Jesse James was no hero. He wasn't a western Robin Hood and he certainly wasn't Brad Pitt (although I really liked the movie). He was a homicidal maniac who took part in the most brutal acts of the Civil War - like shooting down dozens of unarmed captives, burning alive the entire 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry Brass Band and...alright already, quit laughing..it really happened. In 1865, during a skirmish near Lexington Missouri, Jesse was shot in the lung by a member of the previously mentioned 3rd Wisconsin cavalry. He surrendered a short time later. His civil war career was over, in a few years his outlaw career would begin. Jesse himself remembered the shooter as being "perhaps" a member of the 2nd Wisconsin cavalry. Wrong. And it certainly couldn't have been a member of the the 1st Wisconsin as they were busy rounding up Jefferson Davis ( more about that incident in a future post) Pictured is Jesse James the way he should be ..... Dead. Blood from Bob Ford's bullet stains the pillow behind his head. The cavalryman in the photo is from the 1st Wisconsin. In Phillip Kaufmans 1972 film The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid Robert Duvall plays Jesse James as the true brain damaged psychobilly nut that he was. You can always count on Robert Duvall to get it right.
I would like to now rant about how people have been pronouncing the word "cavalry". (It's CAVAHLREE, not CALVAHREE.) I want all of you to be on the lookout. Offenders will be forced to live in Michigan. The lower part.
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