The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-27
WILD BILLS WAR WORK
SCOUT AND spy WITH GEN. CURTIS
IN MISSOURI.
Getting News for Union Generals
Duel with Dave Tut and Fight
with the McCandless Gang.



seventies are wrong when they say he was
first heard of after the war" said the man
from Missouri on reading the story of the
famous plainsman in the Sunday Sun.
wild Bill was Union scout and spy all
through the war on the border and he had
fought Indians and taken hand in the
Kansas row before lie served under Curtis
down in southwestern Missouri and Arkan-
sas. 1 knew him at Springfield in the fall
of 1865, soon after the surrender Few -len
in that region were so well known as Wild
Bill. OF all the daredevil characters that
came to the surface in those days he was
the worst-or the best. Bill was not a
murderer or an assassin or anything of the
kind. He killed his men in open fight al
ways, but he killed lot Of EN-. He was
quicker with his gun than the other fell
lows were, and he never missed when he
drew on q man; that was al.
Human life, like the greenbacks, was
below par in that part of Missouri just
after the war. You see. the State had been
divided in sentiment when the secession
movement started back in 1861. A part OF
the people-the larger part-were Southern
rights men who wanted to take Missouri
out of the Union. They would have done
1t, too, If that daring little Connecticut
Yankee, Nathaniel Lyon, hadn't got to-
gether In st. Louis a small force of regulars
and driven Sterling Price, Governor Jack
son aud the rest of the secession leaders
out Of the State before they had time to re-
sist or raise an army. On this quick march
to the Southwest Lyons's army moved
light, living off the secession population as
they went along. After Lyons was killed at
Wilson's creek in the first battle of the war
IN
treating Union army northward and of
course, took whatever he needed from the
Union portion OF the population. SO it
went, or and on, for four years, according
70 the shifting of the fortune of the war
nut one side or the other was always get
ing the worst OF ii. And when the Mis-
sourianS were not away from home, fight
ing IN the ranks with either Price or Cur
us, they kept up guerrilla warfare among
themselves, so that hundreds of grievances
ana grudges remained to be settled after
the main fight ended.
DUEL WITH TUTT.
Wild Bill and man named Dave Tut
settled one of these old scores on the pub
tic square at Springfield while l was there
Iutt had been a scout in Prices army He
was handy with his gun, game as hornet,
and an all-round bad man even for that
country at that time. During the war Bill
had killed TUFTS pal under circumstances
to which Tut took exceptions, and he had
declared to his friends that he would have
Bills life. Back of all this, I aftarward
learned there was an undercurrent of
woman In the case, so that the feud was
bitter. Everybody in the town knew that
one or the other of those men, and maybe
both OF them, had got to die with his boots
on when they came back to Springfield after
the war. Bills position was doubly danger
Gus because Springfield was strongly Sc
cession, and Tut had ten. friends to his
fcrnf xrr1.D
quented the gambling rooms and the sa-
looms. Many OF us thought this crowd
would riddle the Union man with bullets
the moment he shot Tut, even If Bill
should have the luck to get the drop on
Dave. Nobody realized the situation any
better than Bill did. He tried to avoid a
fight, kept out OF TUFTS way and refused
TO sit in any game that Dave was in.
never knew just how it happened, but
~ was over game OF seVen-up that the
trouble was brought on. Tut staked a
player IN the game with Bill one day, and
{nen sat behind his man to coach him.
5ickok s watch lay on the table in front of
MIN. Somehow Tut got possession of that
watch, saving he would keep it until Bill
paid him $25 which he claimed. Even then
WHO Bill Wouldn't shoot, but when some
one told him that evening that Tut had
Deen boasting about town that lie was go
ing 70 carry the watch across the public
square at noon the next day Bits eyes
nlazed up and we knew the fight was on.
one or his friends who went to his room
IN the hotel the following morning to dis
suade him from fighting found rim cleaning
and loading the two big ivory-handied RE
yoivers that he always carried III belt
You don't want me 10 take anything
more from this crowd 10 you? said he.
lheyVe put upon me long enough. It's a
m1fter OF honor now. rutt'll never back
that watch OF mine across the square to-
uay unless dead men can walk
When IL o'clock came half the town was
out there on the square. Over near the
courthouse, on the opposite side from the
hotel, we could see Tut, surrounded by his
friends, waiting for Bill TO put in an APP
Isii,aa e.. FEetty soon all except Tut
TOOK a position on the square where Bill
would have them at his back when he
walked out. We all knew what it meant
well enough, and SO did Bill But the mo-
meat Tut started to cross the square from
the courthouse side Bill moved toward him
from the steps of the hotel. Hickok stood
SIX feet two and as straight spear. His
breadth across the chest and shoulders was
enormous, and he tapered from his armpits
70 his ankles in even lines like a wedge
lie wore that day a buckskin shirt and a
broad br1mmed Texas s0mbrero. There was
fire in Bills steel-gray eyes and his thin
lips were set as he walked out there his
his sides.
The men got within fifty yards of each
other before either one made move. Ev-
erybody was wrought up to the highest
pitch Of excitement when Tut suddenly
reached for his gun Bill saw him. Quicker
than chain lightning he whipped out that
ing navy revolver Of his, and without
seeming to take aim, fired. He didn't wait
70 sec whether Tut was hit. but wheeled
instantly and had both of his guns levelled
on the crowd that had been at his back
before the quickest of TUFTS friends could
draw
Are you satisfied. gentlemen? de-
manded BIZ. Then put up your weapons.
And they put 'em up.
Tut gave a kind of 4; twitch when Wild
Bilfs shot went through his heart Just as
he was about to fire OF course he missed
his man. He stood still in his tracks q mo-
ment-it seemed like an hour-tried to raise
his gun to shoot again, reeled and fell
dead"
TUFTS PARTNER.
The killing of TUFTS partner was dare
devil piece of business as I heard the
story" continued the Missourian. ut was
down On the Big Sandy near the Arkansas
boundary. Wild Bill was in Prices camp at
the time: sent there by General Curtis to
find out how many men the rebels had and
what they We're going to do. He had circled
away off through Kansas and Arkansas,
and had come into their lines from the
southwest, representing himself to be the
brother of a secessionist he happened to
know who was killed at Pea Ridge.
by and by. after Bill had got the infor-
nation he wanted the two armies lay fac
ing each other with the river between them.
lie MAS ready and anxious to leave Prices
lines. but how to get across the river was
q problem that puzzled him. for both banks
were heavily picketed. On picket duty one
day he somehow managed to give the tip
10 a Union comrade on the opposite bank
50 that after that he knew the boys would
DO looking for him and wouldn't shoot If he
out OF the enemy's lines.
TUFTS partner, a big sergeant in one of