Billy Dixon William " Billy " Dixon ( September 25 , 1850 – March 9 , 1913 ) scouted the Texas Panhandle for the Army , hunted buffalo for the train companies , defended the Adobe Walls settlement against Indian attack with his legendary buffalo rifle , and was one of eight civilians in the history of the U . S . to receive the Medal of Honor . Early life . Dixon was born in Ohio County , Virginia , ( now West Virginia ) , on September 25 , 1850 . Of European and Native American ancestry he was orphaned at age 12 and lived with an uncle in Missouri for a year before setting out on his own . He worked in woodcutters ' camps along the Missouri River until he started working at age 14 as an oxen driver and a mule skinner for a government contractor in Leavenworth , Kansas . He was a skilled marksman and occasionally scouted for Eastern excursionists brought by the railroads . In 1869 , he joined a venture in hunting and trapping on the Saline River northwest of Fort Hays in Kansas . He scouted Texas as far south as the Salt Fork of the Red River when the buffalo hunters moved into the Texas Panhandle in 1874 . He and his group hunted along the Canadian River and its tributaries . Second Battle of Adobe Walls . Dixon led the founders of Adobe Walls to the Texas Plains , where he knew buffalo were in abundance . The group of 28 men and one woman occupied the outpost of five buildings 15 miles northeast of Stinnett . The outpost was attacked on June 27 , 1874 by a band of 700 to 1200 Indians , and that is when Dixon went into the history books for firing " " The Shot of the Century " which effectively ended the siege . Although , Billy Dixon states in his biography that it was a " scratch shot " , he is still honored to this day with competitions in England and the US which attempt to match his skill . The stand - off continued into a third day , when a group of Indians were noticed about a mile east of Adobe Walls . It is said that Dixon took aim with a quickly borrowed . 50 - 90 Sharps ( as , according to his biography , he only had a . 45 - 90 Sharps and felt it could not reach ) buffalo rifle and fired , knocking an Indian near Chief Quanah Parker off his horse almost a mile away on his third shot . The Indians then left the settlement alone . Commemorative " Billy Dixon " model reproduction Sharps rifles that supposedly recreate the specifications of Dixon ' s famous gun are still available today . Army Scout . Billy Dixon quit buffalo hunting and , the following August , became an army scout . In September 1874 , just three months after Adobe Walls , an army dispatch detail consisting of Billy Dixon , another scout Amos Chapman , and four troopers from the 6th Cavalry Regiment ( United States ) were surrounded and besieged by a large combined band of Kiowas and Comanches , in the Battle of Buffalo Wallow . They holed up in a buffalo wallow located in Hemphill County and , with accurate rifle fire , held off the Indians for three days . An extremely cold rainstorm the last night discouraged the Indians , and they broke off the fight ; every man in the detail was wounded and one trooper killed . For this action Billy Dixon , along with the other survivors of ' The Buffalo Wallow Fight ' , were awarded the Medal of Honor ( for Gallantry in Battle ) . The medal is presently on display at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon , Texas . A Texas Historical Marker documents the battle site . Later years and death . In 1883 , Dixon returned to civilian life and built a home near the Adobe Walls site . He was postmaster there for 20 years and also was the first sheriff of the newly formed Hutchinson County , Texas . He served as state land commissioner and a justice of the peace . In 1894 , he married Olive King Dixon of Virginia , who for nearly three years was the only woman in Hutchinson County . They had seven children . In 1902 , the family moved to Plemons for schooling for their children . In 1906 , they moved to Oklahoma . Dixon died from pneumonia at his Cimarron County homestead in 1913 and was buried in Texline . On his deathbed he told Olive his complete life story which she penned and later published . In 1929 , his body was reinterred at Adobe Walls near where he stood when he first saw the Indians riding up the valley . Dixon Creek in southern Hutchinson County was named for him , as is the Billy Dixon Masonic Lodge in Fritch . A plaque commemorating his Medal of Honor was formally dedicated in 1992 . The Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association of Lancashire , England holds a shooting competition to commemorate his incredible long distance shot . Known as the Vintage Rifle Open Long Range Championships , it is shot at a distance of 1000 yards using black powder cartridge rifles of that era , and is strongly contested from shooters all over the United Kingdom .