Book Review: Jesse James by TJ Stiles

Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by T.J. Stiles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I picked this up a few years ago when I visited Jesse James birthplace. For whatever reason, it kept getting pushed back in the to-read pile. Having visited the James place, I learned his story. There has been a revision of how we view James- not an outlaw of the Cowboy movie, but a Confederate who didn't stop fighting after the Civil War. Also, in the meantime, Stiles has become a very respected and successful writer of history with his George Custer book. Not sure if one influenced the other, but the James place agrees with Stiles and his book is prominently sold as one of the best telling of the James story.

Spoilers ahead: Well,it's a biography so...

Because I visited there and also spent time visiting and reading Northern Missouri and Eastern Kansas, I had a bit more background on the 19th Century of this region than the average reader coming in. "Bleeding Kansas", the pre-Civil War era years of this area is some of the bloodiest and most extremely violent times of the country's history.

While the pro-South forces probably hit the worst (the Jayhawkers, Border Ruffians, Red leggers of legend) neither side is innocent. Reading about the Pro-Union forces and then later the Reconstruction Republicans, neither side gets away scott free. Indeed, James apologists will say he spent his life planning revenge against the Union forces that terrorized him and his family in his youth.

James is charismatic, for sure, but he's never completely likeable. He is a cold blooded killer and seems pretty okay with that. His indoctrination with the Jayhawkers as young teen follows the psychology of what we know from gang and gangster mentality.

James rides with some of the most violent men of American history- first, William Quantrill and then Bloody Bill Anderson. These guys were guerillas. They terrorized the area and led raids that intended to send a message to anti-slavery forces. James learned efficiency from his tenure here. As warfare between neighbors turned into outright Civil War, some of these men joined the Confederacy, but they were better bandits than military men.

Stiles's book does a couple of things really well. For starters, it does cover that part of the Civil War in the West - no one talks about- Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Second of all, his history of Missouri politics is fascinating. It is interesting to see the attitudes of the day and the effect we still see today.

Through the 40 years or so of this book, there are usually three major factions. It is generally two of these three- Abolitionists, Pro-slavery Republicans, Pro-Union Democrats, Secessionist Democrats, Radical re-constructionist Republicans, Moderate Republicans,former Confederate Democrats and former Pro-Union Democrats. At times, the Democrat party is so weak, that they sway the vote between Republicans. It is the history written about here that helps explain modern day Missourian politics.

The northwest corridor that James was born is called "Little Dixie" as it was settled by former Kentuckians with an allegiance to the South. As we move to Bleeding Kansas and its raids, the Civil War breaks open and it can literally be neighbor against neighbor. Some decide to join the army, others stay home.

Quantrill fades from his height as he is seen as betraying Bloody Bill Anderson and though he continues, he unsurprisingly he meets a bloody end. Bloody Bill Anderson takes up the mantle as the fiercest fighter out there- with no qualms about scalping or massacring women and children.

Anderson is one of the most violent man you will meet in history, and so it's a bit hard to have sympathy for him or James. He is an effective guerilla, though and does a lot of damage to the Union. As quick-witted and wily as Anderson, it's ironic that he meets his death by being outfoxed.

With Quantrill and Anderson dead and the War lost, the bushwhackers do continue in smaller gangs. The Unionists enforce a bit of martial law to keep the peace. Confederate sympathizers are barred from voting. It is a tedious time and the violence doesn't stop. James and other confederates refuse to change. None more-so than James's mom. They even keep the slaves.

At this time as the various bushwhacker gangs are still active post-Civil War, they target the banks. They terrorize the area as the Klan does the South. James is not necessarily the leader, but they work in gang mentality as bands of guerillas. James's becomes famous in 1869 robbing the Gallatin, Missouri bank (presumably to avenge Bill Anderson).


He becomes the most wanted man in Missouri, but Newspaper Editor John Newman Edwards allies with James and decides to use him to sell Segregationist views. It's mutually beneficial. James is no lackey. He is daring and if his motives weren't completely political, now they become that.

The Confederates are fighting Reconstruction and James is the hero. Edwards make James a hero. Indeed, James could "shoot someone in the middle of downtown Manhattan" and not lose any support. Edwards and James indeed create some 'cognitive dissonance' as well, simultaneously denying their involvement in the crimes but winking knowingly. There are good lessons on propagandizing here. Indeed, the book tells us that times haven't changed, as we still believe outrageous rumors, only they are propagated from different platforms these days.

The South lost the War but after eight years of Grant, they do win the reconstruction. Those years are vital in understanding the region's history, and it explains how Missouri (and Kentucky) was a Union State, but are now part of the modern South.

The Pinkertons chase James as does every successive Missouri governor, but their attempts only go to make James more sympathetic.

As reconstruction ends in 1876, the ensuing years (until 1882) mean James goes out with more of a whimper than a bang. He still manages to rob trains and banks, but with Reconstruction over (and the Ex-Confederates in political power), Edwards no longer needs him to sell the story.

James lives undetected in Kentucky under an assumed name with his brother and their families. In the last years, most of the original Bushwackers have ended up dead or in jail, so James's gang starts to become hired hands like Bob and Charlie Ford, which of course, does not bode well.

I was always shocked Frank James never went to jail, but I have a good feel why. He surrendered to Missouri and made appropriate amends and it sounds like Frank, by the end, was ready to be done with the mischief anyway.

Stiles posits that we have James wrong. Although it is the era of Custer and Western expansion, and he's a contemporary of Billy the Kid (who he apocryphal meets him) and barely predates Butch Cassidy, James is not a Western bandit. Indeed, he is a terrorist in much of the way the KKK terrorized the South. Stiles stops short of comparing James to political groups like Isis or the Tamil Tigers, but I think there are similarities. His activities were a continuation of the Pre-Civil War redleggers and he never stopped fighting that war.

Goodreads asks that we rate books on a scale of 1-5 stars. I do tend to act like I have a finite amount of five stars and there are times that I probably should have gave a four-star book the extra star (or vice versa). But I really enjoyed this- in the way, it never got so detailed, it wasn't readable, but it never skimped on the research to sell books. It took detours in explaining the whole picture (not in a trivial Bill Bryson/Sarah Vowell way, which are the type of books I love)but did it in a way where it was fully formed and even with multiple characters introduced, it was easy to follow still. I thoroughly was intrigued by it.



View all my reviews