Claim Now Shot All To Hell: Jesse James, The Northfield Raid, And The Wild Wests Greatest Escape Composed By Mark Lee Gardner In Document

James Brothers and the Younger Brothers, Some of the best known outlaws of their time, Train robberies and bank robberies galore, And the ghastly failure of their Northfield Minnesota raidwhen they were routed by civilians during their robbery, The author of this book, rather immodestly but on target, notes that Page: "The following narrative is the most accurate account of the nineteenth century's most famous robbery and manhunt.
" And in the second chapter, we get nice character sketches of the brothers, including a good discussion of the real differences between Jesse and Frank James,

This volume is a nice rendering of this event, It begins by looking at the background of the raidincluding an account of the early lives of the Younger Cole, Jim, and Bob and James Jesse and Frank Brothers.
Both Youngers and James rode with bushwhacking Confederate irregulars such as Bloody Bill Anderson and William Quantrill, After the war, the brothers often worked together in gangs, which included others as well, They carried out both train robberies and bank heists, Overall, they were fairly successful, However, one of their gang members "ratted them out," making it potentially perilous to continue working in their traditional area,

What to do next Jesse James suggested a raid into Minnesota, where none would be looking for them, Once in Minnesota, gang members including other members than the brothers, They finally happened upon a robbery in Northfield, After scouting the bank, they went into action, Two major problems: a time lock mechanism that thwarted them and the reaction of the citizens of Northfield, Many residents grabbed forearms and began shooting at gang memberswreaking havoc on the gang,

After this A detailed description of the chase as posse after posse chased the Younger and James brothers other gang members were hors de combat, The James Brothers and Younger Brothers suffered separate fates, The book concludes with a description of the lives of the key actorsNorthfield residents, gang members, and others involved in the robbery and subsequent chase,

This is a very fine history of the development of the gang and its greatest fiasco, We learn a great deal in the process,
This was a very detailed account of the James Gang Northfield Robbery in Minnesota, and their escape from the authorities, It seemed to be well written and well narrated, If you are interested in a play by play take on this robbery and a few others, Jesse and Frank James and their gang of murderous outlaws, and their infamous escape and ultimate demise, this is probably a good book to listen to.
Shot all to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape, is an excellent addition to the literature surrounding the life of Jesse James and the history of the JamesYounger Gang.
Very well written, its primary focus is on events leading up to their raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, MN, and the factors that influenced their decision to conduct a raid so far from their Missouri base.
It does not claim to be a full biography of James or the JamesYounger gang, but it does include enough of their history to put their actions into proper context.
The book is not perfect for reasons I will mention below, but is well researched, and exceedingly readable,

Jesse James and the JamesYounger Gang are one of those historical Rorschach tests that usefully expose the biases of different segments of society, Whether one views the gang as heroes, antiheroes, or villains often is a function of life experience, education and economic circumstance, For many the gang represents a rejection of political correctness, and those viewed as elites trying to dictate how people should lead their lives, For others, they are an embodiment of the "Lost Cause" interpretation of the Civil War a committed band of unreconstructed rebels, refusing to concede the end of their dream of an independent confederacy based on states rights and slavery.
For still others, they represent an American version of the Robin Hood myth for which there is no evidence, And lastly, for some, particularly descendants of their victims, or those who intellectually reject the notion that robbery and murder are in any way romantic, the JamesYounger gang were simply killers, unable to get past Confederate defeat, compelled to continue the terrorism they practiced as bushwhackers under William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson during the Civil War.


For me, they are closer to the latter description, The more I read about them, the less I am inclined to view them as anything other than criminals, I recognize they are products of their experiences, but that does not make them admirable, That isn't to say however, that I don't find them fascinating, I think they do embody an aspect of the Civil War South that I think is important to understand, In states like Missouri and Kansas, the Civil War was a guerilla fight, one which pitted neighbor against neighbor in the most brutal way imaginable, In this it was much like the Revolutionary war as experienced in the southern back country brutal and personal, The legacy of that fight is with us today,

Other than my general interest in virtually anything historical, I also have a personal interest in the JamesYounger gang, One of the employees shot by them in the failed raid on the First National Bank in Northfield, MN Alonzo Bunker is a branch on my family tree, He was the son of my GreatGreatGreat Grandfather, Growing up, we always heard stories about the relative who was shot by Jesse James, and my Great Grandfather who I knew as a child, had met him, Bunker wasn't actually shot by James, but by gang member Charlie Pitts still it was close enough to the truth to pique my interest growing up,

Most books on Jesse James and the JamesYounger gang tend to take an admiring view of them, Authors invested in "Lost Cause" mythology are more likely to take a charitable view of their criminality, often excusing it as a justifiable response to some wrong they suffered, such as the botched Pinkerton raid on their home that killed their brother Archie, and severely wounded their mother.
Other authors, who have a romantic view of the West and Western lore, seem unable to resist the lure of the "brave and daring" Jesse James, This has combined to make the outlaws pop culture heroes, Rarely are movies made about them, for example, that do not depict them as heroes or antiheroes, A great example of this is the wellmade but severely flawed "Long Riders," produced in, All of this makes it difficult to get to the truth about them and their activities,

There are a few evenhanded treatments of them that try to get to the truth about their actions, and that attempt to put them in a political, cultural, economic, and psychological context.
One of the best of these is Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by T, J. Stiles, who does a nice job of digging into the political climate in post war Missouri that allowed the JamesYounger gang to operate with virtual impunity,

The subject of this review, "Shot all to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape," by Mark Lee Gardiner, falls somewhere in between these types.
As the title of the book suggests, with its focus on the escape of Jesse and Frank James, rather than the capture or killing of the other six gang members, the author sometimes betrays a sneaking admiration for the outlaws.
On the other hand, he doesn't shy away from highlighting their brutality, detailing some of the murders committed by them during and after the years after the Civil War.
And, it is clear he admires the townspeople of Northfield who did what no one else had done, fought back against the gang, He movingly highlights the heroics of some of the townspeople, particularly Joseph Lee Heywood who was killed by Frank James after he repeatedly refused to open the bank's safe.


Northfield celebrates this event to this day, with its annual “Defeat of Jesse James Days,” one of the largest town festivals in Minnesota,

Gardiner is an excellent writer, The book, written in a narrative style, was at times a real page turner, His research is detailed, and seems spot on, illuminating many aspects of the Northfield raid that I had never read about before, For example, I had always known bystander Nicholas Gustafson was killed in the street outside the bank shot in the head, What I did not know was that he did not die right away, In fact, he was able to get up, walk away, speak with others, and clean his wound, He actually died several days later as his brain began to swell, Most depictions of the event have him lying dead in the street, It was these kinds of details which really elevated the book, His chapters detailing the raid itself and the subsequent manhunt are among the best I have read, And he does an excellent job of teasing out interesting portraits of some of the lesser known actors in this drama, includingyearold Oscar Sorbel, the "Paul Revere of the Northfield Raid," whose persistence eventually led to the killing of gang member Charlie Pitts, and capture of Bob, Jim, and Cole Younger.


On the other hand, the portions of the book detailing the early days of the James's and Youngers as Confederate bushwhackers during the Civil War, and their early criminal career, weren't as detailed.
It is adequate to set up the events leading up to the Northfield Raid, but not much more, This doesnt detract much from the power of the book however, Gardiner is not attempting an exhaustive biography of the outlaws and so only provides what is needed to put the Raid itself into some context, He is also not explicitly attempting to put them into a larger political or social context, He does provide some of this though as an organic part of the narrative, What he chooses to highlight and incidents he describes do help one form a rudimentary political and psychological profile of the gang, A good example of this is the gang's alleged reaction when they found out Adelbert Ames, a Union General, Reconstruction Governor of Mississippi, and soninlaw of the hated Benjamin Butler was living in Northfield, and had considerable holdings with the bank.
The desire for sweet revenge against one who they believed had forced Yankee rule on the South and negro equality on the country may have become

one reason for choosing Northfield as the target.


There were problems with the book, Occasionally the narrative dragged a bit, particularly when recounting the gangs robbery of the train at Rocky Cut near Otterville, MO, He occasionally apes conventional wisdom, such as his dismissal of Ulysses S, Grants presidency as a scandal ridden failure, There is much recent scholarship that casts serious doubt on that assertion, And, as I noted earlier, he occasionally betrays a sneaking admiration for the outlaws that I find unnecessary, Not enough to cast doubt on the objectivity of his narrative, but worth mentioning, Overall though this is fine reading, a book any history nerd would enjoy,

Jesse James is one of those iconic legends that has been told and retold and often his image has been cleaned up and sanitized, Jesse came of age during the Civil War and experienced many traumatic events, He rode with Quantrill's Raiders and learned and honed his skills as a bandit as they raided cities loyal to the north, Both sides resorted to these tactics including killing of civilians supposedly in retaliation to attacks by the other side, After the war, Jesse and his brother Frank formed an outlaw gang with the Younger brothers and became notorious for robbing trains and banks, This book covers a number of these raids and explains things that seem to indicate a continuation of Civil War rivalries, The main focus of the book is the JamesYounger gang's failed attempt to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, MN, They were shot up pretty bad, lost two members during the raid, and fled the area with hundreds in hot pursuit, The book gives a thoroughly researched account of the lives of Jesse and Frank James including how Jesse returned to crime with a newly formed gang and was eventually killed by one of them for the reward.
I had actually thought about naming our first son Jesse James M, . . and my wife, not being familiar with who he was, said OK, Then my mom got wind of it and that was the end of that idea, Great read, hard to put down, It was the most famous bank robbery of all time, involving the legendary JamesYounger gang's final shocking holdupthe infamous Northfield Raidand the thrilling twoweek chase that followed, Mark Lee Gardner, author of the critically acclaimed To Hell on a Fast Horse, takes us inside Northfield's First National Bank and outside to the streets as Jesse James and his band of outlaws square off against the heroic citizens who risked their lives to defeat America's most daring criminals.
With vivid detail and novelistic verve, Gardner follows the James brothers as they elude both the authorities and the furious citizen posses hellbent on capturing them in one of the largest manhunts in the history of the United States.
He reveals the serendipitous endings of the Younger brothersCole, Jim, and Boband explores the James brothers' fates after the dust settled, solving mysteries about the raid that have been hotly debated for more thanyears.


A galloping true tale of frontier justice featuring audacious outlaws and intrepid heroes, Shot All to Hell is a riveting slice of Wild West history that continues to fascinate today.
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