LEARNIN'
SOME FAMOUS RIDERS AND THEIR HORSES
George Custer Vic (Vic died at the Little Big Horn too)
Roy Rogers Trigger
Dale Evans Buttermilk
Robert E. Lee Traveler (Lee also rode “Lucy”)
Buffalo Bill Cody Old Charlie (Cody also rode “Brigham”)
George Washington Nelson (Washington also rode “Lexington)
Gene Autry Champion
Teddy Roosevelt Manitou
Stonewall Jackson Little Sorrel
Tom Mix Tony
Capt. Miles Keough Comanche (“Comanche” was the only U.S. Army survivor of Custer’s Last Stand
Ulysses S. Grant Cincinnatus
Paul Revere Brown Betty (Revered borrowed this horse for his
famous ride)
Hopalong Cassidy Topper
Kit Carson Apache
Gen. J. E. B. Stuart High Sky
Casper the Friendly Ghost Nightmare
Jack Woltz Khartoum (Fictional movie studio chief Woltz find
“Khartoum’s” head in his bed as a calling card
from the Corleone family in “The Godfather.”
Jimmy Stewart Pie
Lone Ranger (John Reid) Silver
Tonto Scout
DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, was captured by Union forces dressed as a woman and trying to escape into Mexico after the Confederacy collapsed. Many Confederate officers did escape there.
NO CIVIL COURTS IN TEXAS
In the years after the Northern victory, Texas was not allowed civil courts; all were military courts-martial.
THEY CALLED HIM BAT
William Barclay “Bat” Masterson was a deputy town marshal of Dodge City, then elected Ford County (Kansas) sheriff and later was city marshal of Dodge City itself. Later in his career, Bat was appointed U. S. Marshal of the New York District.
YOU KNOW HIS NAME
William “Bill” Tilghman served as marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, elected sheriff of Ford County, and was the first city marshal of Perry, Oklahoma. He also became a Deputy U. S. Marshal.
THE ONLY LAW
Roy Bean – “The only law west of the Pecos” served as a California Ranger before his “election”as a justice of the peace of Pecos County.
THE WONDERFUL ‘B’S
Those wonderful B western movies – so called because they were always listed on the bottom of the theater’s listing – ran 50 to 70 minutes in length and averaged an hour. Many wre shot on studio lots; others on location in Utah, Arizona, Rocky Mountains, or in the Alabma Hills near Lone Pine, California. Their master plots were simple and often repeated. That didn’t matter. What mattered was fast action, strong characters and proper values. From Ken Maynard to Roy Rogers, from Will Bill Elliott to Sunset Carson, they are missed.
REAL FIST FIGHTING
In the movie, “Riders of Destiny”, filmed by Monogram in 1933, John Wayne and master stuntman (co-star in this film) Yakima Canutt experimented with fist fighting stunts of their own. Using carefully chosen camera angles, sharp editing and careful movement, they created the realistic film fist fight as we see it today.
THE ONLY ONE
The First District of Columbia regiment was the only unit in the Army of the Potomac all armed with Henry repeating rifles, which shot 15 rounds of .44 ammunition.
HOW MUCH?
By winter of 1865, it took 45 Confederate dollars to buy a pound of coffee and 25 Confederate dollars to buy a pound of butter.
On the Union side of things, General U. S. Grant issued a flyer that welcomed Rebel deserters with eight dollars apiece for their guns.
LAST FORCE STANDING
The last remaining Rebel force was led by Brigadier General Stand Watie, a fierce Cherokee chief. His battalion was made up of Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, and Osages in Indian Territory (Oklahoma.)