The Two Sams

by F. M. Worden

  Sam Duncan was the happiest man in the entire country to have this beautiful girl for his wife.

  The only sad time was when old Gabe came and told Sam he had had enough of frontier life. “I’m going to Missouri and get to farm-n.”

  It was a sad day for Sam when he left. “I’ll never forget you Gabe. I love you like I did my Pa.”

  Old Gabe would die on his farm in Missouri.

  Chapter 9

  Life with Fawn

  The summer slipped by so fast, one could hardly believe winter was here again. One winter evening Sam sat by the fireplace and watched his bride preparing the evening meal. He marveled at this young woman. The way she had fit into his life. The ladies of Fort Laramie had fallen in love with her and she with them. She made buckskin shirts, vests, coats and moccasins. The beaded work she put on the garments was beautiful. The white people of the fort all wanted her work and at the same time she taught Sam to speak the Sioux language. His knowledge of Choctaw helped to make it easy.

  That winter she made Sam an elk hide coat, a soft buckskin fringed shirt and a pair of boot moccasins. He liked them so much he wore them all the time. Not one person had ever called him a Squaw man. At least not to his face.

  Fawn loved to watch the ceremonies at the fort and what the soldiers did. The changing of the guard, the raising and lowering of the flag, the marching, the horse troopers maneuvers. She loved the band music. Most of the soldiers admired her and none ever spoke a bad word of her.

  The officers of the fort gave dances at every opportunity. Fawn loved to go and watch the officers and their ladies dance. It was the evening of a Fourth of July dance that Fawn and Sam watched the dancers from the porch out side of the Old Bedlam building. Fawn insisted that Sam try to dance with her. Sam tried but had two left feet. Captain Ryan’s wife, Sue, saw them thru a window and came out and asked if Fawn would like to learn the white people’s dances. Fawn was overjoyed. “Yes, yes,” she answered. Sue told her to come to her quarters, bring Sam and she would teach them. Fawn and Sam spent many evenings with the Captain and Sue dancing to Sue’s music box that played the Blue Danube Waltz. Fawn became very good at the dance. Sam and Fawn found they liked to dance together, they were good.

  That winter the officers and noncommissioned officers held a Christmas Eve dance and Sue saw to it that Fawn and Sam had an invitation. All the ladies dressed in their finest, the soldiers in their dress uniforms made an impressive sight. Fawn wore the most beautiful white fringed and beaded buckskin dress anyone had ever seen. She was stunning. Her shiny long black hair hung in two braids. Her flashing black eyes and rose-colored cheeks had all the men wanting to dance with her and most did. She was by far the most beautiful woman at the dance. Sam was so proud of her. He also was outstanding in his best suit. He danced with every woman there. Sue was so proud of her teaching the couple to dance, she told everyone what good students Fawn and Sam were.

  Sue was a good horse woman, and rode almost every afternoon. The Captain asked Fawn to ride with her. Fawn also a good horse woman taught Sue her ways of Indian riding. The two women loved to ride together.

  The years flew by. A new President was elected in the States and word came that the South had seceded from the Union. Then came the news of Fort Sumpter and War between the States. The Army pulled most of the troops from the western forts to fight in the war. The Oregon Trail was wide open to Indian attack. The Indians thought the soldiers were leaving because of them. Raiding became wide spread. The Oregon Trail was shut down most of the war years.

  The spring thaw of 1862 was slow to come. Sam and his Crow scouts had come in from their first scouting trip and reported the tribes to be mostly peaceful and hard at hunting game and stealing horses from each other.

  Returning to his cabin he found his wife in tears and in a terrible state. She told him thru crying words that Major Ryan’s wife, Sue, had been raped and murdered. “If I had gone with her, it would not have happened.” Thru her tearful words she told her husband that Major Ryan now the commandant of the fort, wanted Sam to come to his office.

  At the office Sam found the Major in an awful state. The Adjutant Lieutenant Adams was trying to soothe him to no avail. When the Major saw Sam he said, “Sam I want you to go get that son-of-a-bitch who killed my Sue so I can hang the dirty bastard. I’ll give you a letter of permission to go anywhere. Take the best horse in the stable. He has taken my grey gelding and headed east. It was Corporal Schmidt. I sent him as her escort. He raped and killed her. Go Sam as soon as you can.”

  Sam promised he would bring him back. “I’ll start as soon as I get my gear together.” Sam left within an hour. Fawn begged to go with him. He refused her. He took the Oregon Trail east. A light rain had washed all tracks away. He would lope and walk his steed so as not to use him up. Second day out he found the telegraph wires had been ripped down by Indians for several miles. He knew no word of the Corporal could have been sent ahead.

  Late that evening he met a wagon train coming west. He asked the wagon master if he had seen a soldier riding a grey horse going east on the trail. “Yes, came in our camp late last night, said he had a message to take to Fort Leavenworth. We gave him a meal, fed his horse and he went on his way.”

  Sam told him the story, thanked him and rode on. Everyone he met he would ask about the Corporal. Many said they had seen him. Sam rode into Fort Leavenworth two days later and talked to a Captain Bates. He told him the Corporal he was after had taken a steam boat with troops on the way to a battle somewhere down on the Tennessee River. Sam got permission to go on a troop boat bound for the fighting.

  Three days of travel put Sam at a place called Pittsburgh Landing. A major battle had just finished. Boats were being loaded with wounded men from both sides. Sam asked of the Corporal with the grey horse and was pointed to the battle field. He had been seen on his way there.

  What a terrible place. Sam led his mount thru many dead men laying in every direction in both uniforms. He found a party picking up the dead. A Sergeant told him a man answering to the description of the Corporal had been seen robbing the dead. He had killed wounded men if they resisted. He was last seen on the road going east on the south side of the river. Sam thanked the Sergeant and took the road east.

  Within a few miles two horsemen blocked his way. Two more came in on his rear. All had their guns leveled on him. “Where ya going Yank?” a rebel Sergeant asked.

  Sam could see these men meant business. “I ain’t no Yank” Sam answered. “I’m after a blue belly who’s been a robbing and kill-en wounded men back on that battle field.” Sam was wearing a fringed buckskin shirt and grey pants and looked more like a reb than yank.

  “We done see’d him,” one of the men spoke up. “He was a tearing along the other side o the river, we never got a shot at him. He was a riding a grey horse.”

  Sam asked where he could cross the river.

  “Thar’s a ford a mile or so on down,” he was told. “Go get the son-of-a-bitch and kill him for us,” the Sergeant said.

  Sam pushed on and found the ford and crossed. He rode fast on the road east.

  It was after dark when he saw a fire thru the trees a short distance off the road. Tying his horse he slipped up on a sleeping figure by the fire. There sleeping was the man he was after. A blow with a pistol on the head knocked the man cold. Blood streamed down the side of his head. Sam felt like killing him right then and there. No, he had to take him back to Major Ryan. He rolled him over and tied his hands behind his back. Went back for his horse and from the saddle bag took a rope and tied his feet up to a limb of a tree. Then completely drained of energy lay down and went to sleep.

  The man’s groaning woke him up. Day light had come. He could see a strange looking rifle laying a few feet away. He picked it up and examined it. On the barrel it read New Haven Arms Company 44 rimfire cartridge. It had a lever, out side hammer and no fore arm. There also was a pistol on this man with Remington Model 1861 on the barrel.

&n
bsp; The man finally came around. With one eye swollen closed, blood matting his full black beard, he said in his German accent, “That you Duncan? You hit my head too hard. Why didn’t you kill me?”

  “I’m taken you back to Fort Laramie so’s Major Ryan can hang your sorry ass. Where did you get this rifle?”

  Schmidt spit at him. Sam shoved the barrel hard into his gut. “I ain’t gonna ask again, you no good bastard.”

  The Corporal told him he had picked it up on the battle field with a pouch of cartridges. “I was a high ranking German officer, I get no respect from you people. I’m better than any of you.” He was as belligerent as a man could be.

  “Why did you kill her? Wasn’t raping her enough?”

  The Corporal could see Sam was mad as hell. “She could fight like the devil. I told her I was gonna have her even if she was dead. She asked for it. I don’t care if I live or die, I’m no good in this country,” he said with a snarl on his lips.

  “You’re gonna die mister. If they don’t kill you, I will.” As he spoke, Sam’s whole body shook with anger. Sam loaded the man on the grey, with his hands still tied behind him. He tied his feet to the stirrups and headed for Pittsburgh Landing.

  It was noon when they reached the landing. Got a ride across to the west side on a ferry boat and asked an officer where he could keep his prisoner. “This the man who was robbing the dead?” the officer asked.

  “This is him.”

  “General Grant wants this man, come with me.” Sam followed the officer, pushing the Corporal ahead.

  In a tent sitting behind a field desk was a stocky man with a full beard, smoking a large black cigar. He looked to be a man in his fifties. “Sir,” said the officer, “this man has brought in the man accused of robbing the dead and killing the wounded on the battle field.”

  “How do we know this is him for sure?” asked the General.

  “We have several men who saw him, I’ll go get them.”

  Sam spoke up, “Here’s a bag of watches, rings and money I found on him.” Sam handed the bag to the officer. He took it and dumped the contents on the desk in front of the General.

  The General stood in disbelief. Looking at the loot he said, “This has to be the worst crime I have ever seen. What have you got to say for yourself, Corporal?”

  The Corporal spat out, “Go to hell General.”

  The General called for the guards. A Sergeant and four privates came up. The General said, “Take this son-of-a-bitch out and hang him right now.”

  Sam turned to leave. The General called him back. “I want you to see him hung. Then come sit and talk with me.”

  Sam went with the officer and watched Schmidt kicking air. It was short and quick. He didn’t say a word before he was hung.

  Back in the tent the General introduced himself. “I am Ulysses S. Grant. How are you called?”

  “My name is Sam Duncan, I came from Fort Laramie to bring this man back. He raped and killed Major Charles Ryan’s wife, Sue.”

  “Charlie Ryan’s wife?”

  “That’s right sir”

  “I went to the Point with old Charlie, what a beautiful woman she was. I’ll wire Charlie we got the bastard and hung him. Now I want to ask you to join my staff. A man like you can be useful to me. How about it?”

  “No sir, I promised the Major I would bring his grey horse back and I am needed there. I must return.” Sam was flattered the General would ask. “I would like to ask if I could keep the guns I took from the Corporal?”

  “Keep them, I’ll see that you get passage as soon as it comes available” the General told him. He boarded a steam boat that afternoon on the way to St Louis.

  The boat docked at St Louis three days later. Sam went straight to the pens behind the Hawkins gun shop. Unsaddled and put his horses in the pens. He knocked on the back door of the shop. To his surprise Jake opened it. What a happy reunion. Jake was so surprised to see Sam standing there he was almost speechless. When he found words he was overjoyed. All work in the shop stopped. Everyone came to welcome Sam. Questions came thick and fast. He told them he had married and had come east to catch a soldier killer. The job done, he had to return to Fort Laramie as soon as he could. He asked Jake about Sarah. Jake told him she had married a river boat gambler and had sold her holdings here to the black people working for her. She was last reported to be in New Orleans. George now runs the café.

  “You should go see him. He always asks about you.”

  Sam showed Jake the guns he had taken from Schmidt. Jake had heard of the rifle, had not seen one. He said, “It’s called a Henry. The pistol by Remington has been made for a few years. We can convert it to use the same cartridge as the Henry if you would like.”

  “What a great deal that would be, I want to do it,” Sam told him and the process was started as they talked.

  Sam, Sam Hawkins and Jake had supper at the café with George. He was so glad to see Sam he told him all the things that had happened to the blacks since they owned the café and Miss Sarah had left. “We shore didn’t want her to leave. She was so good to us. We didn’t want her to marry that gambler man. Now we hears she and him ain’t together no more, we hears she has a café down in New Orleans town. She is one fine lady, we shore do’s miss her.”

  “I missed her for a while myself.”

  Sam told them all he had to get back to Fort Laramie and would be leaving in the next few days. “I am so glad to see you all, I’ll be back one day with my lady.”

  Two days later Sam took a river boat to St Joseph and headed up the Oregon Trail. The first stop he made was at an old pony express station that, he was told, was being made into a stagecoach relay station. One of the workers said that the line was being started by Ben Holladay. It would go from St Louis to Salt Lake City. Relay stations would be placed twenty miles apart. A new line was coming from California to Salt Lake City. Sam stayed at stations being built all along the way to the Fort. Thought to himself the Indians will have plenty of places to get horses.

  He rode into Fort Laramie in mid afternoon. He went to the cabin, Fawn was overjoyed to see him. The sad note was she told him Major Ryan had taken his life, just after he got the wire Schmidt had been hung. She was the last person to talk to him. He had told her, “Life was no good without Sue.” She had been out of his office a few steps when the gun shot was heard. Fawn was so sad to have lost them both.

  A new Commanding officer had come from the states. An older man who had never had a command before. A Captain John White. This man Sam could see was uneasy in the job.

  The summer of 1862 flew by as Sam and the Crow Scouts were kept busy keeping track of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. They made a raid in mid July and had to be put back on their reservation. A company of Colorado volunteers came up to help with the Indian problem.

  In late summer with the war in the states raging, word came that the Sioux on the Minnesota reservation went on the warpath under Chief Little Crow. Seven hundred settlers on the frontier of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas were killed and over two hundred captured.

  Washington telegraphed and asked if Ft Laramie had scouts available. The commanding officer telegraphed back, “We have Sam Duncan, a man who can track a pissant across a flat rock.”

  Sam and his Crow Scouts were ordered to go north and locate the guilty perpetrators and send word to General John Pope who was coming from Fort Leavenworth with a unit of cavalry. After a long hard ride the scouts found the Indian camp. The village of tepees was set up in a long flat valley with hills rising on both sides. The east and west ends were open. There must have been at least two hundred lodges and a thousand head of horses.

  Sam and his scouts found a covered spot on the south hills. From there they could observe the village without being discovered. The Crows told Sam they thought this Sioux clan had intentions of staying the rest of the summer.

  Iron Fist told Sam, “War Chief not afraid. He think he safe here. Soldiers no find. This sacred land. Indian no be kill
ed here.”

  The young scouts, Curly and White Man Runs Him were sent to find and bring the troopers. Sam told the young scouts to keep their blue coats on. “You might be taken for the Sioux hostiles.”

  For two days the three scouts lay in the high grass watching the Indians and their captured white people. With a spy class they saw the horror the whites had to endure. Men were staked out over anthills. Women were beaten by squaws unmercifully. They used stick and stones whipped and beat the women and children at will. It was hard for Sam to watch and not try to stop the punishment. There was no way he could intercede.

  Curly and his companion found General Pope and his cavalry units. They were two days march from the valley. It was almost dark when the General and two of his staff officers came to see Sam. They parlayed in a ravine a quarter mile from the observation post. Sam laid the village and valley situation out to the General.

  The General asked, “Tell me scout, you got any ideas on how we should take this village?”

  Before Sam could answer a Captain piped up and said, “I’ll bring my cannons up, put em on this hill and blow that village into kingdom-come.”

  Sam was beside himself. “What the hell you gonna do? You damn fool. That village is plumb full of white captives, women and children and Indian women and children.” He was hot under the collar and showed it.

  General Pope said, “We’re not foolish enough to kill that many people. Give me your plan scout. By the way what’s your name?”

  “Sam, Sam Duncan.”

  “I know of you. You’re damn good at what you do.”

  “Thank you General. These are my Crow scouts.” He pointed to the four Crows. “They’re damn good at what they do.”

  The General asked again, “You got a plan?”

  Sam laid his plan out. “General these bucks have been drinking a lot of firewater. We think they’re sick and hung over. You know they’re feeling pretty bad. They won’t give you too much trouble. The horse herd is down the west end of the valley, maybe a thousand head. They ain’t got many guards on the herd. Me and my Crows will take the guards out. Then we’ll get in position to drive the horses west at first light. Them bucks will all come out to see what’s go-n on. You have your troopers on this ridge. They can move down in the valley and get the bucks. They will have good targets. They won’t have to kill the captives or the Indian women and children. Have your horsemen up at the east end. They can charge thru the village and clean up the rest. For God’s sake tell em not to be kill-en the women and children.”