Frank James | |
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 James in 1898 | |
| Born | Alexander Franklin James January 10, 1843 Kearney, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | February 18, 1915 (aged 72) Kearney, Missouri, U.S. |
| Spouse | Annie Ralston James |
| Children | 1 |
Alexander Franklin James (January 10, 1843 [1] – February 18, 1915) was a Confederate soldier and guerrilla; in the post-Civil War period, he was an outlaw. The older brother of outlaw Jesse James, Frank was also part of the James–Younger Gang. [2]
James was born in Kearney, Missouri, to Baptist minister Reverend Robert Sallee James and his wife Zerelda (Cole) James. The couple came from Kentucky. He was of English, Welsh and Scottish descent. Frank was the oldest of three children. His father died in 1850 and his mother remarried Benjamin Simms in 1852. After his death, she married a third time to Dr. Reuben Samuel in 1855, when Frank was 13 years old. As a child, James showed interest in his late father's sizable library, especially the works of William Shakespeare. Census records show that James attended school regularly, and he reportedly wanted to become a teacher.
The American Civil War began in 1861, when James was eighteen years old. The secessionists in Missouri, including Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, attempted to drive the Union army out of the state, but were eventually defeated. The James family was from the heavily Confederate western portion of the state. On September 13, 1861, the Missouri State Guard, including private Frank James, besieged Lexington, Missouri. James fell ill and was left behind when the Confederate forces retreated. He surrendered to the Union troops, was paroled, and was allowed to return home. On his arrival, however, he was arrested by the local pro-Union militia and was forced to sign an oath of allegiance to the Union.
After the withdrawal of regular Confederate troops in the fall of 1861, a bitter guerrilla conflict soon began between bands of pro-Confederate irregulars (commonly known as bushwhackers) and the Union homeguards. By early 1863, Frank, ignoring his parole and oath of allegiance, had joined the guerrilla band of Fernando Scott, a former saddler. He soon switched to the more active command led by William Clarke Quantrill.
Union militiamen searching for Fernando Scott raided the Samuel farm and hanged Dr. Reuben Samuel (though not fatally), Frank's stepfather, torturing him to reveal the location of the guerrillas. Shortly afterward, Frank took part with Quantrill's company in the August 21, 1863, Lawrence Massacre where approximately 200 mostly unarmed civilians were killed.
Frank James was paroled July 27, 1865[ clarify ] in Nelson County, Kentucky. [3] There is a report that after his parole, Frank was involved in a gunfight in Brandenburg, Kentucky with four soldiers that resulted in two soldiers killed, one wounded, and Frank wounded in the hip. [3] However, there is an alternative account that claims in the autumn[ clarify ] of 1865, Frank, who was in Kentucky going to Missouri, was suspected of stealing horses in Ohio and that Frank shot two members of a posse and escaped. [4]
During his years as a bandit, James was involved in at least four robberies between 1868 and 1876 that resulted in the deaths of bank employees or citizens. The most famous incident was the disastrous Northfield, Minnesota, raid on September 7, 1876, that ended with the death or capture of most of the gang.
Five months after the killing of his brother Jesse in 1882, Frank James boarded a train to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he had an appointment with the governor in the state capitol. Placing his holster in Governor Crittenden's hands, he explained,
'I have been hunted for twenty-one years, have literally lived in the saddle, have never known a day of perfect peace. It was one long, anxious, inexorable, eternal vigil.' He then ended his statement by saying, 'Governor, I haven't let another man touch my gun since 1861.'
Accounts say that James surrendered with the understanding that he would not be extradited to Northfield, Minnesota. [5]
He was tried for only two of the robberies/murders: one in Gallatin, Missouri, for the July 15, 1881, robbery of the Rock Island Line train at Winston, Missouri, in which the train engineer and a passenger were killed, and the other in Huntsville, Alabama, for the March 11, 1881, robbery of a United States Army Corps of Engineers payroll at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Among others, former Confederate General Joseph Orville Shelby testified on James's behalf in the Missouri trial. He was acquitted in both Missouri and Alabama. Missouri accepted legal jurisdiction over him for other charges, but they never came to trial. He was never extradited to Minnesota for his connection with the Northfield Raid.
His New York Times obituary summarized his arrest and acquittal:
In 1882 ... Frank James surrendered in Jefferson City, Missouri. After his surrender James was taken to Independence, Missouri, where he was held in jail three weeks, and later to Gallatin, where he remained in jail a year awaiting trial. Finally James was acquitted and went to Oklahoma to live with his mother. He never was in the penitentiary and never was convicted of any of the charges against him. [2]
In the last thirty years of his life, James worked a variety of jobs, including shoe salesman in Nevada, Missouri and then burlesque theater ticket taker in St. Louis. One of the theater's spins to attract patrons was their use of the phrase "Come get your ticket punched by the legendary Frank James." He also served as an AT&T telegraph operator in St. Joseph, Missouri. James took up the lecture circuit, while residing in Sherman, Texas. In 1902, former Missourian Sam Hildreth, a leading thoroughbred horse trainer and owner, hired James as the betting commissioner at the Fair Grounds Race Track, [6] in New Orleans. He returned to the North Texas area where he was a shoe salesman at Sanger Brothers in Dallas. The Tacoma Times reported in July, 1914, [7] that he was picking berries at a local ranch in Washington state, and planned to buy a farm nearby. He was also part of a Chicago investment group which purchased the Fletcher Terrell's Buckskin Bill's Wild West Show, third in size after the Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill shows. [8]
In his final years, James returned to the James Farm, giving tours for the sum of 25 cents. [9] He died there at age 72 on February 18, 1915. He left behind his wife Annie Ralston James and one son. [2]
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For more on The Northfield, MN bank robbery: [11]
In the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states or the Border South were four, later five, slave states in the Upper South that primarily supported the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia. To their north they bordered free states of the Union, and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the Confederacy to their south.
Quantrill's Raiders were the best-known of the pro-Confederate partisan guerrillas who fought in the American Civil War. Their leader was William Quantrill and they included Jesse James and his brother Frank.
William Clarke Quantrill was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War.
The James–Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that revolved around Jesse James and his brother Frank James. The gang was based in the state of Missouri, the home of most of the members.
The Lawrence Massacre was an attack during the American Civil War (1861–65) by Quantrill's Raiders, a Confederate guerrilla group led by William Quantrill, on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing around 150 unarmed men and boys.
William T. Anderson, known by the nickname "Bloody Bill" Anderson, was a soldier who was one of the deadliest and most notorious Confederate guerrilla leaders in the American Civil War. Anderson led a band of volunteer partisan raiders who targeted Union loyalists and federal soldiers in the states of Missouri and Kansas.
Thomas Coleman Younger was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw leader with the James–Younger Gang. He was the elder brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger, who were also members of the gang.
Robert Ewing Younger was an American criminal and outlaw, the younger brother of Cole, Jim and John Younger. He was a member of the James–Younger Gang. He stood six feet, two inches tall and had deep blue eyes, muscular arms, and a thick neck.
James Hardin Younger was an American outlaw and member of the James–Younger Gang. He was the brother of Cole, John and Bob Younger.
Reuben Samuel was the stepfather of the American outlaws Frank and Jesse James. He was married to the pair's mother, Zerelda James, from 1855 until his death in 1908.
Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers. The term "bushwhacking" is still in use today to describe ambushes done with the aim of attrition.
Major John Newman Edwards was famed General Joseph O. Shelby's adjutant during the American Civil War, an author, and a pro-Confederate journalist who founded the Kansas City Times. He is perhaps best known for contributing to the folk hero status of outlaw Jesse James.
Marcellus Jerome Clarke was a Confederate captain who in 1864 became one of Kentucky's most famous guerrillas. He was rumored to be "Sue Mundy", a character publicized by George Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal.
Edward T. Miller was a Missouri-born outlaw.
Archie Clement, also known as "Little Arch" or "Little Archie", was an American pro-Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War, known for his brutality towards Union soldiers and pro-Union civilians in the state of Missouri.
Clell Miller was an outlaw with the James-Younger Gang who was killed during the gang's robbery at Northfield, Minnesota.
Guerrilla warfare was waged during the American Civil War (1861–1865) by both sides of the conflict, but most notoriously by the Confederacy. It gathered in intensity as the war dragged.
James J. Chiles, also known as Jim Crow Chiles, was a Confederate outlaw who fought with Quantrill's Raiders.
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of committing atrocities against Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in 1864.
Samuel P. Cox was an American businessman and soldier who is best remembered as the commander of the Union troops who killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson at the Battle of Albany, during the American Civil War.
Former Outlaw Was One of Last Survivors of Notorious Band.
| External videos | |
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 Booknotes interview with Ted Yeatman on Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend, October 28, 2001, C-SPAN |
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