Jacob's Roughriders: Jacob's Troubles

By Horace E. Wooten

Most of the adventure written in this book, really occurred. After slavery was abolished, many Negroes joined up to fight with the Union army to help win the war over slavery. At first, they were not accepted, but later at the loss of many white soldiers, the Negroes were allowed to join the army, but only in a segregated regiment called the colored troops. After the Civil War was won, the colored calvary was born. They were called the 9th and 10th calvary of the United States Army. They fought Indians, chased outlaws, and escorted settlers across the plains. The colored calvary was given tough and dangerous assignments; but they fought magnificently and won every fight they were engaged in; with few or no casualties.

The colored troops were very skillful and courageous; the Indians respected them as brave fearless warriors. They were given the name Buffalo Soldiers, because the buffalo is sacred and highly respected in the Indian Nation. Also, the Indians thought the Negroes hair was similar to the kinky, curly hair of the buffalo. The Seminole Negro Indians were the best scouts and trackers in the country, and many were drafted into the Army. It is recorded that many Negro soldiers were decorated highly for bravery, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1847, Jacob Washington was born a slave and was freed during the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. At the age of sixteen, Jacob left the plantation and traveled west to Texas, where he fulfilled his dream as a cowboy. Jacob got a job on the Circle (G) Ranch, working for Bill Goodman as a wrangler. Jacob changed his name to Jake, and received lots of experience. He helped push cattle northward up the Chisholm Trail into Oklahoma (Indian Territory) and on into Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781462824526

Horace E. Wooten

I was born in Kansas City Kansas in December 1937. My father Horace senior 19 worked in a neighborhood grocery store delivering groceries to customer’s houses. He drove a little green 1936 Ford pick up. My mother Ruby is a light skin Negro girl with red hair and freckles; just 15 years old she quit school, and later worked in a laundry folding sheets. I was the only child they ever had. I spent the first 7 years of my life growing up with my father’s younger sisters and cousins. My mother and father separated. So we left Kansas City and came to Los Angeles by train. Her house was very small just one bed room one bath. The bed took most of the room. We all lived there together until I graduated from George Washington Carver Jr. High. After that we moved to the Westside and I attended Manual Arts High School. We started a singing group at Manual with some friends and class mates in the eleventh grade. Booker Jones Jr. Charles Jackson, Fondro Talbert, David Cobb and Talbert Walton we were called “The Chimes.” I wrote my first song in my math class. It was called “Chop Chop”. Later on I wrote “Tears on my pillow” and “Pretty little girl”. We recorded for Specialty Records in Hollywood, Ca, but none of my songs where big hits, but I love writing. Later on after my singing career had ended, and married with four children. I started writing a movie script called “Hot Bread” I worked on it for five years, and after that I wrote “Jacob’s Roughriders”. If you like reading westerns, you’ll love this book. It’s filled with action from beginning to end. It’s about the real roughriders; Negro cowboys and the Buffalo Soldiers riding together to tame the lawless frontier. This book should be made into a movie so Americans can be taught the untold stories of American History.

Book preview

Jacob’s

Roughriders

JACOB’S TROUBLES

HORACE E. WOOTEN

Copyright © 2010 by Horace E. Wooten.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

First published by AuthorHouse 3/26/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4184-8851-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4184-8852-9 (e)

Bloomington, Indiana

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

66426

Contents

Preface

Jacob’s Roughriders

66426-WOOT-layout.pdf

Preface

Most of the adventure written in this book, really occurred. After slavery was abolished, many Negroes joined up to fight with the Union army to help win the war over slavery. At first, they were not accepted, but later at the loss of many white soldiers, the Negroes were allowed to join the army, but only in a segregated regiment called the colored troops. After the Civil War was won, the colored calvary was born. They were called the 9th and 10th calvary of the United States Army. They fought Indians, chased outlaws, and escorted settlers across the plains. The colored calvary was given tough and dangerous assignments; but they fought magnificently and won every fight they were engaged in; with few or no casualties.

The colored troops were very skillful and courageous; the Indians respected them as brave fearless warriors. They were given the name Buffalo Soldiers, because the buffalo is sacred and highly respected in the Indian Nation. Also, the Indians thought the Negroes’ hair was similar to the kinky, curly hair of the buffalo. The Seminole Negro Indians were the best scouts and trackers in the country, and many were drafted into the Army. It is recorded that many Negro soldiers were decorated highly for bravery, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1847, Jacob Washington was born a slave and was freed during the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. At the age of sixteen, Jacob left the plantation and traveled west to Texas, where he fulfilled his dream as a cowboy. Jacob got a job on the Circle (G) Ranch, working for Bill Goodman as a wrangler. Jacob changed his name to Jake, and received lots of experience. He helped push cattle northward up the Chisholm Trail into Oklahoma (Indian Territory) and on into Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas.

During the hard cattle drives, they endured smoldering heat, vicious rainstorms, and even blizzards. They rode for days without sleep, maybe a nap or two in the saddle. Stampedes caused by nature, rustlers or Indians, were very dangerous and costly. It caused the loss of cowboys’ lives and cattle. A wrangler was paid twenty dollars month for all the hard work. Beans were number one on the menu. Bed was the hard ground with a blanket and a saddle for a pillow. In the summer, he fought the flies and mosquitoes. They slept with one eye open, looking for snakes, wolfs, bears, Indians and rustlers. The Negro as an ex-slave had much to prove to himself and to white America. Jake worked five years for Bill Goodman as a wrangler and became a skillful cowboy. He was an expert with his six-gun and rifle.

In 1868, Jake was hired as a deputy sheriff, by the town of Newton, Kansas, after his two friends were murdered, shot down in cold blood while performing their duties. The job of sheriff fell right into Jake’s lap. He set out on the trail of the killers and along the way, he runs into some deserting U.S. Army Scouts, Seminole Negro Indians. With them, he formed a posse and chased the band of outlaws, all the way to Mexico.

This book is intended for the world to recognize Black History as a hidden chapter of American History. How can American History be true, if a major part is left out? America was built on the back of African slave trade; the black man has earned the right to be in the history of this country. America became the wealthiest nation in the world using slave labor.

The Afro American cowboys and Buffalo Soldiers put their lives on the line, every day, pushing large herds of cattle for hundreds of miles across dangerous territories. Thirty eight thousand African American Soldiers died fighting in the Civil War. The Buffalo Soldiers fought the Indians all over American and protected the white settlers crossing the frontier. The courageous black cowboys and Buffalo Soldiers rode through the pages of American History along with the Mexican and white cowboys, paving the way for the American dream. This is how the west was really won. The black cowboy and the Buffalo Soldier were brave and courageous. I am so proud to be a Black American; because of them, we can hold our heads high. I can’t find the words to express my gratitude, but in my book, they will never ever be forgotten.

I salute them.

Horace E. Wooten

Jacob’s Roughriders

EXT. OCTOBER 1868-THE PLAINS OF KANSAS

The only sound heard is leather flapping and heavy breathing from a tired running horse and a frightened cowboy named Jacob Washington, known as Jake. Jake is riding for his life, being chased by twenty-five hostile Comanche Indians. Jake is riding the open range, with nowhere to take cover. He leans close to the neck of his horse. Suddenly a hot bullet rips his chaps, piercing through his left thigh as he releases his packhorse.

Jake grits his teeth from the pain; some how he manages to hold on and pulls his pistol to shoot back. A stream of dust streaks across the open plains as the hostile chase goes on. Seven Buffalo Soldiers; Seminole Negro Indian scouts of the United States Army are camped in the hills, viewing the entire fight.

After riding hard for miles, his horse Buck is breathing hard, lathered, and very tired. He’s getting weaker as he tries with all his might to keep running. Slower and slower, he runs straining to pick his feet up. Suddenly he stumbles and they go down head over heels. Jake hits the ground rolling a couple of times. Buck gets the wind knocked out of him and lays motionless. Jake scrambles to his feet; moving quickly, he snatches his rifle and grabs the saddlebags of ammo, then runs to a near by trench and jumps in for cover.

Lying on his back, he takes his pistol and shoots at the Indians riding by. The soldiers at the top of the hill are about to even the odds. Standing side by side, they aim their rifles downward, focusing on the warriors charging in the front. Meanwhile Jake is lying in the trench on his belly, waiting for the Indians to attack. Bleeding badly, he pulls his kerchief from his neck and tightens it around his thigh to slow the bleeding. The hot sun beats down on him, it seem to be over a hundred degrees. His mouth and lips are dry and parched. A cool drink of water would be great right now, but it seems that Buck has gotten up and wandered off with his canteen of water hanging on the saddle. Jake tightens up on the grip of his rifle and squints as he looks through the sight. Time passes as the Indians wait to attack. The heat from the sun makes Jake’s eyes blurred. He slowly falls into a daydream and starts to fade back, in time.

FLASH BACK:

FIVE YEARS EARLIER-1863,MISSISSIPPI

INT. THE HAMILTON PLANTATION-SLAVES CABIN

Jacob’s family is seated at the table about to have supper. Jacob, sixteen, is sitting across from his sister Hannah, fourteen, and, Sadie, twelve, is sitting next to Hannah. Samuel, aged nine and better known as Sammy, comes running to the table and takes his seat next to Jacob. Moses, the father, who, is a strong slender man who has worked hard all his life. He is already seated. Bessie the mother stands at the stove with a hot pan of biscuits; she brings them, places on the table and takes her seat.

MOSES

Lord we thank Thee, for dis good food we about to eat. Lord, we ask to bless and make it whole.

We thank thee, in Jesus’ name . . .

Amen!

THE FAMILY

Amen!

Moses reaches for the bowl of greens, and then speaks to Hannah

MOSES

Baby, pass the potatoes.

Hannah starts crying for no apparent reason. Moses is puzzled.

MOSES

What’s wrong?

Somebody do somethin to yah child?

MOSES

Sadie! What’s wrong wit’ cha sister?

Sadie says nothing; with her head down, she just stares at her bowl.

BESSIE

Baby, what’s wrong? What happen?

HANNAH

Jacob! Go on tell’em, what you told me!

MOSES

Boy! Tell us what? You got somethin to say boy! Uh, somebody better start talkin, and I mean right now! You hear me Boy?

Jacob is very nervous, and finds it hard to get his words out.

JACOB(He clears his throat)

Yes SA! I hear you pa! Uh, what Hannah’s cryin about, SA is . . . well uh . . . she’s uh, I’m uh . . .

MOSES

Jacob! What cha tryin to say?

JACOB

Uh, I’m ma !

MOSES

I’m ma what? Boy, speak up!

JACOB(Sighs)

I wanna go to Texas pa!

I’m gonna be a caw boy!

MOSES

Bessie!! You here what the boy said?

Now he done lost his mind fo sho!

BESSIE

Oh my Lord! You don’t mean dat son!

It’s too dangerous! You could get killed!

MOSES

Ah caw boy! Jacob you don’t know nothin bout

bein no caw boy!

JACOB

Pa I’ll be breakin wild horses, punchin caws

and everythin! I’ll be getting paid too!

MOSES

You jess wait till the Massa hears about dis!

JACOB

Pa he’s not Massa no mo! He’s jess Mr.

Hamilton now!

No mo slavery! President Lincoln said we free!We free pa!!

MOSES

Uh,