplished at a speed of two hundred miles a day. Pay was good to attract the best men at some 125 Dollars a month.
Within 4 weeks of being engaged Young Cody encountered his first attempt to rob and kill him. Appearing from behind a bush a man pointed a gun to his head and demanded him to stop. On impulse Cody spurred on his horse that plunged and gave out a viscous kick catching the bandit in the head. Crouching forward Cody rode off expecting that any second he would hear a shot. Nothing came, at last he looked back to see the man stretched out on the trail. He had had a very lucky escape.
After two months of riding and falling asleep almost as he dismounted a letter came saying his Mother was ill. His Boss Mr Chrisman later recorded that “ He was glad something had happened to make him quit. The riding was wearing him out although young William would never say so.
Whilst at home Cody began to persuade his Mother to let him enlist and to avenge his Father by fighting on the Federal side. It was March 1861 a month before the outbreak of war that had been threatening for so long. Mrs Cody refused, reminding him he was still a boy and that as long as she was alive, which would not be long, it was unfair to put such a strain on her health. Instead, paradoxically, they set about organising an ‘underground railway’ from their house for escaping slaves with whom they sympathised deeply. It was risky work, the hired slave hunters from the south were brutal and desperate for the payments they only received when the slaves were recaptured. Finally despite his devotion to his Mother Cody did leave to return to the wagon trains once again. It was on the occasion of having to deliver a letter to Horseshoe Station 35 miles west of Fort Laramie that he was recognised as ‘ the youngest rider on the road’ and given the chance to join the Pony Express again, this time on an infamous seventy five mile stretch at Three Crossings in Pawnee country. Riding back one day into his final station he was told that the rider who would normally take over the bag and rode the next eighty five miles had been killed in a drunken brawl – could he continue? Cody said he could. He accomplished the round trip of 322 miles without misadventure and bang on time. He used twenty-one horses without rest, the longest Pony Express ride made in the history of the company.
A week later a party of Sioux Indians lying in ambush surprised him. Armed with revolvers they opened fire. As luck would have it Cody was mounted on an exceptionally strong horse and by lying flat on his back gave the animal its head and ran the nine miles to the next station at a fierce gallop. He out distanced the warriors but arriving found the stock-tender dead and the fresh horses gone. There being no alternative he had to continue and caressing and cajoling the blown and exhausted horse, that had saved his life, travelled on for a further12 terrifying miles!
With the onset of war, many Indians took advantage of the troubles to step up their raids on the Pony Express routes ambushing and killing occupants of the stage and those living in isolated settlements. This lead to various suspensions of the service with riders drifting away to seek employment elsewhere. It was at this time that young William met Wild Bill Hickock who fired his imagination with talk of Horse Racing. Wild Bill had acquired a horse with a remarkable turn of speed and they travelled to St Louis to race it. They backed the animal with all the money they had including the horse itself on the firm belief that they stood to win a fortune. Alas the horse was well and truly beaten. Penniless Hickock signed up as a Scout at the military headquarters but again Cody was considered too young. So with money Wild Bill borrowed on his behalf, he returned to Leavenworth where he secured a job buying Horses for the government and finally in 1862 became a scout himself. Years later General Sheridan was prompted to write in his memoirs. “ In all Cody rode 350 Miles in less than 60 hours and such an exhibition of endurance and courage was more than enough to convince me that his services would be extremely valuable in the company so I retained him at Fort Hodge as Chief of Scouts”.
Not that Cody always impressed authority. Early in 1867 he was at Fort Fletcher when the pompous General Custer arrived on an expedition. After a few days the spring rains flooded Big Creek and rose above the fortifications so Custer demanded a Scout to guide him and his escort of ten men to Fort Larned some 65 miles across country. He warned everyone that he intended to make the journey in one day. At daybreak Custer noticed Cody was riding a Mule. “ I want to travel fast” He shouted with disgust and berated Cody in front of everyone. Cody quietly assured the General he would do more than keep up but the General did not believe him. He and his men were mounted on the finest horses the army could provide. They set of at a gallop and for the first 15 miles to Smoke River it was as if it was as much as Cody could do to keep in front. Custer noticing this continued his loud comments about the fact that it was about time he learned to ride a horse. After they crossed the river Cody started to let his mule out and before half the journey was over he had to stop to wait for the party. When Cody rode into Fort Larned at four o’clock he was miles ahead of Custer and was quietly finishing a well-earned meal when he watched the straggling soldiers file in. He had made his point.
Not that every mule he rode was a good one. On one occasion young William was thrown unexpectedly by a mule some 25 miles from home in notoriously dangerous country and on trying to remount the animal continually moved out of reach. Hour after hour the mule kept a few paces in front of him and there was nothing he could do to catch it. Some twenty-five miles later with the mule still a few paces ahead he finally ran out of patience drew his gun and shot the animal dead.
William Cody ability to pace a ride was uncanny and on no two horses could he do it better than on Powder Face, which he won from a Pawnee chief, and Tall Bull. This horse came into Cody’s possession in the most dramatic fashion following an attack on a Sioux encampment. By their trail it was evident that Indians had been holding a western woman captive and on being caught unawares most of the Braves made a run for it including their chief Tonka Harka-Tall Bull. They left behind two Swedish ladies one a Mrs Alerdice, who was killed by Tall Bull’s Squaw with a hatchet. The Squaw had also attacked the other lady a Mrs Weichel and inflicted a deep wound. They had been terribly treated and it was thought that the Squaw had tried to kill them both so that the Army would not know. Hardly had the first encounter ended when the Sioux that had escaped recovered from their panic and at the urging of their Chief returned in large numbers. Observing on previous occasions that when a Chief was captured or killed the battle was often cut short Cody fought to within 30 yards of the Chief and taking careful aim so as not to kill his horse Cody shot Tonka Harka. The horse galloped off to the village and was captured by some soldiers and brought back to Cody as the spoils of war. So he became owner of the fastest running horse west of the Missouri and he called it Tall Ball after the Chief.
This was shortly proved by the arrangement of a race with a Lieutenant Mason whose horse had become legendary for winning against all comers. The distance was half a mile and each man staked a hundred dollars. Only Cody knew of Tall Bull’s exceptional speed so he also backed Tall Bull with every cent he had. The course was measured and the judges appointed and as they got away Cody knew he was going to win with no difficulty but not wishing to disclose the real speed of his horse he engineered to win by only a length. Only one topic now seized the surrounding country, that of horses and racing. Mason’s horse had been beaten but only just, surely a horse could be found to beat Cody and make a lot of money. After receiving back pay Soldiers and Pawnees busied themselves over several days backing horses in various matches to finally produce a Pawnee horse to challenge Cody with three hundred dollars. Cody covered the bet and made a substantial number of side bets as well. This time the race was over a mile. Tall Bull won with ease and Cody some seven hundred dollars. Powder Face was a pony, smaller and even quicker over 400 yards but became the envy of horse thieves because in one race this time with small boys as jockeys Powder Face started so fast that he unseated his rider and ran on to win by such a distance that people began to suspect Cody’s tactics of retaining reasonable odds. In a well-recorded chase Cody caught and killed the thieves but could not catch his little “money maker.”
William Frederick Cody’s Irish-Spanish ancestry lent him a skill and affection for horses that never left him. He was truly one with his horse, often riding 60 miles for a night out and returning again in the morning. When asked which was the finest of all his horses he would say Brigham named after the Mormon leader Brigham Young but then go on to talk of a yellow horse called Buckskin Joe and the beautiful grey on which he was first presented to Queen Victoria after being urged to travel to England by his great admirer Mark Twain. Surviving in a country and in times when horsemanship often made the difference between security and abject poverty Cody could not afford to be over sentimental, on the other hand no man could have recorded such feats of endurance without care and respect.
It has been said that no person in history ever made his costume so recognisable or his name so familiar in fact or fiction. It is also worth noting that such a man was indeed the perhaps greatest Endurance rider of all.