Nickname and work[edit]
William Frederick Cody ("Buffalo Bill") got his nickname after the American Civil War when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalomeat.[1] Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 American bison (commonly known as buffalo) in eighteen months, (1867–1868).[2] Cody and hunter William Comstock competed in an eight-hour[3] buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, in which Cody won by killing 68 bison to Comstock's 48.[4] Comstock, partCheyenne and a noted hunter, scout, and interpreter, used a fast-shooting Henry repeating rifle, while Cody competed with a larger-caliber Springfield Model 1863, which he called Lucretia Borgia after legendary beautiful, ruthless Italian noblewoman, the subject of a popular contemporary Victor Hugo play of the same name. Cody explained that while his formidable opponent, Comstock, chased after his buffalo, engaging from the rear of the herd and leaving a trail of killed buffalo "scattered over a distance of three miles", Cody - likening his strategy to a billiards player "nursing" his billiard balls during "a big run" - first rode his horse to the front of the herd to target the leaders, forcing the followers to one side, eventually causing them to circle and create an easy target, dropping them close together.[5]
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