How Did Cowboys Get Through the Night on a Cattle Drive?

Indian Territory, June 1866. An Iowa cattle buyer named George Duffield is driving about a thousand Texas steers north, and he writes in his diary that he trembles for the night ahead. This is the night shift of a trail drive, told from his own diary and the old trail hands' first-hand accounts: night guard and how long it lasted, sleeping in your boots, why they sang to the cattle, the night horse, stampedes in the dark, lightning on the open plain, and fast rivers. Plus three things from those nights that still hold up today.