From T.J. Stiles’ Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War:

[Young Jesse and Frank James, riding with Jesse’s good friend, Archie Clement, under the command of the “bushwhacking” guerrilla leader, “Bloody” Bill Anderson. A fairly typical day for the band of irregulars as they moved back and forth across Missouri:]

“On October 17 (1864), the guerrillas stormed into the center of Carrollton, where the 160 men of the EMM garrison [local volunteer pro-Union militia] immediately surrendered. The guerrillas marched them toward the Missouri river, picking out a man to shoot here, another there, until half a dozen bodies marked the trail of the prisoners …. Later, they forced a German farmer to guide them west; when his knowledge ran out, Archie Clement shot him, sawed off his head, and placed it on the dead man’s chest, with his hands wrapped around it. Then they resumed their march.”

I hope to write more soon of this American folk hero and the milieu from which he emerged — a history which, as expertly mined by Stiles, has much to tell us: not only about the current turmoil in Jesse James’ home state of Missouri, but also about the nature of American politics in general.

Meanwhile, here’s a brief piece about Stiles’ book which I wrote some time ago: Insurgent Son: Jesse James and the Crucible of American Character.

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