"A charmed life...adventures of Charles Christy on the frontier...old-time Indian fighter...the only survivor of Gen. Custer's command, carrying the scars of ten wounds relates some thrilling tales of hairbreadth escapes...whole life has been spent on the western plains as a trapper, buffalo hunter, guide and government scout." -The Standard Union (New York), August 3, 1898.
"Charles Christy was 73 years old...when he compiled his memoirs, detailing an adventurous period...during which he had been a hunter, fur trapper, and U.S. Gov't scout." -On the Santa Fe Trail (1986).
"A huge crowd of warriors were gathering. They were laughing and whooping with joy....Two scouts were armed to the teeth and spoiling for a fight, according to the memoirs of one of them, Captain Charles Christy." -It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail (2008).
"Charles Christy gave a much different account of what happened. He was a hunter, trapper, and government scout from 1850 to 1880." -Adventure on the Santa Fe Trail (1988).
Tucked away in old book and articles containing reminiscences of pioneers and frontiersmen are strange tales and encounters with Native American tribes, or picturesque bits about tribes themselves. Such accounts are found in "The Personal Memoirs of Captain Charles Christy...a Hunter and Trapper for the American Fur Company and as U.S. Gov't Scout."
Charlie Christy served as a hunter, trapper, and government scout from 1850 to 1880, rubbing shoulders with and having many personal recollections of the likes of Sitting Bull, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Generals Custer, Forsythe, and Sherman, outlaws Charlie Bent, Missouri Bill, and California Joe, mountain men and trappers such as Jim Baker, and other scouts such as Buffalo Bill.
Christy notes that "I was a scout under generals Forsythe, Penrose, Carr and Custer, Colonel Nelson and many other army officers of note. I served in the same command with Buffalo Bill (Colonel W. F. Cody) and I was, perhaps, considered one of the best scouts in the service. I am an old man now and I have lived in Denver for many years. But the present days, with their present ways, no longer interest me. I live in the memory of the past and of those olden times when I could out ride and out shoot and, above all, out trail any scout, Indian or Mexican, in the entire West."
