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When we think of America most of us will immediately conjure up an image of the Wild West, of cowboys and gunfighters and the US 7th Cavalry. What most people don't realise is that Wales and the USA are more intimately connected than might be supposed, particularly where soldiers and gunfighters are concerned.

Over 250,000 people left Wales for the USA during the 19th century, a small enough figure when compared to the four million who emigrated from Ireland, but it was still a significant number.

The majority of these Welsh immigrants, about 20% of them, settled around the Pennsylvania area. Others spread along the eastern seaboard. The more adventurous ones headed west, joining the wagon trains across the plains in search of new territory to farm.

One of these, John Rees of Merthyr Tydfil, took part in the war against Mexico in the late 1830s, the same war that saw the death of and the fall of the .

Rees was one of only 28 survivors when the Mexicans massacred the Texicans - as they were known - at . He was taken prisoner but was released at the end of the war and returned, briefly, to Wales where he took part in the Chartist march on Newport in 1839. He managed to escape justice, however, sailing back to the USA and eventually settling in California.

Another Welsh soldier in the American army was William Jones from Pencnwr Farm at Dinas. He emigrated to the States in 1870, working as a coachman in Chicago before joining the 7th Cavalry in 1876. He was with George Armstrong Custer's unit at in June that same year and was one of the 261 casualties.

Someone who might also have been a victim of Custer's folly at the Battle of Little Big Horn was Lord Dunraven whose ancestral home was at in Southerndown. Travelling in America he hunted for elk with no less a person than Buffalo Bill Cody on the prairies of the mid West and became friendly with General Phil Sheridan. As the Earl later commented:

"Colonel Custer invited me to join him on a punitive expedition against the Indians. Unluckily, as I thought, but fortunately as it turned out, I received the invitation too late. The whole outfit was wiped out."

The history of the American West is littered with stories of fearless lawmen and one of these was Welshman John T Morris, Sheriff of Collins County in Texas during the 1870s. In his most famous exploit he trailed an outlaw gang led by the notorious James Reed, a cattle rustler, bandit and husband of the infamous . He finally ran them to ground in Paris, Texas. While his posse surrounded the saloon where Reed and his gang were holed up, John Morris went inside and confronted the bandits.

Morris immediately challenged Reed and asked him to give himself up. Reed went for his gun but the Welsh Sheriff was faster on the draw. Within seconds Belle Starr's husband lay dead on the floor of the saloon.

Someone you might not automatically connect with the Wild West was the explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Originally from North Wales Stanley (real name John Rowlands) was a journalist and in 1867 journeyed to the West to interview Wild Bill Hickock. That same year he also rode with the US Cavalry in their campaigns against the Indians and reported on his adventures for The Weekly Missouri Democrat.

The most famous cowboys of Welsh descent were, of course, the James gang. Jesse and Frank James were originally Confederate guerrilla fighters during the Civil War, men who found that they could not give up the violent way of life once the war was over. They were decidedly not the "Robin Hood" figures depicted by American folk lore and, in fact, were vicious and violent killers who cut a swathe through the mid West in the years after the war. Jesse was the worst of the lot.

Although Jesse was born in Clay County, Missouri on 5 September 1847, his family originated in Pembrokeshire. Several of his descendents were Baptist ministers and his father even helped to found the in Liberty, Missouri. Jesse's career went a different way, however, before he was finally shot down and killed by his cousin, Bob Ford, on 3rd April 1882.

There were undoubtedly thousands of Welsh farmers and industrial workers who emigrated to the USA and settled in various parts of the States. They might never have achieved the fame of those mentioned above but they all contributed towards the creation and the development of the United States of America.

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