Dixon was born in Ohio County in western Virginia, on September 25, 1850. Of European he was orphaned at age 12 and lived with an uncle in Missouri for a year before setting out on his own. He worked in woodcutters' camps along the Missouri River until he started working at age 14 as an ox driver and a muleskinner for a government contractor in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was a skilled marksman and occasionally scouted for eastern excursionists brought by the railroads. In 1869 he joined a venture in hunting and trapping on the Saline River northwest of Fort Hays in Kansas. He scouted Texas as far south as the Salt Fork of the Red River when the bison hunters moved into the Texas Panhandle in 1874. He and his group hunted along the Canadian River and its tributaries.
Dixon led the founders of Adobe Walls to the Texas Plains, where he knew bison were in abundance. The group of 28 men and one woman occupied the outpost of five buildings 15 miles northeast of Stinnett. The outpost was attacked on June 27, 1874, by a band of 700-1200 Natives. The stand-off continued into a third day, when a group of Natives were noticed less than a mile east of Adobe Walls. It is said that Dixon took aim with a quickly borrowed.50-90 Sharps buffalo rifle. He knocked the Native man off his horse, killing him. Understanding how far the guns could fire, the Natives then withdrew and left the settlement alone. Dixon stated in his biography that it was a "scratch shot".
On 12 September 1874, Sergeant Zachariah T. Woodall, Private Peter Roth, Private John Harrington, Private George W. Smith, plus civilian scouts Amos Chapman and Billy Dixon, while carrying dispatches from McClellan Creek to Fort Supply as part of General Nelson A. Miles Sixth Cavalry, were encircled at sunrise by a "large band of Kiowa and Comanche warriors" near the Washita River. Dismounting, George Smith was mortally wounded. Soon, Woodall, Harrington, Dixon and Chapman were wounded. All except Smith and Chapman had by noon made their way to a nearby bison wallow ten feet in diameter, where they used their hands and knives to throw up the sandy dirt all around the sides. Sitting upright, each man "fired deliberately, taking good aim, and were picking off an indian at almost every round." Dixon eventually ran for Chapman, whose left knee had been shattered, and carried him back to the wallow. By 3 PM, a thunderstorm brought rain and relief from their thirst, but when the wind "shifted to the north", the cold brought discomfort to all parties, especially the Natives who sat on their horses out of rifle range "with their blankets drawn tightly around them." Roth went for Smith's gun and ammunition, but when Smith was discovered still alive, Roth and Dixon brought Smith back to the wallow where he died during the night. At daylight, Dixon went for help, soon encountering troops under the command of Major Price. For their participation in what became known as the Battle of Buffalo Wallow or the Buffalo Wallow Fight, Woodall and the five men under his command were awarded the Medal of Honor. The medal is presently on display at the Panhandle–Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. His medal along with that of Amos Chapman was revoked after a records review that was conducted from 1916-1917 found that they were ineligible because they were civilian scouts. In 1989 an Army Board of Correction of Records reinstated the awards. A Texas Historical Marker documents the battle site.
Later years and death
In 1883 Dixon returned to civilian life and built a home near the Adobe Walls site. He was postmaster there for 20 years and also the first sheriff of newly formed Hutchinson County, Texas. He served as state land commissioner and a justice of the peace. In 1894 he married Olive King Dixon of Virginia, who for nearly three years was the only woman in Hutchinson County. They had seven children. In 1902 the family moved to Plemons for schooling for their children. In 1906 they moved to Oklahoma. Dixon died from pneumonia at his Cimarron County homestead in 1913 and was buried in Adobe Walls battle site in Hutchinson County, Texas. On his deathbed he told Olive his complete life story, which she penned and later published. In 1929 his body was reinterred at Adobe Walls. Dixon Creek in southern Hutchinson County was named for him, as is the Billy Dixon Masonic Lodge in Fritch. A plaque commemorating his Medal of Honor was formally dedicated in 1992. The Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association, England, holds a shooting competition to commemorate his incredible long-distance shot. Known as the Vintage Rifle Open Long Range Championships, it is shot at a distance of 1,000 yards using black-powder cartridge rifles of that era, and is strongly contested from shooters all over the United Kingdom.
