Calamity Jane -- 2 juli 1879

• Van Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary, 1852-1903) zijn enige brieven en dagboekfragmenten bewaard gebleven (waarvan de echtheid niet vaststaat). Het dagboek was gericht aan haar dochter Janey (Jean Irene O'Neil), die ze na haar geboorte afstond voor adoptie, en die ze nooit heeft teruggezien.

July 1879
Dear Janey. I sometimes find it impossible to carry the old album to write in so you will find now and then extra pages. My ink has been frozen so many times it is almost spoiled it is precious to me because your daddy Jim sent it to me. You are getting to be such a big girl now almost six years old. It only seems such a little while since I met your daddy Jim and mother Helen O'Neil and gave you to them. Some day I am going to see you. I felt so bad when I heard of Helens death. you are doomed never to have a mother to live with may God keep old Mammy Ross with you darling. I am looking after a little boy. His name is Jackie he is five years older than you his father and mother were killed by the indians. I found him the day your father was killed. He thought your father the greatest hero on earth and saw him shot. He is a nice boy and will be a great man someday. The Sioux indians are still troublesome. I went to the battlefield after Custers battle and I never want to see such a sight again in a horse which had been disembowled was the carcass of a man apparently hidden there to escape the indians seeking revenge the squaws had cut legs and arms from the dead soldiers their heads were chopped their eyes poked out, you see Custer had molested an indian village running the squaws and children from their camp so one cant blame them for getting even in their own way. Your Uncle Cy was in that battle Janey I found him hacked to pieces his head in one place and legs and arms scattered about. I dug a grave and put his poor old body in my saddle blanket and buried him. I can never think of him without crying. Good night dear till next time.