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...Below we give additional facts concerning the above named parties which we glean from a letter from Mrs. Cartwright to us dated June 30th, 1878. In speaking of her son Clarence she says: "I think your description of him is very good. Foss was 19 years old and about the same height as Clarence. Their tent was made out of a tarpaulin, ten feet square and very heavy; they had a camping stove. Clarence had a double barrelled shotgun and a Sharp's rifle, caliber 44. Foss had a sixteen shooter and a revolver; they had a good supply of ammunition, provisions, blankets, etc., and about $150 in money with them; they had in all eight horses; one span of light grays, good size; one dark gray; one dark gray or brown mare; two sorrels, one with a strip in his face; one bright bay with some peculiar saddle marks and branded I O on left hip; I believe one dark bay Texas horse branded on the left hip joint with a V and some kind of line underneath; I don't remember whether it was a curve or a bar. I don't know whether any of the other horses were branded or not. ...
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The excerpt above from Mrs. Cartwright's letter contains some very interesting and detailed information concerning the missing buffalo hunters, their horses and equipment. It is more info than seen on most missing persons website case files today.
Mrs. Cartwright gives a good description of both men, and also of their horses. Although she does not state where the men obtained their horses, it is most likely that they had them prior to departing Colorado, since Mrs. C describes them as if she had actually seen them, rather than simply repeating something written to her in a letter.
I find it hard to believe that these two guys were traveling together without other companions or hired hands. A buffalo hunter needed at least one good skinner for all the hides he intended to take. The fact that they had eight horses leads me to believe that they had one or two others working with them. Normally a wagon had two horses to pull it, but perhaps they used a four horse team. That would still leave four other horses for riding and packing. Eight horses is a lot for two men to handle and still do their hunting. And somebody had to drive the wagon.
The description of the brands on two of the horses might tell something. Ranches and cattle companies all had unique brands to mark horses and cattle and those brands are all detailed in various Brand Books of the era. While there were duplications in brands, it might be of interest as to where the horses came from or ended up. The brand "IO" on the bay horse could mean "Indian Owned", as that brand was used by Indians in Oklahoma Territory for a time. The brand "V with a line under it" might have been called a "Bar V" or "Rocking V" brand and might also be traced to a particular ranch or outfit.
One might consider the hazard of riding a horse marked with some outfit's brand. Horse theft was dealt with by instant hanging, so these hunters probably carried some sort of bill of sale on them for the branded horses.
The rifle descriptions, while sketchy, are enough to narrow down the specific rifles used by the hunters, based on historical information. These men had State-of-the-art rifles for the time, and they would have been new and expensive in 1876.
Cartwright probably had a Sharps Model 1874 Sporting Rifle in .44-90 caliber with a barrel length of 26 to 30 inches. This high power rifle was very accurate and was the number one choice of Buffalo Hunters and Creedmore match riflemen. The "Sharps Buffalo Gun" played a major part in the near annihilation of the West's Buffalo herds. It was single shot, and rather heavy at somewhere between 8 and 15 pounds in weight (depending on barrel size and special features). Tom Sellack carried an identical rifle in the movie, "Quigley Down Under".
Foss likely had a Winchester Model 1873 lever action rifle with a barrel either 24 or 27 inches long, chambered in its origional signature .44-40 caliber. This caliber became very popular in the Old West, and was used in both rifles and pistols. While this rifle could be used on buffalo at close range, it is more likely that it was used for other purposes, such as deer hunting and defense against Indians, wolves, and bushwackers. It was the ultimate in "firepower" at the time.
While both rifles were of .44 caliber (bullet diameter), the Sharps cartridge of .44-90 had more black powder pushing a longer/heavear bullet. It was twice as powerful, had a longer range, and was much more accurate than Foss's Winchester. But Foss could fire his rifle 16 times in a row by working the lever action and squeezing the trigger.
Of course, there is no way of knowing what make of double barrel shotgun, or revolver they had, it is interesting to know that they were so equipped for shooting situations closer than long range buffalo hunting.
Although Cartwright and Foss took reasonable precautions and were well armed, it is likely that both were ultimately murdered and their horses, guns, buffalo hides, and equipment stolen.