The following is part of the papers in the Oscar Hoback collection as collected by Edna Greet.
Devine and his men disregarded the threat of the “Revenge Gange” and went to the Hole-in-the-Wall at the appointed time to gather their cattle, and on July 23, 1897, the fight occurred. A condensed description of the fight, which appeared in Casper newspapers under date of July 29, 1897, and several subsequent issues is as follows:
“All Casper was precipitated into a feverish excitement last Friday morning when a party of eight riders, headed by R. M. Devine, foreman of the CY round-up, came into town with a captured cattle rustler and announced that a battle had been fought between the round-up boys and some rustlers up in the Red Wall country, about three miles west of the far-famed and notorious Hole-in-the-Wall ranch. Devine and his son, Lee, both of whom were m the party that brought the prisoner in, participated in the fight and both had been wounded, the senior Devine receiving only a slight flesh wound from a bullet from Bob Smith’s six-shooter, and Lee Devine having a bullet wound from Bob Taylor’s six-shooter which passed diagonally through the muscles of his lower right forearm, ranging from the elbow toward the wrist. The others of the party saw that their prisoner was safely locked within the steel cage in the county jail.
“The news of the battle had been anticipated, since Devine had gone in the face of the oft-repeated threats made by the cattle thieves that they would kill him if he ever dared to come to their country.
“Last Wednesday night the two round-ups camped at the famous Bar C ranch, which is ten or twelve miles from the notorious Hole-in-the-Wall ranch. On the afternoon of Thursday a party of twelve men rode from camp in search of a bunch of cattle that they had been told was thrown up back of the McDonald pasture and were being held there. The party consisted of R. M. Devine, Lee Devine and Tom McDonald, of the CY; Bill Rogers and Lee Mathers, of the Ogallala; Ike Dedman, Doc Dildine, Frank Ramsey and Charles Davis, of Pugsley’s outfit; and Joe LaFors, United States deputy marshal; and Jim Drummond, Montana live stock inspector; and Walter Monnett, a “rep” for the Circle L outfit.
“In passing the Hole-in-the-Wall ranch the cow-boys stopped to inquire about the cattle they were in search of, but found no one there. Riding on, they had gone about three miles in a roundabout course when they saw three men on horseback coming toward them. These men were Bob and Al Smith and Bob Taylor. When they came up together many recognized and addressed each other in a friendly way. The men in both parties stopped and the three men were asked if they had seen any cattle belonging to the CY or the other outfits. Without answering the question Bob Smith commenced to draw his six-shooter and remarked to Devine: ‘You damn old son of a b , I am going to get you this time!’
“Devine said, ‘Don’t you shoot me, Smith.’
“Bob Smith yelled: ‘Yes, I will, you old son of a b ,’ and leveling his six-shooter at Devine, fired.
(to be continued)
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You do like the cliff hangers. Why were these men so antagonistic? I know this was addressed earlier (I think) but I didn’t quite understand.