Legends of the Old West - TEXAS JACK Ep. 1 | “Cowboys and Indians”

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

John Omohundro grows up in Virginia and serves as a Confederate spy during the Civil War before moving west to become one of America’s first cowboys. He becomes known as Texas Jack, meets Wild Bill Hickok, and then Buffalo Bill Cody. He leads grand hunting expeditions in Yellowstone National Park, and then receives an offer from popular writer Ned Buntline to co-star in a stage play. Jack takes the plunge and embarks on the adventure that will change his life. For the full story of Texas Jack, check out Matthew Kerns’ book! Texas Jack: America’s First Cowboy Star Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Friday, April 26, 1872, Troop B of the 3rd Cavalry raced across the Nebraska Prairie in pursuit of Sioux horse thieves. The night before, the many Kanju warriors had stolen the horses from an Army telegraph depot, and the Army had called on its best scouts to track the thieves and return the horses. The two scouts who raced across the prairie that day were John Omohundro and William Cody. They would soon become famous as Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill, but their story almost ended before it really began. The military force split into two groups to surround the warriors.

Buffalo Bill took a few men with him to get behind the enemy, and Texas Jack stayed with the rest of the cavalry. Minutes later, gunfire erupted. Buffalo Bill was aiming at one of the warriors with his rifle when he felt a sudden, searing pain streak across his scalp. He reached up and could feel blood pouring from a wound. He jerked his rifle in the direction of the gunshot and saw the man who had shot him, clutching his chest in agony as he fell to the ground. 125 yards away, smoke rose from the barrel of Texas Jack's rifle. He had seen the warrior aiming for Cody and, in a single motion, had raised and fired his weapon. Texas Jack's quick reactions knocked the warrior slightly

off his mark, and the bullet that was intended to kill Buffalo Bill only grazed his scalp. When all was said and done, the horses were recovered, and most of the warriors were captured. Buffalo Bill was awarded a Medal of Honor for gallantry in action. Texas Jack, the man who had saved his life that day, received no medals. He wasn't eligible for medals or even for government service. According to Buffalo Bill, the United States Army had determined that it wouldn't accept anyone who had served as a Confederate spy. Such was the complicated life of one of the premier frontiersmen of the American West.

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season, we're telling a six-part anthology about the famous soldier, scout, and stage performer, Texas Jack Omohundro. This is Episode 1, Cowboys and Indians. John Omohundro wasn't always known as Texas Jack.

In fact, he wasn't from Texas. He was born in Virginia in the summer of 1846 and grew up on his father's plantation in Palmyra known as Pleasure Hill. Jack wasn't a very good student, and he was often caught skipping class to hunt or fish in the wilderness that surrounded his Virginia home. This didn't provide a foundation in math or science, but it gave Jack the best education he could have asked for in tracking, hunting, and knowledge of the countryside, all of which would serve him well when his state seceded from the Union in April of 1861. When the shots rang out at Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War,

Jack was only 15 years old. His older brother Orville left to join the Confederate Army, and Jack desperately wanted to follow. He was disappointed when he was told that he was too young for regular service, but Jack refused to sit at home. But Jack refused to sit at home. He became a headquarters courier for General Floyd. Floyd was a Southern sympathizer who had been Secretary of War under President Buchanan. He had moved stockpiles of guns and cannons to the South, which were soon in the hands of Confederate forces. Jack spent the first years of the war working for General Floyd while his brother fought with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Jack carried the general's personal recommendation with him when he went to join his brother in the 1st Virginia Cavalry Corps in February of 1864. Jack was 17. The days he spent hunting and riding instead of attending classes made him a good scout. His commanding officers praised him in reports, and this got the attention of Major General Jeb Stuart, the man who was in charge of Robert E. Lee's cavalry. Stuart began using Jack as a spy. as a spy. Jack would dress as a peddler and sell cooked chicken or ladles of soup in Union camps while listening for information about troop positions and movements. Jeb Stuart also used Jack to carry dispatches on horseback to his commanders in the field. Because Jack was still

a teenager, many of the men in the division called Jack the Boy Scout of the Confederacy. Many of the men in the division called Jack the Boy Scout of the Confederacy. On May 11, 1864, Jack raced through the wilderness at Yellow Tavern, Virginia, to deliver a message from General Lunsford Lomax to Jeb Stuart. Stuart read the report and wheeled his cavalry force around to lead a countercharge against advancing Union troops. That was Stuart's final battlefield dispatch. Moments later, Stuart was killed by a pistol shot from a retreating Union soldier. Jack fought in the Battle of Cold Harbor and was shot in the thigh at Trevelyan Station,

the largest all-cavalry battle of the war. His brother Orville was badly wounded and sent back to the family estate, and soon Jack got a rare letter from home. He learned that his mother had died of consumption, what we know today as tuberculosis. The heartbreak of losing his mother was compounded by the Confederate defeats at Tom's Brook and Cedar Creek. Jack's final battle was the last one for the Army of Northern Virginia. Jack served under Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of General Robert E. Lee, during the Appomattox campaign. At the end of the battle, while Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Jack cut through the enemy lines and rode for home. The war was over and his side had lost. More than that, they had endured demoralizing defeats and suffered senseless losses

in the months leading up to the ending that, by that point, felt inevitable. His mother was dead and plantations like his father's would soon follow. There's nothing much to do anymore in Virginia, Jack told his sister. I'm heading to Texas. Some of the soldiers Jack met during the Wilderness Campaign were regulars from Texas. They told Jack about the opportunities for wealth in the Lone Star State. After years of fighting in the Appalachian hills and forests, their descriptions of the open vistas of the West must have been incredibly appealing. Jack left home and headed south to catch a steamship from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas.

The ship pulled out of the Crescent City but was soon badly damaged in stormy seas, leaving Jack shipwrecked on the west coast of Florida. Jack later wrote about the first and last time he tried such a trip. The sailor boys struck up the coast to Pensacola, and were soon on deck again, back to the Crescent City. But as I had weakened considerably in regard to a life on the ocean wave, hearing there was good hunting in the country, as I had never starved at that business, it being just my long suit, I concluded to camp on the peninsula and struck up country to the northwest portion. Jack hunted and briefly worked as a school teacher in the Florida Panhandle.

He was nearly fired from the job on the first day for teaching controversial lessons. The father of several students charged into the schoolhouse and angrily pointed a finger at Jack. He accused Jack of telling a bunch of damned lies to his youngsters. Jack asked what he meant, and here is a slightly paraphrased version of the father's rant, as Jack quoted it. Why you idiot, don't you be telling them that the sun sticks stock still and the earth goes around him. That's a lie and you know it. Don't I see the sun getting up every blessed morning in one place and going to bed in the other. And you idiot you,

you keep telling them youngsters it sits there all day long, contrary to evidence. You're dangerous, and I'll be telling them I ain't their own father next. Go home, young man. Jack soon decided that the life of a rural Florida teacher wasn't his calling calling and once again set off for Texas. This time he decided to make his way on horseback instead of by boat. He rode into Buffalo Bayou near present-day Houston sometime in late 1866 and got a job as a cook at Sam Allen's Ranch. The Allen Ranch was one of the biggest cattle operations in the state, and Jack quickly worked his way from cook to cowboy. It didn't take long to impress Sam Allen with the skills Jack had mastered as a cavalry scout during the war.

Jack drove cattle on the Santa Fe Trail, the Goodnight Loving Trail, and the Chisholm Trail. On a drive to Tennessee, hungry locals greeted the group by asking who was in charge of the outfit and where were they from. The cowboys told them the man in charge was Jack, and they were from Texas. The locals said they wanted to thank Texas Jack personally, and the name stuck. On another drive, he rescued a young boy who had been captured by Comanches. The boy's parents had been killed, and the child didn't know his own name. Jack paid for his education at a Kansas orphanage, and the child took to calling himself Texas Jack Jr. He later became a Wild West showman

in South Africa, where he gave Will Rogers his first job in show business. During Jack's time as a cowboy, he traded and spent time with several Native American tribes, learning their customs and language. He also became an expert in the use of the lasso. He was widely regarded as one of the most skilled cattlemen in the state of Texas and one of the most fearless men in the American West. cattleman in the state of Texas, and one of the most fearless men in the American West. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible

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and it was in Hayes City that Texas Jack met a man who changed his life. James Butler Hickok was already famous as Wild Bill and was the county sheriff. The two became friends. They played cards and drank in the local saloons. Wild Bill offered Texas Jack a little advice. Hickok said that if Jack ever found himself in Nebraska, he should look up Hickok's friend, William F. Cody. Jack soon took the advice, and in 1869, he headed toward North Platte, Nebraska, leading 4,000 head of cattle. His life as a trail-driving cowboy was at an end, but his fortunes were about to change forever. When the other cowboys who were with him headed back to Texas, Jack stayed in North Platte. He again found work as a teacher, though this time when they asked him if he would teach the children that the world was flat or round, he told them, I'll teach it whichever way you want me to. I need the job.

Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill met and immediately formed a lasting friendship. They came from wildly different backgrounds. Jack grew up on his father's Virginia plantation, and Bill had moved from Iowa to Canada to Kansas, where his father was stabbed for speaking against slavery. Jack had been a Confederate spy, and Bill had been a Union soldier. Confederate spy, and Bill had been a Union soldier. Texas Jack had earned his nickname as a trail driving cowboy, while Buffalo Bill got his hunting bison to feed the workforce that was expanding the railroad. Despite their differences, the men fell into an easy camaraderie. They hunted together, they scouted together, they even hung wallpaper in Cody's new home together. Texas Jack also found work tending bar at Lou Baker's Saloon.

One day, a stranger bellied up to the bar, clearly shaken by something. Jack poured the man a whiskey and learned that he was a novelist named Ned Buntline from New York, and he had come to the prairie looking to interview the famous Wild Bill Hickok. Buntline had found Hickok, but the meeting did not go the way the naive novelist had planned. Hickok was drinking in a bar, and Buntline rushed toward him shouting, there's my man, I want you. Hickok drew his revolver and aimed it at the writer before telling him that he would not be granting an interview. Texas Jack had known Hickok drew his revolver and aimed it at the rider before telling him that he would not be granting an interview. Texas Jack had known Hickok for a couple years, and he laughed as he imagined Hickok's reaction to what he probably perceived as a threat. Buffalo Bill was also drinking in Lou Baker's saloon that night, and he and Jack talked to Buntline about Wild Bill and their experiences chasing cattle thieves,

pursuing Sioux warriors, and leading aristocrats on buffalo hunts. The resourceful Ned Buntline soon realized that their stories would be enjoyed by Eastern audiences just as much as those about Wild Bill. A dime novel about Buffalo Bill was written and published soon after, and Texas Jack made an appearance in the next one. Those stories were about to turn those names into legends. While Ned Buntline headed east and wrote stories about Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill, the two frontiersmen readied themselves for a buffalo hunt with the

Grand Duke of Russia. Grand Duke Alexei, the son of Tsar Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, was touring America as a goodwill ambassador. He had been received by President Grant in Washington and toured the East before arriving in Nebraska to hunt buffalo on the prairie. Commanding General of the United States Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, selected General Sheridan to accompany the Grand Duke on the hunt, and he was joined by General Edward Ord and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The group met Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, where Texas Jack led them toward the hunting

grounds. The hunting party was joined by Brulee Sioux Chief Spotted Tail and a party of warriors, who demonstrated their skills with a bow and arrow and held a formal council where they passed the peace pipe. The following day, January 14, 1872, was Grand Duke Alex's 22nd birthday. He went out with Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill to hunt buffalo. He missed with his pistols but took down his first buffalo using Bill Cody's rifle. Texas Jack collected and preserved the buffalo's head, which was sent to St. Petersburg to hang on the wall of the Winter Palace. A reporter from the New York Herald documented the hunt, and his widely read reports helped spread the fame of Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack. Readers in the eastern cities could read about the real exploits of these men in their newspapers

and sensational stories about them by Ned Buntline in Dime Novels. Stories about the Grand Duke hunt spread across America and Europe, and soon would-be aristocrats vied for the expertise of scouts like Texas Jack. The Earl of Dunraven, an English lord, was a world-class hunter and wanted to see the big game of the American West for himself. He arrived in Nebraska and was all set to hunt with Buffalo Bill when Cody was suddenly called away by General Sheridan. Cody turned to Texas Jack to manage the hunt. Buffalo Bill wrote, The Earl seemed to be somewhat offended at this, and I don't think he has ever forgiven me for going back on him.

Let that be as it may, he found Texas Jack a splendid hunter and guide, and Jack has been his guide on several hunts since. Texas Jack immediately impressed Dunraven and Dr. Kingsley, the Earl's hunting companion and personal physician. Kingsley, the Earl's hunting companion and personal physician. Kingsley wrote, Texas Jack, all life and blood and fire, blazing with suppressed poetry, is Elizabethan to the backbone. The trio's hunt took them from Nebraska's Republican River into the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado, hunting elk, deer, moose, bighorn sheep, and bison. The hunt was another rousing success, and shortly after it ended, two things happened in Texas Jack's life. He was presented with a challenge that locals thought was both crazy and impossible, and he met his first sweetheart.

Around the time Texas Jack was hunting with the Earl of Dunraven, the Palmer family from Savannah, Georgia, arrived on the Nebraska prairie. Ina Palmer was a beautiful Southern belle, but her former fiancé had accused her of infidelity, and her brother had shot and killed the man. Before her brother could stand trial, he faked his own death, headed west, and changed his name. He arrived in North Platte, met Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill, and became friends with both. On the day Ina stepped off the train to join her brother, she was introduced to Texas Jack,

just as he rode off to try the impossible challenge. The proprietor of a museum in Niagara Falls had hired Jack to lasso and capture live buffalo for an exhibition to be held on the 4th of July. The owners wanted to stage a buffalo hunt for live audiences. Discussions between the proprietor, Texas Jack, and Buffalo Bill went on for more than a year. Eventually, all parties settled on the price of $500 for each buffalo that was captured and placed on a train car for shipment to Niagara Falls. In her diary entry the day she was introduced to Texas Jack, Ina Palmer wrote, I have been introduced to Texas Jack, Ina Palmer wrote,

I have been introduced to Texas Jack, one of our Western heroes, and a fine picture of handsome, dashing, manly manhood he is. Certainly one of my beau ideals of a hunter or a scout. Hope I shall see more of him, and that I like his character as well as his face. of him and that I like his character as well as his face. But enough for this hero for the present, only that he now heads a party out on about as wild an adventure as even my wild brain could devise, lassoing buffalo, full-grown ones for the purpose of shipping them alive on the train. Some say it is dangerous work. Some prophecy not only broken arms and legs and crippled horses, but dead men as well as dead horses. Eno Palmer was very nearly right. During the adventure, Jack rode his favorite horse, a stallion named Tall Bull,

that had been captured in a fight with a Cheyenne warrior of the same name a few summers earlier. Jack had just thrown the business end of his lasso around the neck of an uncommonly large bull buffalo when disaster struck. Before the other men in the party could bind the bull's feet, the bull turned and charged Texas Jack. The bull flipped Jack and his horse into a nearby gully. Jack rose to his feet, rope still in hand, remounted his horse and captured the bull, much to the astonishment of a veteran newspaper reporter who witnessed the events. The reporter wrote, I'd rather go through the Battle of Chickamauga again than have to capture one of those fellows. Ultimately, the adventure was a success. Jack captured several buffalo with the aid of a few other men.

A letter from Jack to the museum owners in Niagara Falls gives the earliest hint of Jack's show business aspirations. He wrote, I will send you a sketch of my life in a few days that you may use it in your publications if necessary. that you may use it in your publications if necessary. I have written to the Indian Reservation to know if we can get the Indians required, and will let you know as soon as I get an answer. I have a good rig here of bows and arrows that I have captured from the Indians, and also nice lassos that I will bring along,

so as I can play Indian or white man as you may wish. The capture of the buffaloalos was a success, but not much else about the planned buffalo hunt at Niagara Falls went right. Most of the animals died in the train cars. Then the Quaker agent for the Pawnee tribe refused to let the Pawnee travel with Texas Jack. The agent worried that if the Pawnee went to Canada, they might not come back. The whole thing was delayed for months, and by the time the museum finally staged the hunt, Texas Jack could no longer attend. Instead, he suggested they call his old friend Wild Bill.

And that was the genesis of Hickok's first foray into show business with a disastrous production called The Daring Buffalo Chase of the Plains. Bill ended up chasing buffalo through the streets of the town of Niagara Falls when they broke out of the poorly constructed arena. Needless to say, the show was government allowed the Pawnee tribe to spend the summer hunting buffalo, but only if they were accompanied by a trail agent. Texas Jack's job was to ensure that there were no altercations between the Pawnee hunters and white settlers, and, more importantly, to make sure that there were no picnics, which was what the army called fights between the Pawnee and their enemies the Sioux. All told, Jack spent six weeks hunting with the Pawnee, for which he was paid $216.66. Jack became friends with several of the Pawnee warriors, but especially the head chief of the four bands

of the Pawnee. When some white settlers stole a horse from the tribe, Jack rode after them and returned the horse. That impressed the chief, whom Jack called Old Peter, which was a nickname based on the man's Pawnee name, which I won't even try to pronounce here. Old Peter wasn't used to having white men place the needs of his people above the whims of white settlers. Texas Jack also demonstrated his skill with the lasso for the chief, who named him Whirling Rope in the Pawnee language. Jack wrote about his summer hunting with the Pawnee for a popular magazine,

which gave many Easterners their first exposure to a Native American buffalo hunt. Jack wrote that he was so engrossed watching the Pawnee hunt that he didn't notice that many of the warriors had stopped to watch him. Jack realized they were waiting to see if he would prove himself as a warrior by taking down his own bull. The rest of the buffalo were now running at some distance, but Jack raised his rifle, took careful aim, and fired a shot that took down a bull and suitably impressed the warriors. While Jack was hunting buffalo on the plains, the next phase of his life was beginning and he didn't even know it. Buffalo Bill was in New York on a visit to see Ned Buntline. One of Buntline's Buffalo Bill stories had been turned into a successful play, and Cody stopped to see a performance of the show on Broadway.

When Bill got home, he told Texas Jack that he had been asked on stage by the cheering audience, but was struck with stage fright and could only manage a few stuttered words. It was a humble beginning for the man who would become the most famous showman and most famous American in the world. But now, Bundline was working on a dime novel called Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnee, and he sent letters to Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack to convince them that they could all make a fortune starring in a stage show about their lives out west. Buffalo Bill resisted the idea, with his stage fright fresh in his mind, but Texas Jack thought

Ned Buntline was right. People in the East were flocking to see exhibits of bison skulls and hides, as well as Native American clothing, weapons, and artifacts. Jack said later, I thought to myself all night, Jack, if the Eastern folks will go see a dead buffalo and stuffed Indians and pay money for it, what would they not give to see live buffalo and shake hands with live Indians? For a few months, Bill resisted, and Texas Jack insisted. But as fall turned to winter in 1872, both men agreed. Bill said goodbye to his family, and Jack bid farewell to Ena Palmer. They boarded a train for Chicago and a life neither could have expected. Ena soon wrote in her diary, Texas Jack told me that he and Buffalo Bill expected to go eat on quite a tour.

They have been gone for some time now. The papers are full of their sayings and doings. That tour and those sayings and doings were for the play Scouts of the Prairie, written by and co-starring the notorious Ned Bundline. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill become superstars, but it's a hell of a rocky road from the prairie to stardom. Showbiz does have its benefits, though, and Jack meets a beautiful Italian dancer who becomes the love of his life. That's next week on Legends of the Old West.

Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Matthew Kearns, the author of Texas Jack, America's First Cowboy Star. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer.

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