Jesse James (5 September 1847 – 3 April 1882) was an American outlaw and formed Confederate States Army bushwhacker during and after the American Civil War. James and his brother Frank James led their own gang from 1866 to 1876, engaging in several bank, stagecoach, and train robberies against the government. James was killed by one of his own gang members in 1882, with the man seeking to collect the bounty on his head.
Biography[]
Jesse James was born on 5 September 1847 in Kearney, Missouri to a family of farmers, and Jesse and his brother Frank James both joined the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The brothers served under William Quantrill and took part in the massacre of 200 abolitionists in Lawrence, Kansas in August 1863 and in the September 1864 Centralia massacre in Missouri.
The brothers served under William T. Anderson in this battle, and they fought as Confederate guerrillas during the last few years of the war. After the war's end, Jesse and his brother decided to continue robbing banks, stagecoaches, and trains, running their own gang from 1866 to 1876.
During a robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, many gang members were killed, and law enforcement put more and more pressure on the James gang. On 3 April 1882, his fellow gang member Robert Ford shot him in the back of the head while he was cleaning a dusty painting in a St. Joseph, Missouri saloon, collecting the bounty of James.
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