Obviously, Bat had cleaned up the story somewhat, making the scene a general store and Mollie a ‘clerk,’ but his testimony also made both him and Mollie the victims of a random shooting. It is also the second place–the Kansas City Journal being the other–where Bat mentioned’soldiers’ rather than King alone. On balance, though, Bat was trying in 1913 to defend himself against charges that he had been a frontier badman, and he played down his role as a gambler throughout his testimony. Still it is an intriguing departure from most accounts and the only one that is clearly in Bat’s own words.

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Other embellishments came later. The report of Ben Thompson’s leaping atop a faro layout and holding King’s friends at bay also has a curious history. The episode is first mentioned in The Sunset Trail, though Lewis tells it in a chapter on Thompson and has the episode occur in Tascosa, Texas. Fred Sutton, in the 1927 work Hands Up, retells the story, making Ben the defender of a fallen Bat. Stuart N. Lake used this story to complete his melodramatic account of the Sweetwater affair, and after that, it became a staple in accounts of the incident. But there is no real evidence that Ben was even in Sweetwater at the time. Still, Bat obviously felt indebted to Ben and Billy, because in 1880 Bat played a role in rescuing Billy from the clutches of the law in Ogallala, Neb. In Bat’s 1907 account of that episode, he described Billy as ‘a close personal friend of mine.’ That, combined with Billy’s presence in Sweetwater and his relationship with Mollie Brennan, lends credence to the view that it was Billy who stood over Bat and protected him that night.

It remained for 1st Sgt. T.B. Gatewood, top kick of Company H, to provide the final commentary on Corporal King. On February 14, 1876, he penned a letter to Susan B. Cook informing her of ‘the untimely decease of your brother and my much esteemed young friend, Anthony Cook; he was mortally wounded in an affray at Cantonment of Sweetwater, Texas, January 24, and died from the effects the next day.’ Gatewood revealed to Miss Cook that her brother had been serving in the 4th Cavalry under the name of Melvin A. King. He added, ‘He was a general favorite throughout the regiment, both with officers and enlisted men, and especially so with his commanding officer, General Mackenzie, who he was escorting at the time of his death.’ Cook’s mother tried to secure a pension based on her son’s service, but the manner of his death caused her requests to be denied time after time.

In February 1876, Cantonment Sweetwater officially became Fort Elliott. That same year, the Texas Legislature created 26 new counties out of Clay County. The town of Sweetwater became a part of Wheeler County, which was not formally organized until 1879. By then, Sweetwater was the economic center of the Panhandle and the seat of government for the region, although the town had undergone yet another name change. In 1878, the townsfolk had applied for a post office, only to have their request denied because there was already a Sweetwater in Nolan County. After some deliberation, the town was renamed Mobeetie, which was said to mean’sweet water’ in one of the Indian languages of the region. Mobeetie continued to have an unsavory reputation. ‘Taking it all,’ Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight later recalled, ‘I think it was the hardest place I ever saw on the frontier except Cheyenne, Wyoming.’

Bat Masterson, though, did not tarry long in the Panhandle. As soon as he was able to travel, Bat went home to Wichita to recuperate. Within a matter of months, he was patrolling the streets of Dodge City, Kan., as a peace officer alongside another young man destined to become a Western celebrity, Wyatt Earp. On November 6, 1877, Bat was elected sheriff of Ford County, and the Hays Sentinel observed that Masterson was’said to be cool, decisive and a ‘bad man’ with a pistol.’ By then, Bat was well on his way to becoming a legend in his own time.

This article was written by Gary L. Roberts and originally appeared in the October 2000 issue of Wild West.

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