Chapter IV

THIRTY HIRED ASSASSINS AND TWENTY REPRESENTATIVE STOCKMEN LEAVE
CHEYENNE TO MURDER, BURN AND DESTROY--THE FINAL PREPARATIONS AND THE
START--ARRIVAL AT CASPER AND DEPARTURE, MOUNTED, ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Monday and Tuesday, April 4th and 5th, 1892, will always be remembered as red letter days in the criminal history of Cheyenne, the capital city of Wyoming, the baby state of the American Union. Leading members of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association were engaged on these two days branding a bunch of seventy-odd, picked and highly fed horses with the unrecorded or “Maverick” brand “A” on the left shoulder, loading them in cars, and putting in other cars, saddles, harness, tents, ammunition, giant powder, provisions, etc. Late in the afternoon of the 5th a special train came in from Denver, Colorado, carrying the southern contingent of hired murderers. Stopping for an hour in the east end of the switching yards, the cars were then taken across the Crow Creek bridge to the stockyards, where the stock and baggage cars, already loaded, were attached, and at 6 o’clock the start was made for Casper, two hundred miles to the northwest. The mob consisted of somewhere between fifty and sixty men, divided about equally between hired helpers from the South and Wyoming citizens. These latter were in the proportion of about two stockmen to one hired man. Each person was armed with a brace of pistols and a Winchester rifle.

The leaders were anxious for a start at their bloody work, Major Walcott, in command, as a parting salute, saying to the railroad superintendent, “Hurry up; put us at Casper and we will do the rest.”

The track was clear and a fast run was made to Casper, that point being reached three or four hours before daylight the next morning. The train was stopped at the stockyards, some distance outside of the town, and before sunrise the wagons were loaded, the horsemen mounted, and the cavalcade on the move across the open prairie, following the guides who had been summoned to be in waiting.

Before reaching Casper a stop was made at the Fort Fetterman stockyards, where Ed David, the general range manager for Senator Carey, was taken aboard with two well-caparisoned saddle horses, blankets, guns, etc. But there was heaps of trouble on young David’s mind. He had promised, and was expected, to go on the raid. Serious consideration of the matter, however, had caused him to reconsider and cancel his engagement. Asked for his reason, he stated that as Carey’s foreman, if he went on the trip, it would connect the United States Senator directly with the invasion and destroy his future political advancement, a thing not to be tolerated for a moment. There was a good deal of back talk on the part of the commanding officers, but it was finally agreed that David should give his horses and outfit to a man who had been hired to cut the telegraph wires, this man joining the band and David taking his place as the official wire-cutter of the expedition. The hired man accompanied the gang and the telegraph wires were cut--presumably by Ed David in accordance with his promise so to do. (This information comes under oath, and is reliable.)

There was a little music on the train as it rolled away that will probably never reach the ear of the public in its sweetest tones. Several of our “best citizens” had pledged themselves to be of the party, and had gone so far as to purchase their outfits, but as the hour of departure drew near and the possibilities and realities of the campaign presented themselves, the spotless “white feather” lured them away from their professed allegiance to the cause, and they were--not on the train. The discussion of why these bovine worshippers were not present is reported as being more forcible than elegant, and yet withal exceedingly musical in its rythmic changes.

Seven miles out the invaders camped for breakfast. The balance of that day and the following were consumed in the march to Tisdale’s ranch, forty-odd miles from Casper. Two or three men were met on the road and forced to turn back and travel for hours. Then they were permitted to go their way on a promise of secrecy as to having met any force of men. Friends of the outfit at Casper and Douglas had been instructed to give out the information, should the mob be discovered and suspicions be aroused, that the passing men were a crowd of railroad surveyors going to locate and hold a pass in the mountains. Major Walcott was supposed to be in command of the forces, with Canton as captain of the Wyoming men and Tom Smith over the Texans.

Just before reaching Tisdale’s ranch Mike Shonsy, foreman of the Western Union Beef Company, rode up to the advancing column with the information that there were rustlers in the neighboring ranch, and after consultation among the leaders of the band that night, a change of route and plan was agreed upon.