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William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody
William Frederick Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa in 1946. His father died in 1857, causing him and his mother to move to Kansas. Here, Cody worked as a wrangler and mounted messenger for a wagon freight company. At age 14 Cody tried his luck with the Pony Express. Cody was perfect for the job.
Cody was a Union scout in campaigns against the Camanche and Kiowa during the Civil War. He enlisted with the Seventh Kansas Cavalry in 1863. After the war, in St. Louis he married Louisa Frederici. He kept working for the Army as a dispatch carrier and scout out of Fort Ellsworth, Kansas.
In 1867 Cody finally took up the trade that gave him the nickname Buffalo Bill, hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He supposedly killed 4,280 head of buffalo in seventeen months. He supposedly won this nickname in a shooting match with a hunter also named William. The duel was to see which one deserved the nickname “Buffalo Bill”.
Cody decided to return to the Army in 1868. He took part in 16 battles including the Cheyenne defeat in 1869 at Summit Springs, Colorado. He was also chief of scouts for the Fifth Calvary. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872. This award was revoked in 1916 because Cody was not a regular member of the armed forces at the time, however, the award was returned posthumously in 1989.
While Cody was earning a reputation for skill and bravery in real life, “Buffalo Bill”, his alter ego, was becoming a folk hero due to the dime novels by Ned Buntline. Starting in 1869, Buntline created a Buffalo Bill who was as famous as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Kit Carson. Buffalo Bill was a mixture of incredible fact and much romantic fiction.
In 1872 Cody starred in Buntline’s play, The Scout of the Plains. He won enthusiastic applause for his great acting and good-humored self-portrayal. Cody continued to be in the play for eleven seasons, even after a severe falling out with Buntline. Cody also became an author, writing the first edition of his autobiography and publishing many of his own Buffalo Bill dime novels. Now there are 1,700 of these dime novels, mostly written by Prentiss Ingraham.
Cody still returned to the west. He escorted nobility and rich Easterners on Western hunting expeditions. He was called back to service in 1876 as an army scout in the campaign following Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn.
In 1883 Cody organized Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. This was an outdoor show that dramatized some of the most picturesque elements of frontier life. For example, a buffalo hunt with real buffalos, an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage with real Indians, a Pony Express ride, and a tableau presentation of [next page]