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Avery Rudabaugh, known by most as "Rudy", was born in 1858 in a modest homestead in the Arizona Territory. His father was a Civil War veteran who never fully returned from the battlefield, at least in spirit. Avery grew up amidst stories of valor and glory, tales his father used to spin, washed and omitted for the ears of a young boy. So by the time he hit 17, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army, joining the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, eager to carve his own path and escape the suffocating life of a farmhand. Unfortunately for him, his first bout in the Indian Wars was going to be the infamous Little Big Horn Campaign, against the Sioux and Cheyenne. While his fellow Cavalrymen were being awarded Medals of Honor following their gallantry in the Battle of Rosebud Creek, he was branded with hot iron and lashed for his desertion and cowardice, after witnessing Captain Henry get shot in the face and lose an eye. Atonement for his actions soon came, following the Battle of Little Bighorn, when the 3rd Cavalry Regiment was led into an expedition under General Crook's leadership to punish the perpetrators of the massacre, later to be known as the Horsemeat March. If the previous battles and skirmishes weren't enough, having been forced to eat the slain mounts, boots and anything they could get their hands on made sure of Avery's disillusionment. Returning to Arizona in the spring of 1882, Avery's military service came to an end, after seeing through the defeat of the renegade Apaches in the Arizona Territory following the Battle of Big Dry Wash. He eventually became a courier and a mail rider, operating in the Southwest. After being blamed for the loss of a package and the strongbox during a robbery, he ended up drifting into the New Austin Territory in search of new work.