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A lthough Hall knew he had good men under his command, men capable of tracking and arresting dangerous fugitives as well as handling themselves capably in a gunfight, he also realized that an accidental gunshot might take them out of action at any time. This is what happened to not only one of his men but two—Sgt. Oliver S. Watson and John B. Armstrong. The details are scant. The first official report comes in the form of a telegram dated May 29, 1877. Hall informed Adj. Gen. William Steele that Armstrong had been accidentally shot that morning, “very seriously wounded in the hip I think,” but not fatally. He also informed his superior that Watson had been accidentally shot through the neck twelve days before, on May 17, at Yorktown in DeWitt County. Although both men were temporarily out of service, Watson was “doing well.”1 Armstrong was in the Case Hotel in Goliad when the accident happened. TheVictoria Advocate describes him as “one of Capt. Hall’s most trusty and bravest officers” who, while handling his own six-shooter, let it discharge, the ball entering the pit of his stomach and supposedly lodging in his thigh bone. The bullet was not yet extracted. It was considered a “dangerous and possible mortal wound,” and he was in a “very critical condition in his room at the hotel.” He was receiving the best medical attention possible. Two weeks later Armstrong was “improving and thought to be able to be up in a few weeks. Wound healing rapidly, ball not yet extracted.”2 C H A P T E R S I X Facing the Man Killer Arrested John Wesley Hardin . . . Had some lively shooting. —J. B. ARMSTRONG On May 31 Hall took time to write his superior a more detailed account of the two shootings. “I telegraphed you of Lieutenant Armstrong’s misfortune,” Hall, who may have discussed the wound with the doctor, begins, “who accidently [sic] shot himself in Goliad while carelessly handling his pistol. The ball entered just below the groin, striking the hip bone near the joint and up to this time the doctors have been unable to ascertain the location of the ball, but think it is lodged back of the hip bone. He is very severely wounded but I think the chances are in favor of his recovery. There is a probability however that he may be lame for life from the shot.” Editor E. R. Tarver of theWestern Chronicle, who had only recently made the acquaintance of Armstrong and was very favorably impressed, shared the bad news with his readers, writing that the “citizens will regret to learn that the gallant Lieut. Armstrong, . . . was dangerously wounded by the accidental discharge of his own pistol. . . . The ball entered the pit of his stomach and lodged against the thigh bone. Up to last accounts the surgeon had been unable to extract it. Though his condition is represented as critical, yet we hope this brave officer will soon recover, and be at his post again.”3 Hall clearly told Adjutant General Steele of Watson’s accident as well. Sergeant Watson was “accidentally wounded” by a pistol falling from a counter in a store in Yorktown, the ball entering his neck. “The wounding of these two of- ficers,” writes Hall, was “very unfortunate as I have no man in the company who can fill their places.” He reminds Steele in this letter that both had “at all times” been “efficient and untiring in the discharge of their duty.”4 No medical examiner’s report has been found, so the exact nature of Armstrong ’s wound remains a mystery. It was serious enough to keep him out of action for some time, not only preventing him from participating in scouts but also keeping him from normal mobility. Once on his feet he had to use a cane. By early August he was able to “limp along without his crutches.”5 In an ironic turn of events the accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound was most fortuitous: being out of the saddle Armstrong could concentrate on going after the state’s most wanted fugitive—John Wesley Hardin—who had been out of Texas since 1874. From his teens until mid-1874 Hardin had traveled the state at will, ranging from the Corpus Christi area north to Hill County, or east to Louisiana; in 1871 he traveled with a cattle herd north to Abilene, Kansas, during...

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