Unknown(?) old man with a Spencer carbine( Not anymore)

[Henry4440]

A friend send me this pic of an unknown old man with a Spencer carbine.
I'm sure this old fellow had a name, so who is he?

[Two Flints]

Lonesome Henry,

Great photo!!!  Looks like Gabby Hays to me.

Please send me a jpg file of that photo - larger if possible. fsgrand2@fairpoint.net.

Thanks,

Two Flints

[Henry4440]

A friend send me this pic of an unknown old man with a Spencer carbine.
I'm sure this old fellow had a name, so who is he?

So, that old fellow is Amos Chapman
Amos Chapman, frontiersman, was born on March 15, 1837, of mixed white and Indian parentage in Michigan. Beginning in the late 1860s, he served as a civilian scout and interpreter for the United States Army and was often hired as a guide for settlers moving to Kansas and Colorado. In September 1868 he scouted for Maj. Joel H. Elliott's Seventh Cavalry detachment during Gen. Alfred Sully's campaign against the Southern Cheyennes from Fort Dodge, Kansas. That campaign led to the establishment of Camp Supply in Indian Territory, where Chapman subsequently served as an interpreter. There he married Mary Longneck, a daughter of the Cheyenne chief Stone Calf, and lived for a time among her tribe. They had six children. During the early 1870s he was involved in the army's attempts to keep whiskey peddlers and outlaws out of the reservations.
Chapman volunteered his services to Col. Nelson A. Miles's regiment in July 1874 and scouted for Lt. Frank D. Baldwin. On September 12, 1874, the third day of a siege in which a force of more than 100 Indians surrounded and attacked the Lyman Supply Train at the Upper Washita River in Texas, General Nelson Miles sent a detachment of three soldiers and two civilian scouts under Sergeant Zachariah Woodall to deliver a dispatch to Camp Supply. En route the six men were attacked along the Washita River by 125 Indians. Amos Chapman was one of the expeditions two scouts. Throughout the day the four soldiers and two civilian scouts, after taking shelter in a ravine, continued a valiant resistance while defending their wounded. A band of twenty-five Indians succeeded in scattering the detachment's horses and the men fell back to a small knoll where throughout the day they were attacked from all directions. Without water, the men resisted and were down to 200 rounds of ammunition when night fell. The following day the survivors were recovered by a relief force. Chapman's left knee was shattered by a bullet while he was attempting to aid the fatally wounded George Smith. He managed to hold out until Dixon was able to reach him and carry him to the safety of the wallow. Subsequently, Chapman's injured leg was amputated by the post surgeon at Camp Supply. Along with Amos Chapman's award, Medals of Honor were awarded to Sergeant Zechariah Woodall, Private Peter Roth, Private John Harrington, Private George Smith (KIA), and fellow Civilian Scout William Dixon. The award was later revoked for Chapman and Dixon because they were civilians. In 1989 their medals were restored by the army.
After the Red River War Chapman, who thereafter wore an artificial leg, continued in his role as post interpreter. He worked vigorously on behalf of his wife's people and helped keep order during the excitement surrounding Dull Knife's flight in 1879. When James Monroe and other free-range cattlemen began running their herds on reservation lands, Chapman again wielded his influence to prevent bloodshed. He helped work out peaceful solutions, which included designating certain routes, such as the Deep Creek Trail, over which cattle could graze and be driven to the Kansas markets. After his retirement from government service, Chapman and his wife settled on a ranch four miles east of Seiling, Oklahoma. It was said that they "divided matters evenly." Sometimes they slept in a tepee, for instance. Chapman died on July 18, 1925, from injuries sustained in an accident with his spring wagon. At the time, he was preparing to lecture on his frontier days with a lyceum circuit. He was buried  at Seiling.

[Two Flints]

Lonesome Henry,

Thanks again for the photo and the historical information on Amos Chapman.  Very much appreciated

Two Flints

[Seamus]

...and civilian scout William Dixon.

THE Billy Dixon?

[Henry4440]

...and civilian scout William Dixon.

THE Billy Dixon?

Yip.
Also known as 'The Buffalo Wallow Fight'.

BUFFALO WALLOW FIGHT. The Buffalo Wallow Fight was one of the most unusual engagements in the Red River War. On September 10, 1874, Col. Nelson A. Miles, whose command was running short of rations, sent two scouts, Billy Dixon and Amos Chapman,qqv and four enlisted men, Sgt. Z. T. Woodhall and privates Peter Rath, John Harrington, and George W. Smith, from his camp on McClellan Creek with dispatches concerning the delay of Capt. Wyllys Lyman's supply train, then under siege by Indians on the upper Washita River (see  LYMAN'S WAGON TRAIN). The six-man contingent set out on the trail to Camp Supply in Indian Territory. On the morning of September 12, as they approached the divide between Gageby Creek and the Washita River in Hemphill County, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by about 125 Comanche and Kiowa warriors, some of whom had come from the siege of the wagon train. Since retreating Indians had burned off the prairie grass only days before, there was no shelter close by; Dixon and his companions thus decided to dismount and make a desperate stand. In a few minutes George Smith, who took charge of the horses, fell with a bullet through his lungs. The horses then stampeded, carrying with them the men's haversacks, canteens, coats, and blankets. The mounted Indians indulged in a cat-and-mouse game with their intended victims by circling them and firing on a dead run. Soon Harrington and Woodhall were hit, and Chapman's left knee was shattered by a bullet. When the Indians desisted for a few minutes, Dixon, who had a slight wound in the calf, spotted a buffalo wallow a few yards away. He bade his companions take cover in this shallow depression, which was about ten feet in diameter. By noon, all except Chapman and Smith had reached it safely and with their hands and butcher knives began throwing up the sandy loam around the perimeter of the wallow for better protection. In the process, the men managed to keep their adversaries at bay and away from Smith and Chapman.
As the fight progressed, Dixon tried several times to reach Chapman but was forced back repeatedly by a hail of bullets and arrows. Since the crippled scout had lived as a "squaw man" among the Indians for a time and was known to many of the warriors present, they taunted him by shouting, "Amos, Amos, we got you now, Amos!" Finally, early in the afternoon, Dixon made it to Chapman and carried him back amid the gunfire to the safety of the wallow.
As the day wore on, the five men suffered terribly from hunger, thirst, and wounds; but their expert marksmanship continued to hold back the Indians, who could not even capture Smith's guns. Late in the afternoon an approaching thunderstorm brought relief to the parched men and served to break off the Indian attack, but the blue norther that it heralded resulted in more suffering from a severe drop in temperature. Taking advantage of the lull in the skirmish, Peter Rath went to recover Smith's weapons and ammunition and was astonished to find Smith still alive. Dixon and Rath carried the unfortunate trooper back to their makeshift fortress, where he died later that night.
At nightfall the Indians disappeared. Dixon and Rath fashioned crude beds for themselves and their wounded comrades out of tumbleweeds they had gathered and crushed. Afterward Rath went to bring help but was unable to locate the trail and returned in two hours. The following morning, September 13, dawned clear with no Indians in sight. Dixon then volunteered to go for help and found the trail less than a mile away. Soon he saw a column of United States Cavalry in the distance and fired his gun to attract their attention. As it turned out, this contingent consisted of four companies of the Eighth Cavalry from Fort Union, New Mexico, about 225 men in all, under the command of Maj. William R. Price. Price's appearance had caused the Indians to withdraw from the wallow and Lyman's wagons.
Price accompanied Dixon back to the wallow but had no ambulance wagon and was running short of supplies himself. What was more, Dixon's companions mistook the approaching column for Indians and, before the scout could stop them, shot the horse of one of the surgeon's escorts. As a result, the piqued surgeon only briefly examined the men, and Price refused them ammunition or reinforcements, although some of his troops did give them hardtack and dried beef. Price then moved on, promising to notify Colonel Miles and send aid immediately. Not until nearly midnight, however, did aid arrive and the beleaguered men receive food and medical attention. George Smith's body was wrapped in an army blanket and buried in the wallow, and the disabled survivors were taken to Camp Supply for treatment. Amos Chapman's leg was subsequently amputated above the knee, and Woodhall and Harrington recovered and continued their military service. After "severely censuring" Price for his failure to render further aid to the survivors, Colonel Miles recommended that they be given the Medal of Honor for bravery under adverse circumstances. The medals were awarded, including a posthumous one to Smith; Dixon personally received his from Miles while they were encamped on Carson Creek near Adobe Walls.
The Buffalo Wallow Fight was widely publicized as a heroic engagement; Richard Irving Dodge presented a somewhat inaccurate narrative of the episode in his book Our Wild Indians (1882). While nearly all accounts of the battle, including Dixon's, claimed that the six men killed as many as two dozen warriors, Amos Chapman, who spent his later years in Seiling, Oklahoma, once told George Bent that no Indian actually fell to their guns. Some years later, the medals of Chapman and Dixon were revoked by Congress since they had served the army as civilian scouts. Dixon, however, refused to surrender what he felt he had justly earned. His medal is now on display at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon. In 1925, under direction of J. J. Long and Olive King Dixon, a granite monument was erected on the Buffalo Wallow site, twenty-two miles southeast of Canadian. It bears the names of the six heroes "who cleared the way for other men."

[Tascosa Joe]

On June 12th 1989 Dixon, Chapman, W.F. Cody, James B. Doshier and W. W. Woodall all civilian scouts Medals of Honor were reinstated by the Department of the Army, Board of Corrections, Washington, DC docket # AC88-10374.  I am not sure it the medal at the Canyon, TX Musuem is Dixon's Indian War Medal or the reaward in 1989.  The original medal did not have to be surrendered but it was a misdemeanor to wear it.

[Fox Creek Kid]

I for one would appreciate some provenance on this photo. 

[Henry4440]

I for one would appreciate some provenance on this photo. 

After a friend send me this pic, i searched the web and found this website.
http://www.prices4antiques.com/photographica/other-photo-processes/Photograph-Amos-Chapman-Custer-Scout-Autographed-Circa-1885-D9963133.htm

[badlands]

Our family ranch is in the SE corner of Dewey county Oklahoma and my Grand Father knew Mr. Chapman and told me many stories including the Buffalo Wallow fight and tales of Billy Dixon.  I had neve seen a photo of him, thanks for posting.

[Bead Swinger]

Another real American hero.  Thanks for posting.