John Wallace ("Captain Jack") Crawford (1847–1917), known as "The Poet Scout", was an American adventurer, educator, and author. "Captain Jack" was a master storyteller about the Wild West and is known in American history as one of the most popular performers in the late nineteenth century. His daring ride of 350 miles in six days to carry dispatches to Fort Laramie for the New York Herald, to tell the news of the great victory by Gen. George Crook against the village of Chief American Horse at the Battle of Slim Buttes during the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, made him a national celebrity.
Early life
Crawford was born in Carndonagh, North Donegal, Ireland, on March 4, 1847. His parents were both born in Scotland. John Wallace's father, John A. Crawford, was banished from Scotland for making revolutionary speeches and fled to Ireland. Like many Scots-Irish of that time, the Crawfords moved and settled for a time in Ulster, in northern Ireland. At age fourteen, Crawford emigrated to the United States from Ireland, joining other members of his family who had preceded him to Minersville, Pennsylvania, the heart of the nation's anthracite coal region. In 1861, while his father marched away to war, young Crawford went to work in the mines to help support the family. At age seventeen, he enlisted in the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment volunteers and saw heavy fighting during the last stages of the Civil War. He was wounded twice, once at Spottsylvania and again at Petersburg, just days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox. While convalescing from the first wound in a Philadelphia hospital, young Crawford learned to read and write under the tutelage of a Sister of Charity. He would later incorporate his wartime experiences into his stage presentations.
At war's end, Crawford returned home and found a job in the coal mines at Centralia, Pennsylvania. He moved there with his parents, John A. and Susie Crawford. His father John A. became the town's tailor. The death of his mother two years later permanently influenced his life. On her deathbed, Susie Wallace Crawford exacted a promise from her son that "as long as he lived he would never drink liquor." The senior Crawford's addiction to strong drink had caused the family to suffer. In fact, one of Jack Crawford's earliest recollections was kneeling by his mother's side "praying God to save a wayward father and husband."' Crawford kept this promise for the rest of his life, becoming one of the few teetotal scouts that ever worked for the U.S. Army. This deathbed scene likewise found its way into Captain Jack's lectures and essays, contributing to Crawford's reputation as a leading temperance advocate. While in Centralia in September 1869, Jack married a local school teacher, Anna Maria Stokes, of Numidia, north of Centralia. Jack was appointed postmaster of Girardville, Pennsylvania and Jack and Anna Marie moved there. He was also an officer in the local miner's union. Together they had five children, including a girl who was named for Jack's friend William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. Her name was May Cody Crawford.Darlis A. Miller, "Captain Jack Crawford: Buckskin Poet, Scout and Showman," (hereinafter "Buckskin Poet") (1993), p. 53 and Darlis A. Miller, Captain Jack Crawford: "A Western Military Scout on the Chautauqua Circuit", South Dakota State Historical Society (1991), p. 230-232.
Black Hills Rangers
In 1875, Jack headed west on the Black Hills Gold Rush. He would later claim that dime novels were among the influences that propelled him west. Jack spent the first six months of the nation's centennial year canvassing the gold camps as a correspondent for the Omaha Daily Bee. During these months, the residents of the mining settlement of Custer elected him to the town's first city council. In 1876, Custer City miners organized a 125-man militia known as the "Black Hills Rangers". Jack was appointed as chief of scouts, a troubleshooting unit of about twelve experienced fighting men, to look for Indian signs and escort emigrants through dangerous canyons where Indians often waited in ambush. He probably became "Captain Jack" when he took command of his company.Custer is generally considered to be the oldest town established by European Americans in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. The site of one of the major encampments of the Black Hills Expedition led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry in 1874, which made the first public discovery of gold in the Black Hills. "Buckskin Poet", p.17.
Journalist In 1876, Jack spent the first six months of the nation's centennial year canvassing the gold camps as a correspondent for the Omaha Daily Bee. After George Armstrong Custer's death on the Little Bighorn, Crawford joined Brig. Gen. George Crook's command as a civilian scout with the Fifth Cavalry on July 22, 1876. On July 24, 1876, Jack boarded a train for Cheyenne en route to Ft. Laramie and friends presented him with appropriate gifts: a new Winchester repeating rifle, cartridge belt, holster, hunting knife and sheath and a buckskin suit. "The management of the Omaha Daily Bee contributed 'liberally to his outfit' and paid tribute to its intrepid correspondent with these words: Captain Jack is a right good fellow, and we hope to see him distinguish himself alongside of his old friend Buffalo Bill. Jack has done some good in advancing the interests of the Black Hills, and it was on this account that his Omaha friends took occasion to give him a handsome testimonial of their appreciation of his labors."
The Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 During the Great Sioux War of 1876 Crawford was civilian scout with the 5th Cavalry Regiment and war correspondent for the Omaha Bee with General George Crook's Yellowstone and Big Horn Expedition. Captain Jack is credited with carrying dispatches on a highly perilous route of 400 miles alone to Fort Fetterman, and he took part in the Horsemeat March of 1876, one of the most grueling marches in American military history. Crawford played a significant role in the Battle of Slim Buttes (1876) and made a daring ride of more than three hundred miles in six days to carry dispatches of the victory to Fort Laramie for the New York Herald. One of his most famous exploits included delivering a bottle of whiskey to Buffalo Bill Cody, while on campaign. Cody wrote of the incident in An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill:
On learning that I was with Crook, Crawford at once hunted me up, and gave me a letter from General Sheridan, announcing his appointment as a scout. He also informed me that he had brought me a present from General Jones, of Cheyenne. 'What kind of a present' I inquired, seeing no indication of any package about Jack. 'A bottle of whiskey!' he almost shouted. I clapped my hand over his mouth. News that whiskey was in the camp was likely to cause a raid ... I will say in passing that I don't believe there is another scout in the West that would have brought a full bottle of whiskey 300 miles.
Captain Jack joins Gen. Crook's command Captain Jack traveled for over two weeks, trying to catch up with General Crook's command. On July 24, 1876, Jack boarded a train for Cheyenne en route to Ft. Laramie. When Crawford reached Cheyenne, he discovered that the Fifth Cavalry had already left for Fort Laramie and was en route north to Fort Fetterman. On July 29, Jack arrived at Fort Fetterman and credited with carrying dispatches on a highly perilous route of four hundred miles. On August 2, Jack left Fort Fetterman and finally reached Crook's command camped on Rosebud Creek in Montana on August 8, 1876."Buckskin Poet", p. 54-55.
After a brief nap, Crawford located his friend Buffalo Bill, handed him some letters, and distributed other communications to officers and newspaper correspondents accompanying the expedition. He then turned over to Cody a present from a Mr. Jones, proprietor of the Jones House in Cheyenne. The gift was a bottle of sour-mash whiskey, which Jack had carried unharmed on his perilous journey to the Rosebud. In wiring of this incident in his autobiography, published in 1879, Cody whimsically remarked: "Jack Crawford is the only man I have ever known that could have brought that bottle of whiskey through without "accident befalling it, for he is one of the very few teetotal scouts I ever met. Indeed, Crawford made a good impression upon both officers and enlisted men, who considered his ride from Fetterman a "plucky undertaking.""Buckskin Poet", p. 55.
"Our campfires were lively after Captain Jack joined us," recalled an officer. "He sang his songs, told his stories, recited his poems and kept his tireless jaw constantly wagging for our edification." Greene, p.27.
Crook's Horsemeat March Crook's "Horsemeat March" marked the beginning of one of the most grueling marches in American military history. Crook's command consisted of about 2,200 men: 1,500 cavalry, 450 infantry, 240 Indian scouts, and a contingent of civilian employees, including 44 white scouts and packers. Crook's civilian scouts included Frank Grouard, Baptiste "Big Bat" Pourier, Baptiste "Little Bat" Garnier, Captain Jack Crawford and Charles "Buffalo Chips" White.Jerome A. Greene, "Slim Buttes, 1876: An Episode of the Great Sioux War", (hereinafter "Greene") (1982), p.33. "Although Captain Jack's "yarns and rhymes" would help to relieve the monotony of camp life, Buffalo Bill grew bored by the inactivity and left the expedition to continue his theatrical career in the East. According to one newspaper account, it was on Cody's recommendation that Col. Wesley Merritt subsequently appointed Crawford to succeed Cody as chief of scouts of the 5th Cavalry Regiment.""Buckskin Poet", p. 55-56 News of the defeat of General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25 and 26, 1876, arrived in the East as the U.S. was observing its centennial.Lynne V. Cheney, "1876: The Eagle Screams", American Heritage 25:3, Apr. 1974. The American public was in dismay and calls to punish the Sioux and awaited the government's response. War correspondents with national newspapers fought alongside General Crook and reported the campaign by telegraph. Correspondents embedded with Crook were Robert E. Strahorn for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News; John F. Finerty for the Chicago Times; Reuben Briggs Davenport for New York Herald and Joe Wasson for the New York Tribune and Alta California (San Francisco).Greene, p.15. On August 26, 1876, with his men rationed for fifteen days, a determined General Crook departed from the Powder River and headed east toward the Little Missouri pursuing the Indians. Crook feared that Indians would scatter to seek game rather than meet the soldiers in combat after the fight with Custer. All other commanders had withdrawn from pursuit, but Crook resolved to teach the Indians a lesson. He meant to show that neither distance, bad weather, the loss of horses not the absence of rations could deter the U.S. Army from following up its wild enemies to the bitter end.Greene, p. 26, 31, 114-115.
Strahorn reported that "all the infantrymen who could ride and who so wished were mounted on mules from the pack train. No circus ever furnished a better show in its mule-riding department than we enjoyed when those two hundred infantrymen essayed their first mount. Many of them had never been astride a horse and many of the mules had never been ridden. Tom Moore, Chief of Pack Trains, and his battalion of assistance, had the time of their lives trying to mount and hold the men in their saddles for the first hours of the performance. Not a few of the soldiers, after being pitched into the sagebrush and cactus a few times, contended they would sooner walk. However, galled but gallant, nearly two hundred stuck to the mules."Strahorn, Autobiography, p. 148.