The Guns of Jesse James… and his Mother
From his birth near Kearney Missouri in 1847, to his assassination just 34 years later just 40 miles away in St Joe, Jesse James lived and eventually died by the gun. A child-soldier, famous outlaw, and legend, the guns he carried were iconic of his time. Jesse’s only full brother, Alexander Franklin James—remembered by history simply a Frank—had left home in 1861 at age 18 to fight on the Confederate side in the Civil War with the Missouri State Guard. The war in Missouri, a border state that never succeeded from the Union, turned bad for Frank and he soon found himself mixed up with a group of guerrillas under William Quantrill. It was this group of Confederate irregulars that 16-year old Jesse joined in 1864, soldiering first under Quantrill, then “Bloody Bill” Anderson until his death and finally under “Little Arch” Clement.
Without supply from the Confederate government, the James brothers and their fellow bushwhackers armed themselves with whatever they could. Often mounted and fighting on horseback in small groups, they needed lots of firepower and in 1864 Missouri, this meant revolvers and shotguns. …But his firearms legacy involved his mom to a degree that you may not know.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
Jesse James colt navy and belt Frazier museum