A BUFFALO DRIVE. 



Gen. F. W. Benteen, U. S. A. 



In the autumn of 1870, the "7th 

 U. S. Cavalry, in which I was then a 

 captain, having guarded the con- 

 struction forces that had built the Kan- 

 sas Pacific Railway from Hays City, 

 Kansas, to Denver, had left the railroad 

 fully established and the battalion was 

 en route to our different posts fo rthe 

 severe winter then close at hand. 



Early in the course of the march we 

 discovered, to our left, an immense herd 

 of buffaloes. I said to Captain Satterlee 

 Plummer, of the regiment, '' We will get 

 permission from the commanding officer 

 to drive that herd along with the batta- 

 lion and have all the fresh meat we want, 

 close to camp at night, thus saving the 

 necessity of sending out for meat, in 

 case there should be no buffaloes near 

 camp." 



Plummer was a young, bright, wiry 

 fellow, " full of vinegar." and had but 

 recently been transferred from the 

 infantry to the cavalry arm of the service, 

 yet I knew he was a rider, brave and 

 bold, much of his skill as such having 

 been acquired at the grand military 

 academy of the United States. Being 

 well mounted, I had not the slightest 

 fear but that I could pilot him well and 

 land the living meat where we could 

 select and kill for our evening meal. 



We two — no orderlies being taken — 

 got to rear and leeward of the immense 

 herd, and moved it, at first slowly, along; 

 but after an hour or so it must have 

 dawned on the old bulls of the outer 

 skirmish line that they were not going 

 in quite the right direction for them, as 

 it was about the season for them to go 

 south, while we wanted them with us, to 

 the east. The stampede soon commenced. 

 Then Captain Plummer and I had to go, 

 by the superior speed of our horses, 

 almost into the center of the moving 

 mass, to keep them from starting on their 

 southerly course too soon. Any one 

 who has not been in the midst of such 



a herd of brutes can scarcely conceive 

 of hunting in its immensity ; though, 

 bear in mind, we were not to, and did 

 not fire a shot, yet we two were to drive 

 the herd or some portion of it to camp. 

 Our object in pushing into the herd was 

 to get near enough to the leaders to di- 

 rect their course. If we remained behind 

 them only the rear guard of the moving 

 mass would know or feel our presence 

 and the leaders would swing off. 



We kept them moving, at a gently 

 rolling gallop, but were careful not to 

 frighten them unnecessarily, nor to work 

 them into a genuine stampede. 



It was exciting and perilous work, 

 this riding into and becoming part of 

 the vast sea of robes. Sometimes the 

 great beasts would crowd us so hard as 

 almost to lift our horses from the ground 

 but the brave old chargers stood the 

 ordeal nobly, kept cool and yielded im- 

 plicitly to every signal from their riders. 

 More than once we had to flay the buf- 

 faloes nearest us with our quirts in 

 order to keep them from embracing us 

 too fervently. The heat and dust gen- 

 erated by the herd were almost unbear- 

 able, but the sport, the excitement, the 

 experience, were worth to us all the dis- 

 comfort we had to undergo. 



The only real danger was that our hor- 

 ses might fall on the rough ground, from 

 stepping into a wolf, badger or prairie- 

 dog hole, and owing to the immense 

 clouds of dust which were raised by the 

 buffaloes in their flight it was difficult 

 to give the horses any assistance in 

 avoiding them. In fact, I knew that 

 my horse needed none of my assistance, 

 and Captain Plummer's was evidently 

 of the same good hunting stock. 



The result was that we landed some 

 thousands of our herd sufficiently close 

 to camp. Then Plummer and I did the 

 slaughtering act and the wagons brought 

 the meat in. We killed only fat young 

 cows and calves. 



