Having grown up in the "Little Dixie" area of western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. As teenagers he and his brother Frank joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, both brothers spent time in Texas, and Frank is believed to have been with Quantrill’s Raiders in Grayson County during the winter of 1863-64. 

The  James boys were back home by the end of the Civil War, and Missouri remained deeply divided, with frequent clashes between armed gangs of veterans from both sides of the war. Jesse and Frank took part in the first daylight armed bank robbery in the United States during peacetime.  They robbed the Clay County Savings Association in the town of Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866. During the gang's escape from the town, an innocent bystander, a student at William Jewell College, was shot dead on the street.

Jesse became well known after December 7, 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed a bank in Gallatin, Missouri. The robbery netted little money but Jesse shot and killed the cashier, mistakenly believing him to be a former militia officer who had killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson during the Civil War.

James claimed he was taking revenge, and the daring escape he and Frank made by riding through the middle of a posse shortly afterward attracted newspaper coverage for the first time. The 1869 robbery marked the emergence of Jesse James as the most famous survivor of the former Confederate bushwhackers. It was the first time he was publicly labeled an "outlaw" with a reward for his capture.

This was also the beginning of an alliance between James and John Newman Edwards, editor and founder of the Kansas City Times newspaper. Edwards, a former Confederate cavalryman, was campaigning to return former secessionists to power in Missouri. Six months after the Gallatin robbery, Edwards published the first of many letters from Jesse James to the public, asserting his innocence.

Meanwhile, the James brothers joined with Cole Younger and three of his brothers (plus other former Confederates) to form what came to be known as the James–Younger Gang. With Jesse James as the most public face of the gang, they carried out a string of robberies from Iowa to Texas, and from Kansas to West Virginia. They robbed banks, stagecoaches and even a fair in Kansas City, often carrying out their crimes in front of crowds.

The gang’s notoriety made them a target of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and led to their downfall. On September 7, 1876, the opening day of hunting season in Minnesota, the James–Younger gang attempted a raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. The robbery quickly went wrong, however, and after the robbery, only Frank and Jesse James remained alive and free.

Although the brothers recruited new gang members and carried out several robberies, the bounty offered for Jesse’s capture meant his days were numbered. It was an eager new recruit named Bob Ford who shot and killed him on April 3, 1882, expecting to claim a reward of $5,000.

The death of Jesse James at the age of 34 became a national sensation. His turn to crime in the wake of the Civil War helped cement his place in American life and memory as a simple but remarkably effective bandit.

Jerry Lincecum is a retired Austin College professor who now teaches classes for older adults who want to write their life stories.  He welcomes your reminiscences on any subject: jlincecum@me.com