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Two minor points. The sharps rifle (and I believe the Spenser and Henry repeating rifle) issued to certain units by the army in the civil war were breach loading. So the 1873 Springfield was not the first breach loader issued, although the early breach loaders were given to only a small preportion of the US troops.
I believe I said the 1873 was the first "standard issue" breach loader, which is true.
As far as I know there were few profession "gunslingers". ...
Not as depicted by Hollywood, but there were certainly some hired guns. The Wyoming Cattlemen's Assoc. hired a large gang of killers to hunt down "rustlers" around the state (homesteaders), most notably in Johnson County (Buffalo). They were paid per dead body, so they weren't too picky. Tom Horn, who recruited many of those "range detectives," was eventually hanged in 1903 for murdering a 14-year-old boy. Whether he was guilty of that crime or not is open for speculation, but he certainly killed many innocent people, as did the small army of hired guns working for the Cattlemen's Assoc.
Yes! I forgot Tom Horn and the Johnson County War! Actually I have an 1886 winchester which was built in 1891. I always think, "what if this rifle was used in the Johnson County War?"
Did you see the movie Ed Harris made and starred in with Vigo Mortensen and Renee Zellwegger - Appaloosa? Was filmed in NM. Story was a bit thin (about on par with High Plains Drifter) but the clothes were phenomenal.
Agree Appaloosa was thin. Disagree about High Plains Drifter, one of the best westerns made.
My apologies to James Fenimore Cooper and Hollywood film makers, but this novel and film does not quite get it right. The Hurons are depicted as a large powerful tribe and a major power in the East. In reality, they had been crushed and scattered a century earlier by the Iroquois Confederacy during the terrible Beaver Wars. By 1757 they had pretty much settled in the Ohio Valley area where they became known as the Wyandot. While they did send warriors to fight in the French and Revolutionary wars, they were not the huge evil force that fiction has painted them to be. Any historical reference to the Wyandots means Hurons, they are the same people.
The Hurons were pretty much defeated by smallpox, I believe.
I've managed to live this long without the fact that there is a defined distinction to a fable, that it requires anthropomorphised critters, ever being brought to my attention. I have been misusing it my entire life and not once has anyone ever called me on the error, or even seemed aware that there might have been an error.
Because of this, I wonder if common use has not trumped the rigid definition which you have provided, to such a degree that the rigidity no longer applies and talking creatures are no longer a requirement?
As the western movie character would have said ;you don't say;while quit listenig after the first line.
The Hurons were pretty much defeated by smallpox, I believe.
Weakened, but it was the aggression of the Iroquois that did them in. Iroquois were so aggressive they went from New York as far as the valley of the Illinois River looking for trouble.
I can't think of any Westerns that were all that great.
Hmmm.
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