A MEMBER’S RECOLLECTION OF THE DAYS 
OF BISON ABUNDANCE. 
Union Cuus, Fifth Avenue and 5l1st Street. 
New York, January 25, 1914. 
To THE SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN BrIson Socrery. 
Dear Sir: In compliance with your written request that I give 
the Society the benefit of my experience and knowledge of the 
buffaloes, the country in which they roamed, their rapid destruction, 
and their almost extinction in the United States, I beg to give a 
short report on the American Bison, in whose preservation we are 
so keenly interested. 
Cortez, in his early reports of his journeyings and campaigns in 
North America, speaks of seeing buffaloes in the early part of the 
16th century in Mexico; and C oronado in 1540 in his march through 
what is now Oklahoma Territory saw large herds, and in the early 
years of the 17th century numbers of buffaloes were found in what is 
now the District of Columbia and the capital of the United States. 
In 1860 buffaloes were reported in Ohio and Illinois, and in 1730 
they were roaming in Virginia and the Carolinas. 
In 1867-68-69-70 I served on the staff of General Sheridan. 
who commanded the military division of the Southwest, which included 
the States of Louisiana, Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Arkansas, Colorado, and Missouri. 
In these years the buffalo grazed from the State of Texas on 
the South to the British possessions on the North, where they found 
plenty of water and grass. Few people are aware of the number 
of buffaloes in the United States in 1865. It was’estimated that there 
were over three millions. 
During our Civil War very little powder or lead reached the 
Indians and their only way of killing buffaloes was with bow and 
arrows, consequently they increased very rapidly. 
During the Indian campaigns of 1867, 1868 and 1869 against 
the Sioux, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Comanches, ete., as 
adjutant-general of these expeditions under General Sheridan, with 
Custer, I had many opportunities of seeing these immense herds, 
both quietly grazing, or on the move. 
The only way I can describe it is by saying they covered the whole 
country in detached herds, numbering from 5,000 to 20,000, as far 
as the eye could reach, with only clear spaces here and there. 
Often in skirmishing with the Indians these herds, numbering 
thousands upon thousands, would thunder by with a noise and roar 
and dust, impossible to describe, rendering our position very dan- 
gerous, often compelling the halting of our pack trains and horses. 
Late one afternoon General Sheridan halted the command on the 
top of the “divide” between the Cimmeron and Lower Canadian 
Rivers. After dismounting, the General asked the officers of the 
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