One of the time honored customs of the old west Army was to leave a calling card. Whenever a new officer arrived on the post, his first duty was to leave his card with the commander’s wife as a courtesy. Even the Oriental culture paid great attention to calling cards and exchanging cards whenever they visited. I don’t have a calling card to give the visitors to this site, but I will send you an email thanking you for stopping by. I sure would appreciate your leaving a short message about what you like or don’t like on this site when you drop by. If you like what you see, tell me and be sure to share it with others. If you see something you don’t like, tell me so I can fix it.
Charles Siringo, one of the most famous contemporary chroniclers of the cowboy life, is born in today, in 1855, in Matagorda County, Texas. When Siringo was only 30 years old, he published the first authentic autobiographical account of the cowboy life, A Texas Cowboy, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Cow Pony. The book was an immediate success and played a pivotal role in creating the enduring American fascination with the Western cowboy.
Unlike some of the subsequent popular accounts of western ranching written by eastern greenhorns, Siringo based his memoir on his authentic experiences as a Texas cowboy. While still only a teen, Siringo had registered a brand and begun building his own ranch by the then still acceptable practice of claiming “mavericks,” unbranded cows wandering the open range. Siringo was never able to build much of a herd, but his years spent on trail drives and roundups provided perfect material for a genuine, if somewhat romantic, portrait of the short-lived golden era of the open range.
A few years before he wrote A Texas Cowboy, Siringo had abandoned the footloose cowboy life to become a husband and storekeeper in Caldwell, Kansas. Siringo, though, seemed incapable of staying out of the action for long. In 1886, he hired on as a detective for the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Working out of the Pinkerton’s Denver office, Siringo’s career as a detective for hire was every bit as dramatic as his earlier years on the open range. In 1892, he infil-trated the radical labor movement in the mining region near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where conflicts with management had become bitterly violent.
Around the turn of the century, Siringo spent four years pursuing the famous Wild Bunch at the behest of the railroad companies angered by the gangs’ repeated train robberies. Siringo traveled more than 25,000 miles around the West chasing after Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and other gang members. When Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to South America, the Pinkertons finally forced Siringo to abandon the case.
Front row left to right: Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy; Standing: Will Carver, alias News Carver, & Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Fort Worth, Texas, 1900.
In 1907, Siringo left the Pinkertons and turned again to writing about his past adventures. In 1912, he published A Cowboy Detective, an account of his 20-year career as a detective. Three years later, Siringo attacked the often violent and illegal Pinkerton methods he had witnessed in Two Evil Isms: Pinkertonism and Anarchism. Legal threats from the Pinkertons forced him to eliminate such overt attacks from his subsequent books, and he instead returned to the Wild West themes that had won him his first success.
Siringo lived out his later years in California, and died in 1928 at the age of 73, when he was hit by a car.
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I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a really fascinating newspaper I subscribe to. It is called “Chronicle of the Old West”, and it can be ordered by writing to C.O.W., P. O. Box 2859, Show Low, Arizona Territory 85902. Each issue is only $30, for a 12 issue year, which makes it one of the cheapest ($2.50 per issue) time machines I have ever seen. I have been reading it now for several years and enjoy each and every issue. It is what it says it is, a newspaper of the old west, with articles and reprints of different events of the Old West. There is no special order, the dates bounce back and forth, but each is an accurate re-telling of what happened on that day. In each newspaper, there are reprints of different stories in various 1800’s periodicals, as well as things to do and enjoy in the West of today. The time is always accurate to the month the paper is printed, meaning that if it happened in January, then it will be printed in the January edition, along with the name of the resource that first printed it back then.
They also have a good range of advertising for merchandise appropriate to the reader of old west books and novels, and the leather needs of the full-time or part-time shooter as well. You can find anything you need here, just like a more modern newspaper, but the big value is in the history you will find here. Check it out, you won’t be sorry.
On this day in 1865, Confederate General John Pegram, age 33, is killed at the Battle of Dabney’s Mill (also called Hatcher’s Run), Virginia.
Confederate General John Pegram
Pegram graduated from West Point in 1854, and served in various posts in the West before resigning his commission at the start of the Civil War. Pegram then received an appointment as a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate army. Sent to fight in western Virginia during the summer of 1861. He was captured by General George McClellan’s men at the Battle
Union General George B. McClellan
of Rich Mountain. Pegram was exchanged in April 1862 and was sent to serve with General Pierre G. T. Beauregard in
Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Mississippi. He fought in Tennessee and Kentucky and earned a promotion to brigadier general. After the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Pegram was transferred to General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. He recovered in time to fight with General Jubal Early during the Shenandoah Valley campaign in the summer of 1864. That fall, he was sent to defend his native city of Petersburg, Virginia.
On January 19, 1865, Pegram married Hetty Cary, a prominent Richmond socialite. Even in the gloom of the ongoing siege, the ceremony was a grand affair attended by nearly all of the high-ranking Confederates, including President Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina. One onlooker said of the bride that the “happy gleam of her beautiful brown eyes seemed to defy all sorrow.” Just three weeks later, Pegram’s body was returned to the same church, St. Paul’s Episcopal, and his young widow knelt beside his coffin as the minister who married them presided over the general’s funeral.
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My apologies to the readers of “Today In History”, I thought I had set these posts up to publish automatically on the date they were supposed to. It seems I have erred in that assumption, so I am going to go back in and look for the problem. I will add the first few that are missing, and then make sure this doesn’t happen again.
TO anyone reading these, let me know what you think of this section, please. I would enjoy talking with you.
On this day in 1826, Millard Fillmore, who later becomes the 13th president of the United States, marries Abigail Powers,
Millard Fillmore, 13th U S President
a New York native and a preacher’s daughter. As a youngster, Abigail’s mother encouraged her daughter’s interest in reading and urged her to take advantage of the vast library her father had left after his death. Abigail was initially home-schooled and it was not until the relatively advanced age of 21 that she enrolled in New York’s New Hope Academy, were she met Fillmore. Although historical accounts differ as to the circumstances of the pair’s meeting, they fell in love and Abigail stayed on at New Hope as a teacher after her graduation, waiting patiently for the younger Fillmore to complete school and build a career as an attorney.
It took Fillmore an additional five years to reach a point where he felt he could support a wife and family financially. After their marriage, either out of necessity or personal interest, Abigail continued teaching, making her the first president’s wife to have held a job after marriage. She quit teaching in 1828 when their first child, Millard Powers Fillmore Jr., was born. The arrival of Millard Jr. was soon followed by the birth of a daughter, Mary Abigail.
Fillmore moved his young family to Albany, and then Buffalo, where his career in politics gained steam. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, then as New York’s comptroller in 1847. A year later, Zachary Taylor tapped Fillmore to be his running mate in his successful bid for the presidency. When Taylor died unexpectedly in 1850, the Fillmore family moved into the White House.
The social life of the White House was fairly quiet under Abigail Fillmore. She preferred reading to parties and opted out of many social events due to an old ankle injury that left her with chronic pain. She often delegated hostess duties to her daughter, concentrating instead on lobbying Congress for funds to create the first official White House library.
Fillmore lasted one term as president. At his successor’s inauguration, held outdoors in the freezing cold, Abigail became ill with pneumonia and died a short time later.
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On this day in 1861, the Confederacy is open for business when the Provisional Confederate Congress convenes in Montgomery, Alabama.
The official record read: “Be it remembered that on the fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the Capitol of the State of Alabama, in the city of Montgomery, at the hour of noon, there assembled certain deputies and delegates from the several independent South States of North America…”
The first order of business was drafting a constitution. The congress used the U.S. Constitution as a model, taking most of it verbatim. In just four days, a tentative document to govern the new nation was hammered out. The president was limited to one six-year term. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the word “slave” was used and the institution protected in all states and any territories to be added later. Importation of slaves was prohibited, as this would alienate European nations and would detract from the profitable “internal slave trade” in the South. Other components of the constitution were designed to enhance the power of the states–governmental money for internal improvements was banned and the president was given a line-item veto on appropriations bills.
The congress then turned its attention to selecting a president, with delegates settling on Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. senator from Mississippi who served as the U.S. secretary of war in the 1850s.
Jefferson Davis, President of the CSA
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advance into the disputed territory in Texas, “on or near the Rio Grande” near Mexico. Taylor chose a spot at Corpus Christi, and his Army of Occupation encamped there until the following spring in anticipation of a Mexican attack. Polk’s attempts to negotiate with Mexico had failed, and war appeared imminent. That same month, Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma, defeating the Mexican forces, which greatly outnumbered his own. These victories made him a popular hero, and within weeks he received a brevet promotion to major general and a formal commendation from Congress. In September, Taylor inflicted heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey. The city of Monterrey had been considered “impregnable”, but was captured in three days, forcing Mexican forces to retreat. Taylor was criticized for signing a “liberal” truce, rather than pressing for a large scale surrender. Afterwards, half of Taylor’s army was ordered to join General Winfield Scott‘s soldiers as they attacked Veracruz.
General Winfield Scott
Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna discovered, through an intercepted letter from Scott, that Taylor had
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
contributed all but 6,000 of his men to the effort. His remaining force included only a few hundred regular army soldiers, and Santa Anna rushed to take advantage of the situation. Santa Anna attacked Taylor with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, inflicting around 600 American casualties at a cost of over 1,800 Mexican. Outmatched, the Mexican forces retreated, ensuring a “far-reaching” victory for the Americans. Taylor remained at Monterrey until late November 1847, when he set sail for home. While he would spend the following year in command of the Army’s entire western division, his active military career was over. In December he received a hero’s welcome in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and his popular legacy set the stage for the 1848 presidential election.
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On this day, February 2, in 1847, the first woman of a group of pioneers commonly known as the Donner Party dies during the group’s journey through a Sierra Nevada mountain pass. The disastrous trip west ended up killing 42 people and turned many of the survivors into cannibals.
A total of 87 people joined up in South Pass, Wyoming, in October 1846 to make a trip through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California. Most of the pioneers were farmers who had little experience with wilderness travel. Two large families, the Donners and the Reeds, were at the heart of the traveling group, with 7 adults and 16 children. George Donner was the group’s unofficial leader.
The pioneers left Wyoming on October 27, and were soon faced with the early onset of a harsh winter. They had only a book as a guide and this led them through a mountain pass south of modern-day Salt Lake City. Without any path to follow, it took the group 16 days to go only 36 miles. Eventually, they were forced to leave their wagons–loaded with hundreds of pounds of flour and bacon–and their cattle behind. Trapped by snow, they were forced to make camp for the winter near a small lake (now known as Donner Lake) northwest of Lake Tahoe.
The Donner Party route
With starvation setting in, a group of 15 adults (known as the Forlorn Hope) attempted to get to Sutter’s Fort near San Francisco–100 miles away–for help. About half of the group died in the harsh conditions and the others were forced to eat their fallen companions’ remains to survive. Finally, the seven remaining members of the expedition were able to reach a Native American village. News of their arrival spread quickly, and a rescue party was sent from Sutter’s Fort to reach the rest of the Donner Party, still stuck in the mountains. By the time the rescue was complete, nearly half of the Donner Party, including George Donner, was dead.
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On February 1, 1861, Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union when a state convention votes 166 to 8 in favor of the measure. The Texans who voted to leave the Union did so over the objections of their governor, Sam Houston. A staunch Unionist, Houston’s election in 1859 as governor seemed to indicate that Texas did not share the
Sam Houston, Texas Governor, Hero of Texas War of Independence
rising secessionist sentiments of the other Southern states. However, events swayed many Texans to the secessionist cause. John Brown’s raid on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in October 1859 had raised the specter of a major slave insurrection, and the ascendant Republican Party made many Texans uneasy about continuing in the Union. After Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in November 1860, pressure mounted on Houston to call a convention so that Texas could consider secession. He did so reluctantly in January 1861, and sat in silence on February 1 as the convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession. Houston grumbled that Texans were “stilling the voice of reason,” and he predicted an “ignoble defeat” for the South. Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was replaced in March 1861 by his lieutenant governor. Texas’ move completed the first round of secession. Seven states–South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas–left the Union before Lincoln took office. Four more states–Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas– waited until the formal start of the Civil War, with the April 1861 firing on Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, before deciding to leave the Union. The remaining slave states–Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri–never mustered the necessary majority for secession.
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Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com
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