The bison herds had more than a few years left from when Marcy wrote, but in 1872, buffalo killings increased dramatically. A combination of factors were to blame. Railroads brought easier access to the hunting grounds as well as more reliable means of shipping bison products back east. Rifles, produced by Sharps, Remington, and the Springfield Armory, became more accurate and less expensive. Industrialization increased demand for bison hide to make tough leather transmission belts to run machines. There was a fad for Indian-made buffalo robes, and bison tongue and marrow were delicacies in high demand. Bison bones were used for fertilizer, and bison heads for decoration. Buffalo hunting seemed to be an easy way to make quick money, and hunters, sportsmen, and others descended on the Plains.
“The buffalo melted away like snow before a summer’s sun,” Lieutenant Colonel Richard Irving Dodge wrote of those days. “Congress talked of interfering, but only talked. Winter and summer, in season and out of season, the slaughter went on.”7 In May 1872 an estimated thirty thousand bison were killed, mostly for their hides, and sold for two dollars apiece. At the end of that summer, one newspaper noted that “as the bison are driven into narrow limits their destruction becomes greater, and it is highly probable that the animal within the next thirty years will become entirely extinct.”8 Two years later the killing dropped off because there were hardly any bison to be found. “Comparatively few buffalo are now killed, for there are comparatively few to kill,” Dodge wrote. “In October 1874 I was on a short trip to the buffalo region south of Sidney Barracks. A few buffalo were encountered, but there seemed to be more hunters than buffalo.”9
It was not just white hunters who were destroying the buffalo herds. Indians, particularly the Sioux, were lured by the demand for buffalo robes and began killing with abandon. Dodge noted that after the Pawnee retreated to a reservation and relinquished their previous hunting grounds, “the Sioux poured into this country” and “made such a furious onslaught on the poor beasts, that in a few years scarcely a buffalo could be found in all the wide area south of the Cheyenne and north and east of the North Platte.”10 Over the peak years of slaughter, 1872–74, an estimated 4.4 million bison were killed—3.2 million by whites and 1.2 million by Indians.11
European hunting parties were common on the Plains, since there was no sport like it to be had in their home countries. “Hundreds of the best shots from all over this country and Europe,” an observer wrote, “were on hand to take a farewell hunt before the shaggy bison became extinct.”12 Not just bison but antelope, elk, wolves, bears, coyotes, and other game fell to the avid hunters.
Alexis was not the first European aristocrat the Custers had encountered on the hunt. In December 1866, the Russian prince Nicholas Ouroussoff, Count Montaigne of France, and some English nobles visited Fort Riley seeking buffalo. Libbie noted in a letter to Rebecca Richmond, “Prince Qusosoff nephew of the Saar of Russia (the small dictionary don’t say Sar so I cant spell it) has been on a buffalo hunt. He visited us and so we found his highness the Prince quite like other dutchy boys. The English party of noblemen have not returned I think.”13 The Junction City Union reported that the Englishmen had enjoyed “fair luck in hunting the bison and extra good luck in not seeing ‘ye savages.’”14 One report had it the prince killed thirty buffalo, and altogether his party accounted for 150 “of our noble American bison.”15 Later, in 1869, an Irish peer named Lord Waterpark visited Fort Riley. The hunts were not just for show; during one outing someone was gored, a few dogs were killed, and Libbie was almost taken out by charging a buffalo.16
Alexis and his party arrived at Omaha on January 12, 1872. There were a number of Russian notables along, including Vice Admiral Posslet, commander of the Russian fleet. They brought a vast number of servants—“almost as many servants and valets in the retinue of the Russians as there were troopers in the expedition” by one report. Among the Americans were General Sheridan; his brother Colonel Michael V. Sheridan; Sheridan’s aide and Custer’s former inspector general in Texas, Major James W. Forsyth; Colonel George A. Forsyth, hero of Beecher Island; General Ord commanding the Department of the Platte; Colonel Innis N. Palmer, commander of the 2nd Cavalry; and Dr. Asch of Sheridan’s staff.
Custer met them dressed “in his well known frontier buckskin hunting costume, and if, instead of the comical seal-skin hat he wore, he had feathers fastened in his flowing hair, he would have passed at a distance for a great Indian chief.”17 The next day they took a train to the North Platte and then embarked on a fifty-mile ride over the snowy prairie to Red Willow Creek. Buffalo Bill Cody led, in fur-trimmed buckskin and black slouch hat, hair to his shoulders, and they were escorted by two companies of cavalry. The grand duke stayed long in the saddle, while others of his party did not. “There was so much real roughing it,” one report noted, “that the frills, the band, and the champagne wagons could not take the edge off the adventure for the Grand Duke.”
Near sunset they arrived at the well-provisioned, tented four-acre encampment dubbed Camp Alexis. Custer came loping in an hour late with his buffalo rifle over his shoulder, along with Ord, camp commander General Palmer, and Lieutenant Starlagoff of the Russian Navy. Their wagon had broken down five miles out, and they had walked the rest of the way through the snow.
The main tents at Camp Alexis were “elegantly carpeted,” and even the smaller tents were “furnished with a degree of comfort and elegance rarely found out here on the wild plains of Nebraska.”18 A banquet was held that evening, featuring game hunted on the prairie. Custer had shot a prairie chicken on the way there, taking its head off, and Alexis insisted it be cooked and eaten as well. Alexis asked George and Buffalo Bill many questions about how to hunt the bison, and Bill loaned him his reliable hunting horse, Buckskin Joe, so that “when we went into a buffalo herd all he would have to do was to sit on the horse’s back and fire away.”19
Custer’s scouts located a herd about fifteen miles away, and the next day—Alexis’s twenty-second birthday—they set out after it. Custer, the duke, and Buffalo Bill rode together, “all large and powerful, and all hardy hunters—they attracted the attention and admiration of everyone.”20 Custer and Cody were dressed in their frontier garb, and Alexis wore a grey outfit trimmed in green with brass buttons bearing the Russian imperial coat of arms and a dark pillbox hat. Alexis had a Russian hunting knife and a Smith & Wesson revolver with the coat of arms of the United States and Russia on the grip. They rode under a brilliant, sunny, cloudless sky, and it was warm enough that they did not have to wear overcoats.
They found the herd, which covered several square miles, and readied for the hunt. Russians were paired off with experienced American hunters. Alexis was given the opportunity to make first kill. Accompanied by Custer, Buffalo Bill, and two Brulé Indians, he approached downwind, concealed by a ravine that opened a quarter mile from the buffalo.
“Of course, the main thing was to give Alexis the first chance and the best shot at the buffaloes,” Buffalo Bill recalled, “and when all was in readiness we dashed over a little knoll that had hidden us from view, and in a few minutes we were among them.” Alexis emptied his pistol at some bison twenty feet away but did not score a significant hit. Bill handed him another pistol, but Alexis again failed to drop a buffalo. Fearing the buffalo would run off without Alexis getting a trophy, Bill handed him his rifle “Lucretia” and “gave old Buckskin Joe a blow with my whip” to urge him toward a large bull.
“Now is your time,” Bill said. Alexis raised the rifle and felled the bull. Then he waved his hat, his party came riding up, and “very soon the corks began to fly from the champagne bottles, in honor of the Grand Duke Alexis, who had killed the first buffalo.”21 Then others were released to the hunt, “a wild rush of counts and cowboys, troopers and Indians.” Some riders went down but none was seriously hurt. There was more excitement than hunting, and at the end of the day, only four buffalo were taken. Alexis cut the tail from his kill as a trophy, and the head was cut off to send to a taxid
ermist. The hunting party returned to camp, announcing their arrival back with Indian-style whoops. A courier was sent to the nearest telegraph station to send a message to Tsar Alexander II that Alexis had “killed the first wild horned monster that met his eye on the plains of North America.”22
Not everyone was impressed with the royal hunt. The Leavenworth Weekly Times satirized the event, saying “the buffaloes, fully appreciating the distinguished honor done them by being the recipients of a visit from royalty, are turning out in great numbers, and in their best robes, to welcome his Highness with the right hoof of fellowship.” An ancient cow who had “gamboled with Pocahontas when she was a heifer, that is, the cow, came to the imperial camp on Monday evening, and waited patiently about, like Mary’s lamb, for his Highness to come out and shoot her.” The paper noted that “instances of such great respect for royalty are very rare on the frontier. He shot her.”23
That night there was a festive, champagne-fueled dinner in camp. They were joined by fifty Brulé warriors, along with numerous squaws and children, who had come at Sheridan’s request to meet and entertain Alexis. Among the leaders were Spotted Tail, Red Leaf, Black Bear, Fast Bear, Conquering Bear, Little Wound, Brave Shield, and Custer’s old adversary, Pawnee Killer. After the dinner, the young braves painted their faces and put on a war dance around a massive log fire. The chiefs held a powwow, and they, Alexis, Custer, Sheridan, and others smoked the peace pipe. Alexis generously gave the Indians silver coins, blankets, and hunting knives. Sheridan provided them with tobacco and other supplies and gave Spotted Tail an embroidered red cloth cap, a scarlet-trimmed brown robe, an ivory-handled hunting knife, and a gilt-inlaid general officer’s belt of Russian leather. The mood was festive; Custer “carried on a mild flirtation with one of Spotted Tail’s daughters,” Buffalo Bill recalled, “and it was noticed also that the Duke Alexis paid considerable attention to another handsome redskin maiden.”24
The next day, the Indians showed off their hunting methods, using the bow and arrow instead of firearms. Alexis, who had run into such difficulty taking down a buffalo with a pistol, was skeptical that bow hunting could amount to much. Custer took two Brulé bucks aside and told them to go find a buffalo, run it into camp, and demonstrate the lethality of the bow. Within an hour they returned, chasing a buffalo, whooping and yelling. They drove the animal into the camp where an eighteen-year-old Brulé named Two Lance “swiftly circled to her left and with bow full drawn drove his arrow into the body behind the shoulder. The animal fell, pierced through the heart.” Two Lance then removed the bloody arrow and presented it to Custer, who handed it to the duke. Alexis was so impressed that he gave Two Lance a twenty-dollar gold piece and also purchased his bow and quiver of arrows as souvenirs.
The hunting party set out, the air colder and the snow deeper than the day before. Hundreds more Indians had arrived for the hunt, and Buffalo Bill recalled the “picturesque assemblage” of the “magnificent savage allies, in all the rainbow brilliancy of their native garb and fantastic adornment, mingled with the flower of the veteran cavalry of ‘Uncle Sam.’” He said the “brilliant array of famed officers, and the gorgeously accoutred foreign officials, admirals and generals, and a detachment of the flower of our army, made a pageant so spirited as to linger in memory as a scene in every respect unique beyond compare up to date, and one well-nigh impossible in the future to duplicate.”25
The royal party rode through a wide, winding canyon. Custer, in the lead, spotted the bison and gave a signal by riding in a circle, Indian style. Alexis rode up, and George pulled out his revolver.
“Are you ready, Duke?” he asked.
Alexis “drew off his glove, grasped his pistol, and with a wave of his imperial hand replied, ‘All ready, now, General.’”26
They charged the animals, who broke. Alexis pursued a cow that had nimbly gained footing on the sloping side of the ravine and rode up the slope heedless of danger. The cow turned on the duke, but showing off his riding skill he expertly circled her and emptied the contents of his revolver, killing her. Her calf, which had been running along nearby, was also felled. The cow’s head and tail were taken for trophies, while the calf was brought back to camp whole and eaten the next day for breakfast.
Meanwhile, several hundred Indians readied to dash on the scattering herd. They had stripped down for the hunt, “only a breech-clout around their loins, moccasins on their feet, no saddle, no bridle, the ponies with only a thin leather hackamore between their teeth,” Buffalo Bill recalled. They were reducing weight so they could “ride like lightning.” The chiefs lined up the riders “with the ponies foaming, prancing, and stamping their feet, impatient as their masters,” and when the signal was given they were off in a cloud of dust.
“Thunder and lightning! What a tornado!” Bill wrote. “What a storm of horsemen, as, with impetuosity, these nomads dashed on their prey!” The scene became one of “an indescribable mix-up of flying arrows, accompanied with rifle shots, galloping horses, falling buffaloes, and fleet riding Indians on their wild ponies.” Soon the prairie was strewn with fallen buffalo. “Calm and practical fellows were these Indians,” Bill wrote. “Even the horses began quietly pasturing on the grasses, while the hunters proceeded to pull off the hide and cut out the tongues and favorite pieces of their native cattle, and preparing the meat in strips for preservation.”27 Later that day there was another feast to close the hunt.
The royal party then headed for Denver, accompanied by Custer, Sheridan, and the other American escorts. Alexis was eager to continue hunting, and when they got word of another large herd 130 miles east near Kit Carson, he was game for the challenge. Sheridan made arrangements to make the trip on cavalry horses, but he warned the duke that untrained mounts were unruly and skittish around the buffalo.
Chalkley M. Beeson, a twenty-four-year-old cowboy who accompanied the party on the hunt, described Custer then as “in the prime of life, a gallant figure with his flowing hair and his almost foppish military dress. . . . He was the ideal cavalryman, and the idol of the western army.” Beeson loaned Custer an “almost unbroken” horse, and George proceeded to put the mount through its paces. Beeson said he had never seen a finer horseman. Custer “rode with the cavalry seat,” he recalled, “but as easily and as gracefully as a born cowboy.” George threw the reins on his neck and guided the horse “in a circle by the pressure of his knees, and drawing both his revolvers fired with either hand at a gallop with as much accuracy as though he were standing on the ground.” Alexis, “who had seen the Cossacks of the Ukraine, declared it was the finest exhibition of horsemanship he had ever seen, and applauded every shot.”28
After a long ride, scouts reported that the herd was just ahead, over a large rise. Custer gathered the hunters and gave tactical orders for the assault. “Boys, here’s a chance for a great victory over that bunch of redskins the other side of the hill,” he said. “Major B., you will take charge of the right flank, I will attend to the left. General Sheridan and the infantry will follow direct over the hill. Ready! Charge!”29 The two columns of hunters galloped off around the hill and descended on the bison.
The abrupt appearance of the hunters spooked the herd, which began to stampede. As Sheridan had warned, the government-issue horses became increasingly agitated and unmanageable. Alexis’s animal broke and ran out of control toward the rushing bison. Custer charged after the duke and angled Alexis’s panicking horse away from the stampeding animals, regaining control by whip and spur. Other horses were spooked and ran about haphazardly, their riders unable to stop them. Some ran into a prairie dog town, unhorsing many riders. Bullets were flying, not always well aimed. Russian Count Bodisco, the charge d’affairs in Washington, fired a shot that went through Colonel Michael V. Sheridan’s coat.
Meanwhile, Phil Sheridan and the rest of the party walked toward the crest of the hill to watch the hunt. Nearing the top, they saw several wounded buffalo coming toward them and readied their weapons to shoot. “Just then the
whole crowd of hunters charged the hill from the opposite, shooting at the buffaloes,” Chalkley Beeson recalled. Sheridan, directly in the line of fire, dropped to the ground and hugged the buffalo grass while bullets whistled by. “The bullets were dropping all around us,” Beeson said. “I yelled to them to stop firing, but they were so excited that it looked for a little bit as though they would wipe out the entire command of ‘infantry.’”30
When the chaos subsided, Sheridan leapt up and let out a string of curses at everyone available. “I think he was the maddest man I ever saw,” Beeson recalled. “He didn’t spare anybody in the bunch, not even Custer and the Grand Duke, and he included all their kinsfolk, direct and collateral. It was a liberal education in profanity to hear him.”31 But Alexis laughed off the incident and a diplomatic crisis was averted. The party returned with many cuts and bruises but no serious injuries.
Back at camp they found that the servants and camp followers had raided the Russian liquor trunk and were pleasantly inebriated. “Champagne bottles, liquor bottles, and every other kind of bottle littered the ground,” Chalkley Beeson noted. “That battle-field showed more ‘dead ones’ than the hunting-ground did buffaloes.” Then it was Custer’s turn to begin cussing, and by Beeson’s reckoning it even surpassed what the enraged Sheridan had let loose earlier in the day. “I cannot pay his efforts a higher compliment,” the young cowboy wrote, “than to say that when Custer got through with that bunch they were pretty near sober, and that is cussing some.”32
Alexis so enjoyed Custer’s company that he asked him to accompany his party for the rest of their tour. They returned to Kansas, then headed east to Louisville, where Libbie joined the group. They toured Mammoth Cave, then headed south, enjoying the scenery and social life in the cities along the Mississippi. “Alexis is not concerned with the outside,” Libbie wrote in her diary, “only with the pretty girls, with music, . . . [with] his eternal cigarette and in joking with his suite and with the General.”33 Alexis and his party ended their grand tour of the United States in New Orleans in March and boarded a ship for Russia. Alexis later wrote a memoir of his journey, expressing his gratitude to Custer and including a photo of them together in their hunting garb.34 “The picture still lingers in my mind,” Buffalo Bill recalled years later, “with young General Custer predominating the grand assemblage. He was the life and spirit, one might say, of the occasion.”35
The Real Custer Page 30