Morning gents,
Over coffee this morning, I began thinking about my most recent area of obsession, the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. For the past couple of months I’ve been reading just about everything I can find on the subject, from Billy Dixon’s biography to the halfway decent historical fiction novel by Jeff Guinn, “Buffalo Trail.” I suppose most of this obsession is centered around my personal favorite of the big names of old west history, Bat Masterson. This morning I’ve been asking myself, what did Bat, Billy and the other hunters and merchants at the post look like? Of course we’ve all seen the studio portraits taken of these legends, but the fancy clothes in those is naturally not what they wore on the hunt. Heck, prior to Bat settling into city life, I’m sure he would’ve been unrecognizable to the image we have of him. Since I’m about to start working on a hide hunter leather gear set from the 1874 period in anticipation for my Shiloh Sharps being built, I figured I’d post this here to open up discussion as to their gear.
One picture that stands out to me and may be a fairly accurate representation as to the look for hunters at the time was the 1874 studio portrait of a young Bill Tilghman and Jim Elder featured on page 70 of packing iron. (I’ve read somewhere that it was taken in Dodge City, but I’m not sure how reliable that info is.) In it both seem to be wearing work clothes and not what most would consider town clothes. Bill seems to be wearing a shirt quite similar to the “battle shirts” of the war between the states.
Tilghman’s cartridge belt is pretty thin, which from what I gather from folks on here who are far more knowledgeable than I, would have been more common in the summer of ‘74 than the 3” or wider belts of the late 70’s and 80’s. (Granted I’m sure saddle shops would have made you a cartridge belt of whatever width you wanted.)
Their holsters as mentioned in the book text are flap holsters, though I’m unsure what model revolver they hold. And Elder’s belt almost seems to be of the Fairweather Christian style at first glance, with an officers belt buckle. I’m guessing there would have been a fair amount of military equipment whether holsters or belts among other items in their outfits, maybe due to cost? I’m guessing surplus equipment was a thing then as now.
This may be the wrong subforum to post this in, if so my apologies. It always makes history more fun to read if I can have an accurate picture of what folks would’ve looked like and been armed with at the time. I would love to get your thoughts and any insights on this topic, as I’m sure many of you know far more than me about this stuff!
Hope everyone is doing well,