"The Battle of Adobe Walls," Pearson's Magazine, January 1908

[Capt. Hamp Cox]

Just stumbled across this and thought it was worth sharing with you "hysterical" folks.

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/indian/showdown/little-1908-1.html

[Texas Lawdog]

Capt Cox, I have been to the battlesite in the Texas Panhandle(where I'm originally from. ) It's on private property on a Ranch between Spearman and Stinnett, Texas.  There's not much left but a "hysterical" marker.

[Capt. Hamp Cox]

Thanks for the personal touch, TxLD. 

Did you or anyone else pick up on how the distance of Billy Dixon's "long shot" has nearly doubled since this early account of the event?  How far do you think it really was?  800 yards, as in this account, or the 1500+ yards in more recent accounts?  Or, do you think that maybe the legend originated from this statement that begins with the last sentence on page 82?  "The Indians claimed at the agency afterward that the white men used reflecting glasses or some fatal necromancy*, for the Medicine Man was slain by a chance ball while behind the hills."  Any BPCR folks or historians out there want to comment?

*For as long as man has believed in the spirits of the dead, he has
believed that there is some way to summon them, appease them, and interact
with them.  Necromancy is any magical technique which seeks communication
with the dead.  The word literally means divination through the dead, and
in the ancient cultures of the Greeks and Romans, the spirits of the dead
were called upon to prophesy for the living.  http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/tomekeeper/resources/articles/OnNecromancy.txt

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[Four-Eyed Buck]

Kinda makes you wonder what the truth actually is. I noticed that the account said that there wasn't any shooting the second day. The Dixon account alledges that the shot was made on the second day, I think. Guess it doesn't really say when the Medicine man was shot, though. Of course at that distance, the shot may have seemed it came from nowhere. Makes you want to say, Hmmmmmm...........Buck

[Capt. Hamp Cox]

Heck of a way to spend a Saturday night, ain't it Buck?

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Cap, Yeah, these old peepers were a little tired after trying to read that small type! Writing styles were a little different then. ...................Buck

[Uncle Eph]

Ok, first lets get the fact out of the way that the shot was doable, it has been done many times by different shooters, myself included, I have done it with both a 45-100 Hepburn and a 50-90 Rolling Block, now comes the tricky part; Billy Dixon himself did not brag about it and said that it was a scratch shot, we have to assume that he shot from sticks and the odds are that he was sitting and not prone and nowhere that I have read does it say if he had ever practiced that kind of shot before and this was pre-soule type sights and it was not his rifle but one that he had started shooting the day before. 

I have no doubts that he made that shot at 1538 yds but it was a plain lucky shot, the kind that you grin at your pards and walk away from before they ask you to do it again.

[Delmonico]

My understandin' is that he was shootin'  out of a loophole taward the top of one of the sod buildin's.  The rest in this case would have been the wall itself.

Since the Indians conformed that the fellow was killed by a bullet from nowhere, where else could it have come from but the small settlement?  I also understand that was about the only shot the second day.

I bet ya could not find any of the doubters who would stand out at that distance and let us shoot at them. 

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I believe MLV did some research on it, but can't remember if it was on site or somewhere's else. I do know that he's done research on just how far a Sharps will shoot in a bunch of different calibers. didn't mean to infer the shot wasn't made, just that the description differs over the years. Guess it's just open to  the interpretation of the particular author..........Buck

[Delmonico]

Buck, I've got the information that Mike V. wrote several years ago at home in my files.  But I am at work right now, so I can't lay my hands on it right now.  I think it was done at White Sands with some geverment radar equpt.

Don't worry Buck I would never shoot at you.  

[Uncle Eph]

Delmonico, Buck,  I first saw that info on the internet, don't remember where, it is also in his buffalo gun book.  I should have made myself clearer , I meant that he was shooting off a rest of some kind.

[Delmonico]

Not a problem Unc, I have never doubted that he made the shot, a liar would have never tried to pass it off as a lucky shot.  What you had was a combination of a good shot and an unlucky Indian.  Billy Dixon was well known as a fine shot among his peers before the "long shot", what is often not known is he is supposed to have shot one at over 1/2 mile the first day. 

One note is that if the man that makes you bullet proof thells you than nobody should kill a skunk, then don't do it.  Just like Roman Nose and the metal fork, I as a whiteman might not totally understand, yet I also will never doubt.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I haven't read it yet, but does it say or does anyone know if Billy was aiming at the man or the horse?

Slim