Quotes By Buffalo Bill

My debut upon the world's stage occurred on February 26, 1845, in the State of Iowa.

My mother's sympathies were strongly with the Union. She knew that war was bound to come, but so confident was she in the strength of the Federal Government that she devoutly believed that the struggle could not last longer than six months at the utmost.

I could never resist the call of the trail.

Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government.

Excitement was plentiful during my two years' service as a Pony Express rider.

I had many enemies among the Sioux; I would be running considerable risk in meeting them.

It was my effort, in depicting the West, to depict it as it was.

My restless, roaming spirit would not allow me to remain at home very long.

The McCarthy boys, at the proper moment, gave orders to fire upon the advancing enemy.

My great forte in killing buffaloes was to get them circling by riding my horse at the head of the herd and shooting their leaders. Thus the brutes behind were crowded to the left, so that they were soon going round and round.

So for twelve miles I rode with Sherman, and we became fast friends. He asked me all manner of questions on the way, and I found that he knew my father well, and remembered his tragic death in Salt Creek Valley.

Wild Bill was a strange character. In person he was about six feet and one inch in height. He was a Plains-man in every sense of the word.

General Custer was a close observer and student of personal character.

I was persuaded now that I was destined to lead a life on the Plains.

On reaching the place where the Indians had surprised us, we found the bodies of the three men whom they had killed and scalped, and literally cut into pieces.

Washington newspaper men know everything.

The first trip of the Pony Express was made in ten days - an average of two hundred miles a day. But we soon began stretching our riders and making better time.

With the help of a friend I got father into a wagon, when the crowd had gone. I held his head in my lap during the ride home. I believed he was mortally wounded. He had been stabbed down through the kidneys, leaving an ugly wound.

Having secured my Indian actors, I started for Baltimore, where I organized my combination, and which was the largest troupe I had yet had on the road.

The cholera had broken out at the post, and five or six men were dying daily.

The Confederates had suspected Wild Bill of being a spy for two or three days, and had watched him closely.

I felt only as a man can feel who is roaming over the prairies of the far West, well armed, and mounted on a fleet and gallant steed.

The audience, upon learning that the real Buffalo Bill was present, gave several cheers between the acts.

We got more provisions for our whiskey than the same money, which we paid for the liquor, would have bought; so after all it proved a very profitable investment.

The Free State men, myself among them, took it for granted that Missouri was a slave state.

My brother was a great favorite with everybody, and his death cast a gloom upon the whole neighborhood.

Frontiersmen good and bad, gunmen as well as inspired prophets of the future, have been my camp companions. Thus, I know the country of which I am about to write as few men now living have known it.

We had avoided discovery by the Sioux scouts, and we were confident of giving them a complete surprise.

Indians were frequently off their reservations.

Some days I would go without any fire at all, and eat raw frozen meat and melt snow in my mouth for water.