Bloody Bill Longley: The Mythology of a Gunfighter, Second Edition

Chapter 6 A Man of Low Instinct and Habits

61 Acomparison of Long­ ley’s version of his adventures in the Northwest with the official record concerning Camp Stambaugh truly reveals his artful ability to mix fact with fiction in order to project the desperado image he sought. The truth does not do much for that image. When Long­ ley was captured in 1877, according to the account given by Fuller, he claimed that after the Kuykendall expedition broke up, he was broke and stranded, so he applied to the army quartermaster for a job as a teamster. He said that his job was to drive a sixmule team between Camp Brown and Fort Bridger hauling supplies and equipment. Because of the Indian threat, he said that there were usually four or five wagons in each caravan, guarded by a detachment of cavalrymen. Long­ ley alleged that on September 15 (probably 1870, although no year is given), a caravan was attacked by some 130 Indians between South Pass City and the Green River on a creek that he called the Dry Sandy, which lies to the southeast of South Pass. Long­ ley said that after much shooting and yelling and the loss of one of their men, the Indians were driven off. As will be seen, Long­ ley could A Man of Low Instinct and Habits Chapter 6 62  Chapter 6 not possibly have been present at that fight, if it occurred, even as a soldier. Long­ ley claimed that he worked as a civilian teamster for about three months, then quit and joined in a partnership with a man named Tom Johnson (by coincidence, the same name as that of the man allegedly hanged with Long­ ley). The two opened a saloon, he said, in Miner’s Delight near Camp Stambaugh, each contributing about three hundred dollars to the enterprise. The two made a lot of money, bringing their supplies, he said, from Bryant Station some 100 miles distant on the Union Pacific line. Their saloon maintained two brands of good whiskey, one brand of wine, a barrel or two of alcohol, tobacco, and cigars. According to Long­ ley, there were no women in the country, and their customers to a man were heavily armed.1 As the record shows, Long­ ley was a soldier, not a teamster. It would not be until several months before his execution, however, that Long­ ley admitted that he enlisted in the army.2 A soldier who knew Long­ ley when he enlisted later recalled that Wheelan and his troops took five days of hard marching to overtake Kuykendall’s expedition and bring it back to Camp Brown. The soldier, Henry Gross, described Long­ ley as among the most destitute of the party, and “probably not knowing what else to do to satisfy the cravings of his stomach after having disposed of his gun, presented himself for enlistment.” Gross insisted that Long­ ley was never employed as a citizen by any quartermaster , nor did he ever keep a saloon in Miner’s Delight.3 Although Long­ ley enlisted on June 22, Camp Stambaugh itself had been formally organized only on June 20, named after the lieutenant slain the month before. Captain David Gordon, on orders from the Department of the Platte, selected the site for the post, just a little over a mile from Miner’s Delight and two-and-one-half miles from Atlantic City. The post was located on a natural plain some one by one-half miles inside a depression formed by a range of the Wind River Mountains . A desolate spot, the alkaline soil was decorated only by wild sage. Pine trees for timber to gather for firewood and with which to A Man of Low Instinct and Habits 63 construct buildings could be found only in the mountains some twelve miles distant. Springs within a mile or so of the site provided a bountiful supply of good drinking water. The altitude of the post was 7,714 feet.4 One description said of the hills surrounding the encampment, “Their dark color and very sparse vegetation gives a somber aspect to the entire scenery.”5 There was ample game in the area, ranging from cinnamon and grizzly bear, elk, deer, antelope, gray wolf, and coyote to jackrabbit, porcupine, beaver, gopher, sage hen, and some ducks. The streams teemed with fish.6 When Long­ ley joined Wheelan’s Company B as a cavalryman, the need to construct...