The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1922-10-05
wild Bill Eickok, Greatest Gunman West Ever Knew, Helped Bring Law
and Order to Border Towns Where the Bad Men of the Seventies Held Sway

1dN AE4A14 VI IAAO M
could not seduce Wild Bill to join
their number. He told them to
come and take the horses if they
could; and on the afternoon of De
cember 10, 1861, ten of them led
by the McCandlas Brothers, rode
up to his dugout to do so. Bill
was alone, his stableman being
away hunting. He retreated to the
dark interior of his dugout and got
ready his weapons, a rifle, two SIX
shooters and a knife.
"The assailants proceeded to bat
ter in the door with a log, and as
it fell, Jim McCandlas, who must
have been a brave man to under
take SO foolhardy a thing against
a man already known as a killer,
sprang in the opening. He, of
course, was killed at once. This
exhausted the rifle, and Bill picked
up the six-shooters from the table
and in three quick shots killed
three more of the gang as they
rushed in the door. Four men were
dead in less than that many sec
|onds; but there were still six others
left, all inside the dugout now, and
all firing at him at a range of three
feet. 1t was almost a miracle that,
under such circumstances, the man
was not killed. Bill now was crowd
ed too much to use firearms, and
took to the bowie, thrusting at one
man and another as best he might.
I'm this chance medley the knife
wounds inflicted by Bill and his
swarming foes did not at first drop
their men; SO that it must have
been several minutes that all seven
of them were mixed in a mass of
shooting, thrusting, painting and
gasping humanity. Then Jack Nc
.and1as swung his rifle barrel and
Bill over the head, spring
ing upon him with his knife as we'll.
Bill got his hand on a six-shooter
and killed him just as he would
have struck. After that no one
knew what happened, not even Bill
himself, who got his name then
and there. I just got sort of Wild
ne said, describing it. I thought
ny heart was on fire. I went out
@ the pump to get a drink, and /
vas all cut and shot to pieces
Wild Bill's Deadly Work
As a Sharpshooter
"They called him Wild Bill after
hat, and he had earned the name.
There were six dead men on the
loor of the dugout. He had fairly
whipped the ten of them, and the
our remaining had enough and
led from that awful hole in the
Two of these bad
y wounded. Bill followed them
the door. His own weapons
we're exhausted or not at hand by
his time, but his stableman came
p just then with a rifle in his
ands. Bill caught it up from him,
nd, cut up as he was, fired and
illed one of the desperadoes as he
red to mount his horse. The I
Their wounded man later died. t
men were killed by one"
After a year he had recovered {
efficiently from his injuries to Z
Ike service as a wagon master I'M |
err General Fremont, and while e
ear Sedalia was attacked by a v
,rce of Confederates. In a run e
ing fight he killed four men. He a
len joined the army as an indie h
endent sharpshooter, and in four il
ours at the Battle of Pea Ridge he f
lied IS men, one of them the Con- +
derate General Mccullough. ii
Wild Bill never enlisted in the il
my, but after his sharp-shooting
,periences he went with General {
1rtis as a spy and took the dam "
.rous work of going into General b
lines among the hot-blooded t
and Missourians among f;