T. Benton Shields may have been a real person. He was listed in the O'Brien sale catalogue(1) as Captain in the U.S. Army, and as having long served in the Columbia River country. In an old typed list of Beadle authors, now in my possession, the word "Dead" is written in an unknown hand after his name. No record, however, was found in U.S. Army lists. Only one story was published by Beadle, but it appeared under three different names in three different editions. Starr's American Novels. No. 134 Pocket Novels. No. 85 Boy's Library (octavo). No. 244 Source: https://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/shields_t.html