Editing Buffalo Bill (section)

== Military services ==
[[File:Buffalo Bill age 19.jpg|thumb|upright|Cody in 1864 at the age of 19]]
[[File:Buffalo Bill c1871.png|thumb|upright|In 1871]]
[[File:Buffalo Bill Cody ca1875.jpg|thumb|upright|Buffalo Bill {{circa|1875}}]]
After his mother recovered, Cody wanted to enlist as a soldier in the Union Army during the [[American Civil War]] but was refused because of his young age. He began working with a freight [[Convoy|caravan]] that delivered supplies to [[Fort Laramie]] in present-day Wyoming. In 1863, at age 17, he enlisted as a [[teamster]] with the rank of [[Private (rank)|private]] in Company H, [[7th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry|7th Kansas Cavalry]], and served until discharged in 1865.<ref name="Carter1" /><ref name="Cody" />

In 1866, he reunited with his old friend [[Wild Bill Hickok]] in [[Junction City, Kansas]], then serving as a scout. Cody enlisted as a scout himself at [[Fort Ellsworth (Kansas)|Fort Ellsworth]] and scouted between there and Fort Fletcher (later renamed and moved to [[Fort Hays]]). He was attached as a scout, variously, to [[George Augustus Armes|Captain George Augustus Armes]] ([[Battle of the Saline River]]) and [[George Armstrong Custer|Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer]] (guide and impromptu horse race to [[Fort Larned]]). It was during this service at Fort Ellsworth that he met William Rose, with whom he would found the short-lived settlement of [[Rome, Ellis County, Kansas|Rome]].<ref>{{cite book |first= William F. |last= Cody |title= An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill |pages= 97–104 |year =1920 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHYLAQAAIAAJ }}</ref>

In 1867, with the construction of the [[Kansas Pacific Railway]] completing through [[Hays, Kansas|Hays City]] and Rome, Cody was granted a leave of absence to hunt buffalo to supply railroad construction workers with meat. This endeavor continued into 1868, which saw his hunting contest with William Comstock.<ref>{{cite web |first= William F. |last= Cody |title= True Tales of the Plains |work= The William F. Cody Archive |url= http://codyarchive.org/texts/wfc.bks00002.html |access-date= June 19, 2018|page= Chapters IX and XI}}</ref>

Cody returned to Army service in 1868.<ref name=PBS/> From his post in [[Fort Larned]], he performed an exceptional feat of riding as a lone dispatch courier from Fort Larned to [[Fort Zarah]] (escaping brief capture), Fort Zarah to Fort Hays, Fort Hays to [[Fort Dodge]], Fort Dodge to Fort Larned, and, finally, Fort Larned to Fort Hays, a total of 350 miles in 58 hours through hostile territory, covering the last 35 miles on foot. In response, [[Philip Sheridan|General Philip Sheridan]] assigned him Chief of Scouts for the [[5th Cavalry Regiment]].<ref>{{cite book |first= Jeff |last=Barnes |title= The Great Plains Guide to Buffalo Bill: Forts, Fights & Other Sites |publisher= Stackpole Books |year= 2014 |pages= 46–47 |isbn= 978-0811712934 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A1QIAwAAQBAJ |access-date= June 19, 2018}}</ref>

He was also Chief of Scouts for the [[3rd Cavalry Regiment (United States)|Third Cavalry]] in later campaigns of the [[Plains Wars]].

In January 1872, Cody was a scout for the highly publicized hunting expedition of the [[Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia]].<ref>Duncan, Dayton (2000). ''Miles from Nowhere: Tales from America's Contemporary Frontier''. University of Nebraska Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8032-6627-8}}</ref>