William Frederick Cody (1846-1917) , American scout, bison hunter, and showman. received the nickname "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War, when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo (American bison) meat. Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill's legend began to spread when he was only twenty-three.