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During the Civil War, Cody served as a dispatch bearer
and scout for the Union Army. Afterwards, he hunted buffalo to help feed
the thousands of hungry men who built the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It was
his phenomenal skill in this job that earned him the legendary nickname
"Buffalo Bill".
As Chief of Scouts for the U.S. Army's Fifth Cavalry
from the late 1860s to early 1870s, Buffalo Bill participated in
reportedly 16 battles, earning recognition for "extraordinarily good
services as a trailer and fighter in the pursuit of hostile Indians" and
receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872. A few years later,
following the massacre of Custer's Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little
Big Horn, Buffalo Bill served as a scout once more, joining in battle
against the Cheyenne at Warbonnet Creek. Despite his
real-life contributions to American frontier history, Buffalo Bill won his
greatest fame as a showman. In the early 1880s, he unveiled an original
and spectacular new form of entertainment that would bring to life the
wonders of the American West for millions of people around the world. An
outdoor extravaganza staged on a scale more colossal than anything that
had gone before it, Buffalo Bill's Wild West represented the birth of the
Western as an entertainment phenomenon. For an amazing
three decades, Buffalo Bill's Wild West delighted spectators with
performances by the original "King of the Cowboys" Buck Taylor, the
legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and even Chief Sitting Bull. Under
Cody's direction, they and a hundred more performers, including buffalo,
horses, elk, donkeys, and longhorn cattle, remained constantly on the
move. Having become a living symbol of the American West,
Buffalo Bill used his fame to champion Western causes, including
conservation of the land, its wildlife, and rights for its native peoples.
"Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known," Buffalo Bill reportedly
stated, "has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the
government." A long line of bad investments would
bankrupt Buffalo Bill in his later years, but when he died in 1917, he
left behind a wealth of Western history that might otherwise have been
lost, and a growing body of lore for later generations to cherish
and build upon. This was Buffalo Bill's true legacy, an inheritance beyond
value, with generations continuing to reap the benefits of a truly
masterful showman and legendary Western figure. America Remembers is proud to offer an exciting new Tribute,
honoring the legendary
Colonel “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his amazing Wild West extravaganzas: The
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Tribute Revolver. This exclusive Tribute is the first ever issue by
America Remembers to be featured on a
recreation of the legendary Remington 1858 New Model Army Revolver, a
particular favorite of Buffalo Bill
himself. Craftsmen commissioned specifically by America Remembers for
this historic issue have decorated the
Tribute in stunning 24-karat gold artwork that stands out boldly from
the blued steel frame and barrel.
Buffalo Bill’s Trusted Revolver – “It Never Failed Me”
The Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Tribute Revolver is a working recreation of
the classic Remington 1858 New
Model Army Revolver, produced for us by the master craftsmen of A. Uberti who, since 1959, have become world
renowned as the premier makers of historical firearm recreations. This
model Remington revolver is widely
believed to be one of the first handguns William Cody owned, even before
he’d earned the title of “Buffalo Bill.”
Over the years, Buffalo Bill was honored with many spectacular
presentation guns, but they could never take the
place of the timeworn Remington he had come to trust. He is believed to
have given a New Model Army Revolver to
his close friend and Western general manager Charles Trego, with a note
that read, “This old Remington revolver was
carried and used for many years in Indian Wars and buffalo killing, and
it never failed me.”
The right side of the
cylinder features a detailed image of Buffalo Bill on horseback, based
on an illustration Cody used as the letterhead for correspondence sent
from his “Winter Quarters” in Madison Square Gardens, circa 1886.
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