VERSO
Label, Gainsborough Galleries, Calgary, Canada

Wild Bill’s Fight with M’Candlas Gang is included in the C. M. Russell Catalogue Raisonné as number CR.DR.107. David Colbert McCandlas’ branding iron and a copy of a letter of authenticity from Richard Mack will accompany the lot.

Western historian Emerson Hough declared this to have been the greatest fight of one man against odds at close range in any history in any part of the world: “The borderland of Kansas was at that time, as may be remembered, ground debated by the anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions, who still wager bitter war against one another, killing, burning and pillaging without mercy. The Civil war was then raging, and Confederates from Missouri were frequent visitors in eastern Kansas under one pretext or another, of which horse lifting was the most common, it being held legitimate to prey upon the enemy as opportunity afforded. Two border outlaws by the name of the McCandlas boys led a gang of hard men in enterprises of this nature, and these intended to run off the stage company’s horses when they found they could not seduce Wild Bill to join their number. He told them to come and take the horses if they could; and on the afternoon of December 16, 1861, ten of them led by the McCandlas Brothers, rode up to his dugout to do so. Bill was alone, his stableman being away hunting. He retreated to the dark interior of his dugout and got ready his weapons, a rifle, two six-shooters and a knife.

“The assailants proceeded to batter in the door with a log, and as it fell, Jim McCandlas, who must have been a brave man to undertake so foolhardy a thing against a man already known as a killer, sprang in the opening. He, of course, was killed at once. This exhausted the rifle, and Bill picked up the six-shooters from the table and in three quick shots killed three more of the gang as they rushed in the door. Four men were dead in less than that many seconds; but there were still six others left, all inside the dugout now, all firing at him at a range of three feet. It was almost a miracle that, under such circumstances, the man was not killed. Bill now was crowded too much to use firearms, and took to the bowie, thrusting at one man and another as best he might.

“In this chance medley the knife wounds inflicted by Bill and his swarming foes did not at first drop their men; so that it must have been several minutes that all seven of them were mixed in a mass of shooting, thrusting, panting and gasping humanity. Then Jack McCandlas swung his rifle barrel and struck Bill over the head, springing upon him with his knife as well. Bill got his hand on a six-shooter and killed him just as he would have struck. After that no one knew what happened, not even Bill himself, who got his name then and there. ‘I just go sort of wild,’ he said, describing it. ‘I thought my heart was on fire. I went out to the pump to get a drink, and I was all cut and shot to pieces.’

“They called him Wild Bill after that, and he had earned the name. There were six dead men on the floor of the dugout. He had fairly whipped the ten of them, and the four remaining had enough and fled from that awful hole in the ground. Two of these were badly wounded. Bill followed them to the door. His own weapons were exhausted or not at hand by this time, but his stableman came up just then with a rifle in his hands. Bill caught it up from him, and, cut up as he was, fired and killed one of the desperadoes as he tried to mount his horse. The other wounded man later died. Eight men were killed by one.”

PROVENANCE
Estate of Max Bell, Calgary, Canada
Estate of Joseph T. and Florence O’Connor, Vancouver, Canada
Present owner, by descent

LITERATURE
Charles M. Russell, Back-Trailing on the Old Frontiers, Cheely-Raban Syndicate, October 1, 1922, p. 87, illustrated
Pen and Ink Drawings by Charles M. Russell (Book No. 2), Trail’s End Publishing, 1946, illustrated
Ramon Adams and Homer Britzman, Charles M. Russell, the Cowboy Artist: A Biography, Trail’s End Publishing, 1948, p. 277, illustrated

Additional Resources

• Absentee & Phone Bid Form
• Charles M. Russell’s Past Results
• View Condition Report

Condition ReportAs viewed through glass. Faint crease mark across the foreground, top-center, and upper left corner. Two faint water stains lower-right corner.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders and reflect educated opinions, not facts. All painting frames are sold “as is.” The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions.