Early
Law Enforcement
Gunfighters of the West
By Ray Haueter - former UPOA Historian,
UPOA President 1970 - 1971, now deceased
By
popular request, we reprint Ray's stories of Early Law Enforcement for
your pleasure
Reprint from the Utah Peace Officer Vol 68 #1, 1991 Spring Issue
How many gunfighters in the west had a military background? How
much did this influence their lives in later times? These were questions
asked by Bill O'Neal, a western history writer in an article about western
gunmen.
In a study of 260 western shootists, it is determined that at least
had served with the military. Approximately half of these men had enlisted
with the Confederate forces during the Civil War. This left two hundred
and sixteen gunmen who had never served in the military, but who may have
had other forms of service that were similar.
Following is an outline of some of the western gunmen and the events
in their lives after service with the military forces.
Clay Allison, who suffered from a club foot, joined the Confederate
Army in 1862, and while furloughed at home in Tennessee because of a medical
condition, he killed a Corporal of the Third Illinois Cavalry who tried
to loot his mother's home. After the war, he migrated to Texas, where he
became a cowboy and a rancher . . . He was considered a very dangerous
gunman, especially when he had been drinking, and was involved in a number
of shootouts.
Jack Watson, while serving the Confederacy, received a wound in his
instep which caused a pronounced limp the rest of his life. After the war,
he rode as a cowboy, then enlisted in the Texas Rangers. He occasionally
tracked rustlers on behalf of Texas ranchers, and was killed in 1890 while
working undercover as a Deputy Sheriff in Utah. (This one needs further
research.)
William H. Johnson, who served as a captain in the Confederacy, survived
the Lincoln County War in New Mexico, only to be killed by his father-in-law
in 1878.
Cullen Baker had already killed a man when he enlisted in the Confederate
Army in 1862. He later deserted and joined the Union Army. He then deserted
again to join a gang of bandit raiders. After the war, he became a notorious
thief and gunman. He was shot
down by a posse in 1869. On his body was found a shotgun, four revolvers,
three derringers and six pocketknives.
John Selman, a deserter from the Confederate Army, later was elected
a lieutenant in the Texas State Militia in defense of the frontier. During
the post-war years, he fought eight gunfights and killed six men, including
Baz Outlaw and John Wesley Hardin, before being killed by George Scarborough
in 1896.
Six Horrell brothers from Lampasas County, Texas, all became gunmen.
Mart, Sam, and Tom Horrell fought in Terry's Texas Ranger brigade during
the Civil War. Later, accused of rustling, the Horrell's gunned down three
state policemen in the Lampasas saloon in 1873.
Migrating to Lincoln County, New Mexico, the clan soon became embroiled
in "The Horrell War." Ben, the youngest brother, was killed as John Horrell
and the brothers made their way back to Texas where they resettled in Lampasas
County. They got in a feud with Pink Higgins, who killed Merritt Horrell.
Mart and Tom were slain in 1877 by a lynch mob. Sam Horrell was the only
one of the six brothers to die a natural death.
Timothy Isaiah Courtright who was later known as "Longhaired Jim,"
was a native of Iowa and fought in the Civil War under Union General John
"Black Jack" Logan. Later, he drifted to Texas, where he was employed by
Logan as a cavalry scout. After serving as City Marshal of Fort Worth,
he once more was employed by Logan, this time as foreman of Logan's New
Mexico ranch. Courtright killed two bandidos in 1881 and a pair of squatters
the next year. He was killed in 1887 at Fort Worth in a gunfight with Bat
Masterson.
Three peace officers, who became known as "The Three Guardsmen" all
had military backgrounds:
On September 16, 1893, the Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement,
and on noon of that day, a race began for the free land offered to anyone
who could settle it. The "Strip" was flooded with prospective landowners
and there were many disputes over land rights. This resulted in court actions,
fist fights and shootings.
Before the "Run" had begun, a new U. S. Marshal's district had been
created at Guthrie, Oklahoma. The new marshal was E. D. Nix, who was appointed
by President Grover Cleveland. He was not a gunfighter but was an administrator.
He searched the west for the best men he could find . . . men who were
good with a gun and could be counted on to enforce the law throughout the
Cherokee Strip. He put together a group of officers who soon became famous
for their courage and ability to maintain law and order in an area that
was infested with outlaws, hostile Indians, and undesirables from all walks
of life. Some of these men, who would become famous for their courage in
the face of danger, were Bill Tilghman, Chris Madsen, Heck Thomas, Bud
Ledbetter, Frank Canton, and John Hixon. The first three, Tilghman, Madsen,
and Thomas became known as the "Three Guardsmen."
Bill Tilghman was born at Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1854. He was known to
be a dead shot with rifle or six-gun. He had been a buffalo hunter in country
where it was easy to lose your scalp to some Indian war party.
He served in the U. S. Army as a scout during the Indian wars. He was
City Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas for three years during it's most violent
times, and as Undersheriff of Ford County, Kansas. He also served as Chief
of Police in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
On November 1, 1924, while employed as a police officer in Cromwell,
Oklahoma, he was confronted by a drunken prohibition agent named Wylie
Lynn, who was firing his pistol into the ground. Tilghman took his gun
away from him and began walking him toward the police station to hold him
until he sobered up. However, while walking to the station, Lynn pulled
another gun he had concealed on his person, and shot Tilghman. Bill Tilghman
died, killed by a fellow peace officer. He was 70 years old.
Chris Madsen was born in Denmark. He fought in the Danish Army against
the Prussians in 1864. He enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. He came
to the United States in 1870 and enlisted in the U. S. Army. He became
Chief of Scouts against the Apaches in Arizona, the Sioux and Cheyennes
in Wyoming and Montana, and the Nez Perces in Idaho and Montana. He was
very fast and accurate with a gun. He died January 9, 1944 at Guthrie,
Oklahoma at the age of 92.
Heck Thomas was born in Georgia. He served as a soldier in General
Stonewall Jackson's Confederate Brigade. He fought in the Battle of Appomattox
and later went to Texas, where he joined the Texas Rangers. He later served
as U. S. Deputy Marshal in the district where Judge Parker presided. His
exploits are well documented. He died peacefully at Lawton, Oklahoma on
August 15,1912. He was 62 years old.
Although not included in this study, the Territory of Utah had a number
of deadly gunfighters within its boundaries. Among them, and probably the
most notorious, were three men who had military backgrounds, having served
in the Nauvoo Legion. They were William "Bill" Hickman, Lot Smith, and
Porter Rockwell. There were others also, but space does not permit listing
them all.
William "Bill" Hickman was born April 16, 1815, in western Kentucky.
He was a member of the Nauvoo Legion and served as a Captain of a Ranger
Company consisting of 100 men, a guerilla force harassing military columns
and supply lines of eight companies of the United States Tenth Infantry
during the "Mormon War." He was a practicing attorney in Utah Territory,
was Sheriff of Green River, County and served as a U. S. Deputy Marshal
for a short time. He also became an outlaw. He was considered an excellent
shot with pistol or rifle. He died at Lander, Wyoming, August 21, 1883,
from an old bullet wound suffered in a gun fight with Lott Huntington on
December 25, 1859, on Main Street in Salt Lake City.
Lot Smith was born in Williamstown, Oswego County, New York, on May
15, 1830. At the age of 16, he became a member of the U. S. Army, as part
of the "Mormon Battalion" and took part in the longest infantry march in
recorded history, the march from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to San Diego,
California. He served two years and was discharged at San Francisco, California.
He participated in the Gold Rush and returned to Salt Lake City with $7,000
dollars in gold and bought a 160-acre farm in Farmington, Utah.
He served as Sheriff of Davis County. He volunteered during the Civil
War and was commissioned Captain by Abraham Lincoln. He and other volunteers
guarded the mail route from the Green River to Salt Lake City.
He was a Major in the Nauvoo Legion and commanded a force of 100 men
who fought a guerrilla war against the United States Tenth Infantry in
the "Mormon War." He became a rancher and died June 21, 1892, at Tuba City,
Arizona, after being shot by a Navajo Indian.
Orrin Porter Rockwell was born in Belcher, Massachusetts, on June 28,1813.
He idolized Joseph Smith and became one of the early members of the Mormon
Church. He became very proficient with both rifle and pistol during the
1830s when Mormons were being persecuted by the Missouri mobs in and around
Jackson County, Missouri.
In December 1843, he received a prophesy from Joseph Smith which said...
"So long as you remain loyal and true to they faith, you need fear no enemy.
Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee."
Whether it was the prophecy or not, Porter Rockwell lived through thirty-five
years of violence, during which time, he faced Indians, outlaws, and an
assortment of other dangerous characters and never received a single physical
injury from another person.
He became the personal bodyguard for Joseph Smith and later for Brigham
Young.
He served as a Captain in the Nauvoo Legion and commanded a force of
100 men as a guerilla force against the United States Tenth Infantry in
the "Mormon War."
He served as a sheriff, a Territorial Marshal, and a U. S. Deputy Marshal.
He is believed to have killed more than one hundred men during his lifetime,
although there are no records to support this. He was often seen riding
through the streets of Lehi, Utah, with a dead outlaw tied across a horse
or in the bed of his wagon. He said he never killed a man that didn't need
it. It is also said that he didn't bother with the courts and made the
statement.. . "If a man steals a horse and has to be chased a hundred miles,
he deserves to be killed."
He died at Colorado Stables in Salt Lake City, on June 9, 1878, at
the age of 65. Death was described as "from natural causes."
