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Gun fight at the OK Corral
History of Wyatt Earp
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Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois Monday, March 19, 1848 and died Friday January 13, 1929 in Los Angeles, California of the flu. Wyatt Earp is mostly famous for his gun fight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona 1881. But, there are more interesting facts about his life and you will hear them today.
In 1876 Wyatt Earp was hired as an assistant Marshall in Dodge City, Kansas, one of the worst places in America at the time. In Dodge City daylight muggings and nighttime shootings were an everyday thing. When Wyatt became a lawman there he was able to stop the crimes without killing anybody, he put them in jail. One of his techniques was called ?buffaloing? where he would knock a criminal on the head with his favorite weapon, the Colt 45.
In 1878 Wyatt met Doc Holliday. They became friends when Doc shot a man who was aiming at Wyatt?s back. Doc was also involved in the battle at the OK Corral. Doc suffered from Tuberculosis and went from 200 pounds to 122 pounds in the year after the gunfight. He died in 1883.
The gunfight at the ok Corral started and ended in thirty violent seconds, but, it must have felt like thirty minutes to the fighters. Eight people were ready to fight. On one side were Wyatt, his brothers and Doc Holliday. On the other side were the Clantons and their gang of Cowboys (horse thieves and cattle rustlers of the time). They all had no intention of being disarmed. Frank McLaury, a Cowboy, had the best aim of the group. He was shot by Wyatt and was the first to die. Everybody started fighting. In the end, almost all the cowboys died, Ike Clanton begged for his life and was thrown in jail. Morgan Earp was shot in the shoulder. Virgil Earp was shot in the leg. Doc was shot in the hip. Only Wyatt came out unharmed.
Shortly after the Civil war had ended and the confederate capital Richmond had fallen, the well known actor John Wilkes Booth decided to kill the President, and with the help of some friends the Vice President and Secretary of State as well. The man George Atzerodt was given the job of killing the Vice President. His plan was to book a room in the same hotel and Vice President Johnson but when the morning of the day he was supposed to commit the assassination came he backed out and could not carry through with the murder. Two other men, Lewis Powell and David Herold, were assigned to kill the Secretary of State William H. Seaward. Powell attempted to shoot him with a revolver but after a misfire attempted to stab Seaward unsuccessfully because of a jaw splint Seaward had on. After the failed assassination Powell and Herold split up. Po...
...rnia. Wyatt Earp died on January 13, 1929, and his fame as a lawman has continued to grow since his death. Wyatt Earp literally shot his way into the hearts of Western America. He is familiar to the nation’s people, young and old. From Ellsworth, Kansas to Tombstone, Arizona, he cleaned the streets of desperadoes in town after town. He shot coolly, he shot straight, and he shot deadly, but only in self-defense. Like any other person whose reputation leaned on firepower, there were those who wanted to test, to see if their draw was a split second quicker or if they could find a weak spot. Wyatt put many of their doubts to rest. When the history of the western lawmen is placed in view, Earp’s name leads the parade of Hickok, Masterson, Garrett, Tilghman and all the rest.
We just recently lost the Alamo and all the great men who fought for it. 189 men lost there lives fighting for the Alamo and they will be greatly remembered. The men held the fort for 13 days before Santa Anna and his army engulfed it. Santa Anna other wise know as napoleon of the west or the president of Mexico ordered his men to kill every one thou he let some women and children go to tell the tale. Soon after the lose of the Alamo general urrea executed 400 Texans under command of colonel Fannin which is known as Goliad massacre.
When comparing the characters we meet in The Oxbow Incident with Erik Baard's list on attributes a cowboy should possess, we find out that there are quite a few discrepancies. The novel as a whole is the story of a group of men who decided to form a lynch mob and go after a group of men who are responsible for murdering a townsman and for apparently stealing cattle from Drew's ranch. The lynch mob sets and tries to track the rebels who are responsible, they come across three men who they have decided are the trouble makers and all in all they decide to hang them men. At the end of the novel we find out that these three men were not the rebels, in fact they were wrongly accused by the mob, and now the mob were murdered because they did kill them wrongfully. The story is full of contradictions on what a cowboy should be, when it is being compared to Baard's list. In Baard's article he had a quote from Bonnie Wheeler who stated, "The idea of the American cowboy is the direct lineal descendant of the chivalric knight." While we could argue that the mob traveling out to find the rebels was brave, it did not make up for them acting as if they were the final law and judgment instead.
A small skirmish broke out among some restless soldiers and the Mexican lancers. The Texans had two injured and several horses lost, but the Mexicans' twelve-pound cannon, the Golden Standard, was stranded on the battlefield. The rest of the afternoon was quiet, except for occasional rifle ...
Today Custer’s last stand is one of the most famous events in American History. Two Thousand Sioux Native Americans slaughtered General George Custer’s army of 600 men armed with guns. Crazy Horse was a very important leader in the Great Sioux War of 1876.
Bill Cosby was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1937 as William Henry Cosby, Jr. In the 1950’s, Bill Cosby dropped out of high school to join the Navy. He did attend college on a football scholarship at Temple University years later. He also completed his doctorate in education at the University of Massachusetts during the 1970‘s.
Gunfights were common and took place regularly. The earliest gunfighters, or gunslingers, were born in the early 1800’s, and most men got recognition as slingers in the 1850’s. The founder of gunfighting was “Old Man Clanton”, or N. H. Clanton. In 1816, Newman Haynes "Old Man" Clanton was born in Davidson County, Tennessee. On January 5, 1840 Newman Clanton married Mariah Sexton Kelso in Callaway County, Missouri and together they had five boys and two daughters. John Wesley, Joseph Isaac, Phineas Fay, William Harrison, Alonzo Peter, Mary Elise and Ester Ann made up the Clanton Gang. He did not participate in many gunfights though he instigated many of them. Old Man Clanton took care of business swiftly. If he did not like somebody, he would simply point them out, and one of his sons would provoke an argument and shoot the man down in “self defense”. Old Man Clanton had formed a “cowboy party” which consisted of some of the deadliest men in the West. Curley Bill, John Ringo, Tim and Frank McLaury, Joe Hill, Pony Deal, Jim Hughes, Frank Stillwell and many other lieutenants, who had over four hundred frontier outcast under them, formed this group. He stole over $100,000 from ranchers in the south, and anyone who opposed was quickly exterminated. Old Man Clanton’s final days ended with a stolen-cattle drive. While he was passing through Guadeloupe Canyon, he and six other men were ambushed and shot dead out of their saddles. "Old Man" Clanton was buried where he fell in Guadalupe Canyon, New Mexico.
Samuel colt was born July 19, 1814 in Hartford, Connecticut. When young Colt was six
Jesse James Rides Again! History books say that Jesse Woodson James was killed on April 3, 1882, but others believe differently. (Hall) I believe Jesse James died in 1951 in Grandbury, Texas at the age of 103. Between 1882 and 1948 he went by many different names but mainly went by J. Frank Dalton. From the Civil War to Jesse James supposed death in 1882, Jesse was a major outlaw. After 1882 Jesse led a normal life and had many different professions.
Elijah McCoy died on October 10, 1929 after a year in the Eloise Infirmary, Eloise, Michigan, suffering from senile dementia caused by hypertension. He was buried in Detroit, Michigan.
On June 25, 1876, The Battle of Little Bighorn took place near the Black Hills in Montana. This was one of the most controversial battles of the 20th century and the line between good guys and bad guys was grey at best. Gen. George Armstrong Custer (reduced to LTC after the civil war) had 366 men of the 7thU.S. Cavalry under his command that day. Sitting Bull (A Medicine Man) led 2000 braves of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes (Klos, 2013). At the conclusion of the battle, the stories of the Indians savagery were used to demonize their culture and there were no survivors from the 7thcavalry to tell what really happened.
While the western frontier was still new and untamed, the western hero often took on the role of a vigilante. The vigilante’s role in the frontier was that of extralegal verve which was used to restrain criminal threats to the civil peace and opulence of a local community. Vigilantism was typical to the settler-state societies of the western frontier where the structures and powers of government were at first very feeble and weak. The typical cowboy hero had a willingness to use this extralegal verve. The Virginian demonstrated this throughout with his interactions with Trampas, most notably in the interactions leading up to the shoot out and during the shoot-out itself. “Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him… Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the...
This was called the Thornton Affair, 11 troopers were killed and the rest were captured. After that, the Mexicans started bombing Fort Brown, the United States sent General Zach Taylor with 2400 men to relieve the fort. Mexican general Mariano Arista with 3400 men rushed out to meet them. When the congress heard the news, they declared American blood has been shed on American soil and they declared war on Mexico.
The job wasn't just for anyone. Certain character traits and physical characteristics were required if someone wanted to be a good cowboy. Considering the distances that they covered, traveling was rough. ?? the cowboy needed great strength, endurance, and often ingenuity to complete the treks? (?Cowboy?). People came from everywhere to become cowboys. Some came from eastern American states, others from the Midwest, and the rest came from states in the South. They came to work on ranches and drive cattle on the trail. ?Many were ex-rebel soldiers who maintained that attitude on the trail. There was also a flood of renegades from both north and south that went to Texas. This is how Texas got a reputation for lawlessness and violence? (The Cowboys). Being a cowboy, for some, had a special status. Cowboys in the Western Plains called themselves cow punchers and thought of themselves as more important than others. ?The man himself, the clothes he wore, and the horse he rode were all outgrowths of life on the range. The long days in the open, and riding alone with the cattle gave him self-reliance. The danger of stampeding cattle, of undependable horses, of hostile Indians and of bitter winter blizzards demanded endurance and courage. The whole job of driving, roping, and handling cattle required expert horsemanship? (?Cowboys?). Cowboys worked very hard and also fought hard, but never with their fists. In a fight, a cowboy would always use his gun (The Cowboys). The reason cowboys used their guns was because of the fact of the West being lawless. There were two reasons for the west being lawless, one is the social conditions there during that period and the second because the law there didn?t apply well to the conditions and wasn?t obeyed. It was also do to the vast distances between populated areas, which made it easy for a cowboy to move to another area and g...