FIVE YEARS A CAVALRYMAN ....

Reprint of original 1889 work by H.H. McConnell. Norman, Oklahoma and London, England: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.

Note: Sub-title is Or, Sketches of Regular Army Life on the Texas Frontier, 1866 - 1871.


Pages 223-224:

"As remarked above, the majority of the fellows who hung aroun the military posts and passed themselves off for guides were of no earthly use, and knew little or nothing of the country.

"The traditional guides, however, I had never seen until I struck Kansas, and there they were to be met with loafing around every post.

"Long - haired, clothed in buckskin gaily decorated with beads, moccasins on their feet, villainous - looking broad - brimmed hats, loaded down with firearms and proficient in their use, they were rated by the number of men they got the drop on, and were, upon the whole, as thorough a set of blackguards as could be found.

"Their chief ambition was to be regarded as holy terrors while they lived and to die with their boots on at the end -- a consummation generally realized.

"The latter part of December, 1870, was characterized by a degree of cold very unusual in this latitude, .. etc."