Ole Devil and the Caplocks

iv Supercargo: an agent placed on board a ship to be in charge of the purchase, sale, or safe delivery of a consignment. Often used as a derogatory term by sailors.

v Hessian boots: designed for riding, with legs extending to just below the knee and having a y-shaped notch at the front; originally used by light cavalry such as Hussars.

vi Texian: an Anglo-U.S.-born citizen of Texas, the “i” being dropped from general usage after annexation by the United States and the Mexican War of 1846-48.

vii What happened to James Bowie’s knife after his death at the conclusion of the siege of the Alamo Mission—at San Antonio de Bexar Texas on March 6, 1836—is told in The Quest for Bowie’s Blade.

viii A more important cause of Jackson Baines Hardin’s nickname was his well-deserved reputation for being a “lil ole devil” in a fight.

ix A detailed description of how to ride “posting the trot” is given in the “The Scout” episode of Under the Stars and Bars.

x The State of Louisiana uses the term “parish” instead of “county. “

xi Rezin Pleasant Bowie, elder brother of James, q.v., and believed by many authorities to have been the actual designer of the “bowie” knife.

xii During the period in question, Texas was regarded by the Mexican Government as being a Territory of the State of Coahuila. Santa Anna’s refusal to make it a State in its own right, with full representation in the national government, was one of the reasons for the Texians’ resentment and bitterness.

xiii In the author’s opinion, the fact that the Beaucoup family did not take the matter any further suggests they suspected — or knew — the wrong man was being blamed.

xiv “Gone to Texas”: at odds with the law in the United States. Many wanted men entered Texas in the period before annexation, knowing that there was little danger of them being caught and extradited by the Mexican authorities.

xv The Texians had suggested that, considering the enormous area of land which would be involved, after annexation Texas could be divided into three or four separate states.

xvi “Slick fork” saddle: one with little bulge, or roll, at the fork. Because of its Spanish connotations, the Texians preferred to use the word “girth” instead of “cinch.”

xvii Hapsburg: an ancient German family from which were descended rulers of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain.

xviii Astrakhan: originally the pelts of very young lambs, with tightly curled wool, from the district around the Russian city of that name. Later a fabric with a curled pile in imitation of such pelts.

xix Quetzal: Pharomachnis Mocino, one of the Trogoniformes birds, found in the mountain forests of Central and South America regarded as sacred by the Ancient Aztecs and Incas. Two of the cock’s fringed tail covert feathers may reach a length of over three feet, making them much sought after for decorative purposes.

xx Wellington-leg boots: not the modern waterproofed rubber variety, but the knee-length leather pattern made popular by the Duke of Wellington.

xxi The majority of the “Kentucky” rifles were actually made in Pennsylvania.

xxii Jonathan Browning was the father and tutor of the master firearms’ designer, John Moses Browning, who appears in Calamity Spells Trouble.

xxiii Despite the difficulty of transporting it with the magazine in position, Jonathan Browning had produced a comparatively simple repeating rifle which was capable of a continuous fire unequaled by any contemporary weapon. However, during the period when he was manufacturing it, between 1834-42, he lacked the facilities to go into large-scale production. He would have been able to do so in later years, but the development of self-contained metallic cartridges and more compact, if less simple, repeating arms had rendered it obsolete.

xxiv On December 6, 1835, at the end of a battle lasting for six days. General Martin Perfecto de Cos and his force of eleven hundred men had surrendered to the Texians at San Antonio de Bexar. On Cos giving his parole that he and his men would refrain from further military action against the Republic of Texas, they were allowed to return unharmed to Mexico. As Cos was accompanying the army which was marching north, it was apparent that he did not intend to honor the terms of his parole.

xxv Mozo: a manservant, particularly one serving in a menial capacity.

xxvi A description of Tommy Okasi’s archery technique is given in Young Ole Devil.

xxvii Daisho: a matched pair of swords, comprising of a tachi with a thirty-inch-long blade and a wakizashi, the blade of which was eighteen inches in length.

xxviii Until the visits in 1853-54 of a flotilla commanded by Commodore Perry, U.S.N., there was little contact between the Western World and Japan.

xxix How Dustine Edward Marsden “Dusty” Fog made use of the tutelage which he received from Tommy Okasi is told in the author’s “Civil War” and “Floating Outfit” stories.

xxx Traditionally, the daisho was carried through the girdle. However, as he had had to spend long periods on horseback since arriving in the United States, Tommy Okasi had found it was more convenient to equip the sheaths with slings which could be attached to his waist belt.

xxxi Reverse-Wharncliffe point: where the cutting edge joins the back of the blade in a convex arc. The normal Wharncliffe, also called a “beak, “point — said to have been developed by the Earl of Wharncliffe in the sixteenth century, although variations of it had been in use since Roman times — is mainly used on pocketknives and has the back of the blade making a convex arc to the cutting edge.

xxxii After the blade had been shaped by fusing together numerous layers of steel, it was ready to be tempered. A claylike material, for which every master swordsmith had his own secret recipe, was applied to the whole of the blade apart from an inch or so at the tip and the entire cutting edge. After heating the blade to the correct temperature—traditionally this was commenced in the half-light of the early morning—it was plunged into a tub of cold water. The exposed metal cooled instantly and became very hard. Being encased in the clay sheath, the rest of the blade lost its heat gradually and, remaining comparatively soft, was given a greater pliancy. To prove that the finished article was capable of carrying out the work for which it was intended, the smith beat it against a sheet of iron and hacked to pieces the body of a dead criminal before handing it over to its owner. This is, of course, only a simplified description of the process.

xxxiii Clip point: where the back of the blade curves to meet the main cutting edge in a concave arc five and a quarter inches in length. It is sharpened and forms an extension of the cutting edge.

xxxiv Cargador: assistant pack master and second-in-command of a mule train.

xxxv The double girths were necessary because Texas cowhands scorned the use of a “dally,” a half hitch which could be released immediately in an emergency, when roping Instead, being determined to retain anything upon which they dropped a loop, they fastened the rope to the saddle horn.

xxxvi The Croodlom & Co. “Duck Foot” Mob Pistol and similar weapons had four barrels fixed side by side and splayed out in the form of a fan, so that its bullets would spread when leaving the muzzles. They were popular with prison guards and the officers of merchant ships as a means of quelling an unruly crowd at close quarters.

xxxvii The tragic consequences of Colonel James W. Fannin’s decision are told in Get Urrea.

xxxviii The first practicable friction matches were marketed in 1827 by, among others, John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees, England, who called his product the “100 Sulphurata Hyperoxegenta Frict” match.

xxxix “Instantaneous Light Box”: consisting of a bottle containing sulfuric acid which was used to ignite wooden slivers — known as “splints”—tipped with a potassium chlorate, sugar and gum arable compound. In the United States of America, a box with fifty “splints” retailed for two dollars, or four cents a light.

xl Nut-man: operator of a “shell game,” using a dried pea and three walnut shells or thimbles, such as is described in The Law of the Gun. As the game is purely a swindle, despite requiring considerable manipulative skill, a nut-man was not regarded very highly in gambling circles.

xli Clonmel Code: twenty-six “commandments” laying down the rules to be followed when fighting a duel, particularly with pistols, adopted by the Summer Assizes at Clonmel, Tipperary County, Ireland, in 1770.

xlii A more detailed account of the “high cavalry twist” draw is given in Slip Gun.

xliii * The “soda” and the “hock” were the top and bottom cards of the deck when playing at faro, a description of which is given in Rangeland Hercules. So the term “from soda to hock” meant all the way, from the beginning to the end.

xliv Before their activities had made the United States of America too hot to hold them, Madeline and her husband had been actively involved in a white slavery ring as well as operating a high-class, but notorious, brothel and gambling house in New York.

xlv Although Ole Devil Hardin had known Madeline as “de Moreau” and believed her husband’s surname to be “Galsworthy,” they were Mr. and Mrs. Buttolph. However, to avoid confusion, the author will continue to refer to her by her maiden name, which she and her husband had elected to use since arriving in Texas.

xlvi Pepperbox: a multi-barreled repeating firearm where all the barrels rotate around an axis instead of, as on a revolver, only the cylinder holding the firing charges.

xlvii Some details of “Ram” Turtle’s later career are given in Set Texas Back On Her Feet.

xlviii Although the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company was being established by Samuel Colt, with Elias B.D. Ogden (later Judge) as President, and Colt’s cousin, Dudley Selden, as Secretary and General Manager, at Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey, early in 1836 and would receive its charter on March 5th — and have it amended twice in 1839 — it would be another year before the first of the “Paterson” revolving cylinder rifles and pistols — the name of the latter becoming shortened to “revolver” — were available to the public.

xlix Invented in 1813 by Elisha H. Collier at Boston, Massachusetts. An early and comparatively successful attempt to create a firearm, utilizing a single barrel and a hand-operated cylinder rotating with the firing charges, which could fire several shots in succession. Lack of patronage and production facilities in the United States of America caused him to cross the Atlantic and manufacture his arms in England. In spite of Ole Devil’s misgivings, a number of the weapons were purchased for use by the British Army in the Colonies. Although there is no evidence of the fact, it has been suggested by some authorities that — having seen examples while serving as a seaman on a ship which put in at Calcutta, India, then a part of the British Empire — Samuel Colt, q.v., used the Collier Repeating Pistol as the basis for the mechanism of his first “revolving cylinder” firearms.

l Pastern: part of the horse’s leg immediately above the hoof.

li Travois: a primitive form of sledge, although not restricted to use on snow, constructed of two poles for shafts with a frame upon which the load is carried and drawn by a single animal.

lii Aparejos: a type of packsaddle designed for heavy or awkwardly shaped loads.

liii House-Indians: unlike the nomadic tribes, the Hopi, Zuni and kindred nations tended to make and live in permanent homes instead of transportable lodges or tipis.

liv Warrant and non-commissioned officers of the King’s African Rifles also frequently had this trait. One with whom I worked for several months during the Mau Mau Uprising had been to England and taken the Drill Instructor’s Course at the Brigade of Guards’ Depot, Pirbright, Surrey, shortly after World War II. He could read and understand verbal instructions which were in English, but would only speak Swahili, the lingua franca of most race in Kenya, unless he knew the person he was addressing very well.

lv Pronounced “Hey-Soos.”

lvi As with the majority of Indian tribes, the Hopis considered that the older and more experienced warriors had already had many opportunities to earn acclaim and loot. So they could allow those who were less fortunate to have the first opportunities by leading the attack.

lvii Another example of just how serious the flintlocks’ fault could be is given in Ole Devil at San Jacinto.

lviii Just how great an effect the firepower of the Browning Slide Repeating Rifles had under suitable conditions is told in Get Urrea.

lix Madeline de Moreau had not deliberately misled Colonel Alarcon about the Texians’ armament. The information which she and her husband had received was merely that a shipment of new rifles was to arrive and the nature of their mechanisms had not been mentioned.

lx The throwing stick of the Hopi and related tribes of North American Indians is a similar device to the war and hunting boomerang of the Australian aborigines, but is neither designed nor expected to return to the thrower if it misses its target. This does not make it any less effective as a weapon. American author, Daniel Mannix — who, in Chapter 7, “The Boomerang — The Stick That Kills” of his book A Sporting Chance covers the subject thoroughly — has thrown one a distance of five hundred and forty feet and it still retained sufficient force at the end to crack an inch-thick limb of a tree.

lxi Grulla: a bluish-gray horse much the same color as a sandhill crane.

lxii The fastest recorded rate of fire for a manually operated double action mechanism occurred on January 23, 1834, at the Company “K” 163rd Infantry’s Armory, Lewiston, Montana. Using a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Model 1899 revolver, No. 640792, Ed McGivern fired five shots into a playing card at eighteen feet in two-fifths of a second; not, of course, starting with it holstered.