Background
California Joe was born on May 8, 1829 near Stanford, Kentucky, United States. His real name was Moses Embree Milner.
California Joe was born on May 8, 1829 near Stanford, Kentucky, United States. His real name was Moses Embree Milner.
In 1849 he journeyed overland to California, later going to the Oregon country and working at various occupations. He came into general notice during the Civil War as a member of Berdan's Sharpshooters. After the war he drifted to the plains, serving in the Indian campaigns, and was with the 7th Cavalry, near Fort Dodge, in October 1868, when Custer reassumed command.
As an ordinary scout he took part in the Washita expedition, and after the battle of November 27 was chosen by Custer to carry the news to Sheridan. Declining any escort but that of his partner, Jack Corbin, he traversed on muleback the hundred miles of snowbound, hostile country to Camp Supply in eighteen hours.
In 1875 he guided Col. Dodge's escort to Prof. Jenney's Black Hills expedition, and after his discharge at Fort Laramie returned to the Hills as a prospector. From Deadwood, in July 1876, when news came of Custer's death, he went to Camp Robinson and joined the 5th Cavalry as a guide, serving throughout the campaign and returning with the troops in October. Two days before the time set for his departure with Mackenzie's winter expedition, a civilian, Tom Newcomb, who bore him a grudge, shot him in the back, killing him instantly.
He was more than six feet tall, well proportioned, with lustrous black eyes and dark brown hair, mustache and beard, which he wore long. His face, as far as it was revealed from its hirsute framing, was, according to Custer, "full of intelligence and pleasant to look upon. " His dress was conspicuous for its oddity and slouchiness. His mount was usually a mule. He smoked a pipe almost incessantly and usually chewed at the same time, though with an art that permitted neither habit to interfere with his conversation. Though reticent about his personal history, on other matters he was garrulous, especially when well liquored; and his stories, told in a jargon of frontier, gambling, and Indian terms and plentifully adorned with fiction, were listened to with delight. He was brave, self-reliant, and faithful.
His odd appearance, engaging personality, and shrewd comments on Indian warfare attracted the General, who appointed him chief of scouts; but he lost the honor within a few hours by getting uproariously drunk.
Quotes from others about the person
"An invaluable guide and Indian fighter, " wrote Sheridan in recording the incident, "whenever the clause of the statute prohibiting liquors in the Indian country happened to be in full force. "