During the Civil War, both the James and Younger brothers had followed William Quantrill’s lead in a band of ruthless bushwhackers, getting a taste for violence in the bitter conflict that wracked the divided state of Missouri.
Robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches for ten years, the gang’s postwar crimes began in 1866, but it wasn’t called the James-Younger Gang until 1868 when authorities determined that Cole Younger, Jesse, and Frank James were involved in the crime spree. The gang soon became the most famous in America’s history and included numerous outlaw members that fluctuated from one crime to the next.
Many of the gang members met during the Civil War, most riding with Quantrill’s Raiders. Missouri was a divided state, with most residents supporting the southern cause, but the state declared for the Union. The gang of bushwhackers was involved in several conflicts, most in Missouri and surrounding states. Before, during, and after the Civil War, both the James and Younger brothers were outspoken partisans for the south. When the war was over, these men who had fought mainly in guerrilla bands were embittered and continued to associate with their old war comrades. During the tumultuous Reconstruction in Missouri, the former soldiers turned outlaws.
