Jesse James and the Civil War

The other day I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on Jesse James. Having had no prior information on this notorious criminal, I thought this would be something that would help me understand the beginnings of our country. What I learned really kind of blew me away.

I did not know that Jesse James was in the Civil War. He was a Confederate guerrilla who's base of operations were the deep woods of Missouri. Throughout his lawless days, he used the tactics that he learned from the Civil War and applied them to robbing banks, trains, stage coaches and whatever else he decided that he needed to rob.

The James gang included his brother Frank, the Younger brothers, and some other fellows that he knew from his guerrilla days. This is probably why his robberies were so successful for him...using the tactics that they had learned...but the civilians that happened to be on the right side of the law during these escapades didn't know these tactics and ended up the victims of some of these horrible crimes.

Frank James didn't really want to be a part of this gang but was pulled in by his younger brother. At the end of all this lawlessness, Frank turned himself in, was acquitted in court and spent the rest of his days as a farmer in Tennessee. Jesse's life turned out quite different.

Before I talk a little more about Jesse, I think we should take a look at their parents. Their dad died when Jesse was quite small and his mom, Zerelda remarried. This documentary didn't talk too much about their stepfather, so I'm not sure what happened to him. But their mom was just as bad as her sons. When one of Allan Pinkerton's detectives showed up at the farm where she lived (and her sons were staying), the detective ended up dead, with a note attached to him stating that this is what would happen if they kept snooping around the farm. No one really knows who shot the detective, but it could have been any of them. Zerelda had as bad a reputation as her sons.

The Younger brothers were killed during a robbery and the gang sort of fell apart. After a few years, Jesse married his cousin...had two kids (a boy and a girl)....changed his name and tried to live a normal life. BUT he couldn't. The criminal world was calling. So, he rounded up a new gang and restarted his life of crime. His children never knew their real last name.

One day, Jesse was starting to pack up so that he could head out on another crime spree. It was a really warm day and he had to take off his coat. But he didn't want his neighbors to wonder why he was loaded up with guns, so he took his guns off (something that he NEVER did). He placed the guns on his bed. For some reason, he was on a ladder in his bedroom and one of his men walked in, saw the guns on the bed, Jesse on a ladder (with his back to the door), and the man had his opportunity. He pull out his gun, cocked it, and shot Jesse James right through the back of his head.

After the death of Jesse James, his reputation went from cold-blooded killer to national icon. He became larger than life. What wasn't being said was how he went around just killing people, robbing them, causing damage to the lives of these innocent people. He wasn't some sort of strange hero....he was a murderer who needed to be caught and executed. Sometimes you need to kill in order to save lives. I truly believe that even if he had been placed in jail, he would have gotten out. He had the means and the help.

If I hadn't watched this documentary, I never would have put a connection between the horrible things that Jesse James was known for and the Civil War. The War changed people...and not always for the best. This was one of those times that the War changed someone for the worse. But who knows, based on the way his mom was, maybe he would have ended up like this anyway.