John Wallace Crawford

"Captain Jack" Crawford
Crawford in full Western attire, 1881.
Born	John Wallace Crawford (1847-03-04)March 4, 1847 Carndonagh, East Donegal, Ireland
Died	February 27, 1917(1917-02-27) (aged 69) Woodhaven, Long Island, New York
Signature

John Wallace ("Captain Jack)" Crawford (1847–1917), known as "The Poet Scout", was an American adventurer, educator, and author. "Captain Jack" was a master storyteller about the Wild West and is known in American history as one of the most popular performers in the late nineteenth century. His daring ride of 350 miles in six days to carry dispatches to Fort Laramie for the New York Herald, to tell the news of the great victory by Gen. George Crook against the village of Chief American Horse at the Battle of Slim Buttes during the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, made him a national celebrity.

Crawford was born in Carndonagh, East Donegal, Ireland, on March 4, 1847. His parents were both born in Scotland. John Wallace's father, John A. Crawford, was banished from Scotland for making revolutionary speeches and fled to Ireland. Like many Scots-Irish of that time, the Crawfords moved and settled for a time in Ulster, in northern Ireland. At age fourteen, Crawford emigrated to the United States from Northern Ireland, joining other members of his family who had preceded him to Minersville, Pennsylvania, the heart of the nation's anthracite coal region. In 1861, while his father marched away to war, young Crawford went to work in the mines to help support the family. At age seventeen, he enlisted in the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment volunteers and saw heavy fighting during the last stages of the Civil War. He was wounded twice, once at Spottsylvania and again at Petersburg, just days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox. While convalescing from the first wound in a Philadelphia hospital, young Crawford learned to read and write under the tutelage of a Sister of Charity. He would later incorporate his wartime experiences into his stage presentations.