The Two Sams

by F. M. Worden

  “By God you got one hell of a plan.” The General was all excited. “We got all night to get ready.” He turned to his staff, “Let’s get crack-en.” He was giving orders fast and furious.

  Sam said again, “Tell your troopers not to be kill-en the women and children.”

  Sam and the Crows took their horses way around to the far end to the valley. Sam, Iron Fist, Black Elk and Curly slipped up on the guards and used their knives. At first light they started the horses stampeding. The plan worked.

  Sam rode back into the village. The troopers were killing everybody. He was screaming and waving his arms for them to stop. A trooper was about to kill a young girl. Sam drove his horse into the trooper’s knocking both of them down. He picked the girl up and put her on his horse. Warriors were surrendering everywhere. The defeat of the Sioux was complete. This engagement captured over one thousand Indian men, women and children.

  Sam dismounted in the village on the last charge by the troopers. He had done his best to stop the killing of the Indian women and children. As he stood near a tepee, a young blonde woman crawled out and put both arms around his legs. She was crying uncontrollably. He couldn’t understand her words, she was a Swedish immigrant new to this country. They found over a hundred captives in the village.

  A prairie military trial was convened at Mandate, Minnesota. All the warriors were found guilty and sentenced to hang. President Lincoln intervened and ordered thirty-eight to go to the gallows. Sam was asked to help make the selections. It was the hardest thing he would ever have to do. He would spend many sleepless nights thinking of the men he had selected. It was the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The thirty-eight were hung the day after Christmas 1862.

  Sam had to hear their eerie death songs the night before the hangings. Then he and his scouts returned to Fort Laramie with heavy hearts.

  More trouble was found at home. Seems a cow had wandered away from a wagon train and a young Sioux boy had found and taken it to a village across the Platte River. There a feast was had by the villagers. The wagon master demanded the Indians pay for the cow. They refused. A Lieutenant Louis fresh from West Point was sent to bring the boy in. A fight ensued and the Lieutenant and four Troopers were killed.

  Next day the Fort Commander surrounded the village and with cannon and rifle fire killed all the villagers, men, women and children. Captain White was recalled to be an instructor in the states. Sam blamed himself. “If I had been here it wouldn’t have happened.”

  Fawn was so upset over the tragedy, she wanted to go back to her people. Sam and Amanda spent several days convincing her to stay. Only her love of Sam kept her from leaving.

  A new commander came to Fort Laramie. An older Major. He was another officer with no command experience. This man was a bit better as he had been stationed with the Cherokee nation and understood the Indian problem a little better than Captain White. Fawn and Sam liked this man. They felt things would be better for all the Indian tribes.

  The war dragged on in the states. The Indians began to raid more often, causing Sam to stay in the field with his scouts all summer long.

  In ‘65 the war was over at last and troops began to return to the western forts.

  In 1866 Sam was used as an interpreter for a group of Sioux and Cheyenne Chiefs on a trip to the east. They made a visit to see the great white father in Washington D.C. There they met President Johnson. He made many promises to the chiefs. On the way back the group made visits to New York City and Chicago. The old chiefs were impressed and one told Sam the white people were like stars in the sky. “Too many white eyes for Indian to fight.”

  The visit didn’t seem to do any good for the raids and fights between the Indians and soldiers continued. The years 1866 and 67 kept Sam and the Crow scouts in the field most of the time.

  It was fall of ‘67 and Sam had been gone for over a month. He returned to the fort just at sun down. He went to his cabin. It was dark and cold. Fawn was nowhere to be found. He went to the store looking for her. Amanda with tears told him Fawn was at the fort hospital. She went there with Sam. The surgeon met them and broke the news that Fawn had died in child birth earlier that very day, both she and the baby boy were dead. “We did all we could to save her.” The surgeon wiped tears away as he spoke.

  Sam was devastated with this loss, he turned white. A blank look filled his eyes. Amanda took a hold of him and told him that Fawn had two miscarriages in the last years. “She was such a petite little thing, I don’t think she was meant to have children,” Amanda told him thru her tears. “She didn’t want you to know she had the miscarriages.”

  Sam told them Fawn had hid the problem very well. “I never knew.” He cursed God with all his might. Took his knife and started slashing his arms. Amanda and the surgeon stopped him. He fell to the floor in a pool of blood, he had passed out. The doctor acted fast to stop the bleeding or he would have died. Too weak to go to the service for Fawn he lay between life and death for days. The loss of blood kept him in the hospital bed for weeks. He couldn’t go to the fort’s cemetery for Fawn’s burial. When he was well enough he told everyone he couldn’t stay at Fort Laramie. He gave away most of his belongings. He wanted to burn the cabin. Amanda stopped him. He told his Crows and the Tellers’s good by and how much he thought of them. “You people will always be in my thoughts.”

  Early on a late fall morning, he saddled his horse and with a pack horse headed on the trail east. The first heavy snow of the season was falling as he rode the Oregon Trail. A very dishearten, lonely and sad sick man.

  Chapter 10

  Hunter, Lawman

  Sam took two months to reach St Louis. He had camped by the Missouri River and just did nothing. Total despair and depression had come over him. He cared for no one. He had no ambition to do anything. He only took care of his horses. Did little for himself. Only ate enough to stay alive. He stayed away from people. A total recluse. Wouldn’t even talk to any one who happened to come by his camp. If someone stopped at the camp, he would motion for them to leave. Even pointed a pistol at one party who tried to talk with him. He yelled at them to move on in no uncertain terms. In all, Sam Duncan was a very sick, lonely and unhappy man. He dreamed of Fawn night after night. She was on his mind constantly. He kept asking himself, “Will I ever get over her?”

  It happened on a cold sultry evening. A thunder storm hit the plains. Lighting danced across the prairie and struck a tree Sam had camped by. Both horses and Sam were knocked down and out. When he came to, a young couple was bending over him.

  “You’re a mighty lucky man to be alive. We saw the lighting hit. Was sure it was gonna hit our team and wagon. We saw your horses go down. We came over to find out if we could help.”

  Sam could not speak he only shook his head.

  “I’m Daniel Harper this is my wife Clair. We just been married a week. We’re going to California. We’re gonna try to help until you get on your feet.” He smiled and told his young wife to get blankets from their wagon.

  The couple stayed with Sam for two weeks. They attended to his every need. It made him realize he wasn’t alone and people, even strangers were willing to help him and they cared. The young couple prayed to God out loud every morning, evening and at each meal. Sam was always in their prayers. He was getting better.

  A wagon train came along. Sam told Daniel he should take his wife and join the train. The couple wanted to stay to make sure he would be okay. Sam assured them he was now in his right mind and could take care of himself. Daniel and Clair packed and joined the train.

  Sam stayed in camp for several more days. He missed the couple badly so he packed and moved on to St Louis. He arrived at the Hawkins gun shop late one afternoon. His old friends at the shop made him feel at home and Jake offered him a job working in the shop. He accepted and went to work as a stock maker once again.

  Sam was uneasy working indoors, the days dragged for him. A month passed. He wanted something but did not know what. He discussed
it with Jake several times.

  Late one day a stranger came to the shop looking for buffalo rifles. Jake showed him two he had in stock. A Sharps fifty caliber, with a thirty-six inch barrel. A real buffalo gun. He showed the man another. A Remington rolling block. It was also a fifty caliber.

  “I’ll take em both,” the man said. “Would you know where a man can find a good shooter. I’m goin’ a hunt-un buffalo.”

  Jake called to Sam, “Man here look-n for a shooter. Says he’s go-n hunt-un buffalo. Maybe you’s outa talk with him.” Jake knew in his heart Sam needed to do something else.

  Sam came to the counter and asked, “Where you goin’ to hunt these buffalo?”

  “Down Texas way. There’s big money in hides and buffalo robes. They’re paying two to four dollars a hide, five to six for robes and fifty cents for tongues. Man make a right tidy sum if he can shoot. There’s buyers that will come and pay cash for all you can get. You know a good shooter?”

  Sam asked the man, “What’s your deal? How you gonna pay a shooter?”

  “Well,” he says, “I have a wagon and team and some camp equipment. I got a few dollars. What I need is a pardner who can supply the same and shoot. You know someone like that?”

  “I have a few dollars and I’m a damn good shot. What kinda deal you gonna make me?”

  “Fifty- fifty right down the middle if-n you got a mind to. My name’s Otto Clinger. I been down in that country and seen, I tell ya thousands of them buffalo. They’re there just for the taken.”

  “Now just one minute friend. That’s Comanche land. Them savages will be a lift-en your hair as soon as they see you’s.” Jake didn’t care for this deal. He turned to Sam, “I wouldn’t be ago-n with this fella, no sir- ree.”

  “Ah hell, the Army and Texas Ranger got them red skins on the run. They got a reservation for em up in Indian Territory. They ain’t no problem at all. Fact is the Army will buy the meat if you can get it to em. They want’s all them critters dead so’s them red devils will stay on their reservation. How about it young fella you’s wants to pitch in with me?”

  Sam turned to Jake and said, “Gotta good mind to join this man. I feel like a chicken in a coop around here.”

  “Hell yes Sam. You’re free, white and twenty-one. You’s can do anything you’s a mind to.”

  Sam turned to the man and said, “You just got yourself a pardner.” The two shook hands.

  Right away the two started to make plans. “I’ll buy another wagon and team. We can buy our shoot-n stuff right here from Jake. We gotta have lots of ammunition. Need two hundred and fifty pounds of lead and a fifty caliber mold, four thousand primers and seventy pounds of powder. We need at least two thousand cartridge cases.”

  Sam was ready and willing for this adventure. In the next few days the needed equipment was procured.

  Sam traded his Remington pistol for a new six shot forty-four caliber Colt. The two started for Fort Dodge, Kansas. On the trip the two men talked of their troubles. Otto, a German had lost his woman. This big man, six feet four, two hundred fifty pounds, broke down and cried as he told of losing his wife. He told Sam, “I will never get over her, she was my whole life. I’m gonna try real hard to get over her.”

  Sam knew just how he felt. He told Otto, “It’ll take time.”

  The two became fast friends. They had their lost women in common.

  Arriving in Fort Dodge the two looked for hide buyers and men who could be used as skinners. They wanted at least two men. They found buyers who said they would come down and pickup and pay for the hides at least every two months. They found two men for skinners, one a Mexican, the other Irish. As they pulled out on the road south, a woman in a buckskin dress carrying a blanket, covering her face with her hand, stood in the middle of the road and stopped them. She called and said she was a good skinner and needed a job.

  “I hear you’s a need-n skinners.” Sam and Otto dropped down to talk with her. She told them in her broken English, she could out skin any man alive. Sam told her to get in his wagon. In a flash she was over the tail gate.

  Sam turned to Otto and told him, “She’s a Cherokee been thrown out of the tribe, she covers her face because her nose has been cut off. She was unfaithful to her man.”

  “By God we gonna have to look at that all the time?” Otto asked. Otto didn’t seem too happy to have her along.

  “We’ll fix her a mask, you’ll get used to her,” Sam told him. “Hell, who knows you may be sleeping with her before it’s over. She’s got a real nice body on her.”

  They both laughed and Otto slapped Sam on the back. “Why not, it’s one way to get over my wife.” They went to the wagons and continued on their way.

  At night camp the woman disappeared. Sam set a plate and a cup of coffee out and called to her to come and eat. No one saw her but next morning the plate and cup were by the fire. She was asleep in Sam’s wagon. He pushed her breakfast and coffee over the tail gate. They broke camp and journeyed on. The next several days were the same.

  Just before noon on a bright sunny day, Sam’s wagon topped a small rise. There below in a shallow valley was what looked like a thousand buffalo contentedly grazing away.

  Sam in the lead, pulled his team around and waved to the others to follow him. He told them what he had seen. “I’ll do some shoot-n. You pull back and make camp.” He found a spot, set up and dropped fifty beasts that afternoon. Mostly bulls.

  Next morning the herd had moved on. The skinning began. Sure enough the woman was an expert skinner. That afternoon Sam saddled his horse and followed the herd and dropped another fifty. Back at camp the work began. The woman showed the men how it should be done.

  Otto was impressed, “By gar she has a good looking body on her, even in them man’s clothes.”

  Sam laughed, “See, what did I tell ya, ya may be sleeping with her before long, nose or no nose.”

  They moved camp and followed this herd. Sam took forty to fifty a day most days. The hides were piling up. They ate buffalo meat three times a day. The herd disappeared and they had to move to another location.

  Otto began talking of the woman a lot. “I could take to her except for that nose.”

  Sam told him he had seen that before. A doctor had made a fake one and no one could see the difference.

  “Sam, this is one good looking woman, I may be falling for her, what do you think Sam?”

  “She’s a real worker and I bet she was a pretty gal before they cut her up. You ain’t get-n no virgin, I can tell you that.”

  Otto was laughing, “I sure got a hanker-n for her.” No more was talked about her for some time.

  The buyers came and the two partners made several thousand dollars each. The hunting continued.

  One evening two lawmen came into camp and asked if a lone rider had come by. None had. The two were Texas Rangers. They were after a man named Bass Outlaw, a killer and robber. The Rangers stayed the night and their talk interested Sam. They told him if he ever wanted a job to look the Rangers up. “We always need good men.”

  A few days later a lone rider rode into camp. Sam was reloading cartridges, when he saw a man on horseback coming, he slipped his colt on to his lap. The man demanded something to eat.

  “There’s coffee on the fire and some jerked meat hang-n,” Sam said in a curt tone as the man dismounted.

  “Who the hell you think you’re a talking to you son-of-a-bitch.” The rider acted mean. He placed his right hand on the revolver in his holster.

  Sam displayed the cocked colt. “I be talk-n to you, you asshole, now climb back on that pony and make tracks before I put holes in your worthless hide.”

  The man mounted and rode out a few yards, turned in his saddle and yelled, “We’ll meet again, you lousy bastard.”

  Sam called after him, “I’ll be looking forward to the day.” The horsemen spurred his horse and loped away to the east.

  The next months were uneventful, Sam was knocking down twenty to fifty buffalo a
day, the hides piled up. Otto called the woman Sunny as she was always pleasant and cheerful and kind to all, and a very good cook. All the men were amazed at her hard work and know how.

  Sam was on a stand when the Mexican skinner came riding on a well lathered horse and told him to get back to camp. “We got Injun trouble.”

  When Sam reached the camp he could see half a dozen mounted Comanches sitting on a hill watching the camp. They were about a quarter mile away. Otto was watching them thru a spy glass. “They all got war paint on Sam. Here take a look.”

  Sam looked thru the glass. “I think we’re in for a fight, let’s throw up some breast works under the wagons, go get your guns and get ready.”

  Otto still watching thru the spy glass. “There’s three braves riding out, one has his hand up.”

  Sam told them, “He wants to parlay, I’ll go talk”

  “I’ll go too,” Otto said.

  “Me too,” Sunny was already walking out.

  Sam put the Henry in the crook of his left arm and the three walked boldly out to meet the three Warriors.

  Drawing close Sam could see one of the Warriors was a black man. Sam raised his right hand in friendly fashion and in sign language asked what they wanted. The black man rode forward.

  “You men kill our Buffalo. You stop or we kill you all.”

  Sam looked long and hard at this man. Something looked familiar about him. The black man said. “You’re in our land, if you want to live, go, go now.”