In the chaos after the Civil War, the battlefield didn't end-it just moved to the backroads of America.
When the Confederacy collapsed in 1865, Union leaders feared thousands of rebel soldiers might vanish into the Appalachian Mountains and wage a new kind of war-guerrilla raids, bank robberies, and train derailments that could drag on for decades. Most Southern veterans went home. A few refused to surrender.
Among them were Jesse and Frank James, along with the Younger brothers-battle-hardened men who had learned their craft under William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Skilled in ambush, ruthless in execution, they turned from Confederate guerrillas into outlaws, targeting banks, trains, and stagecoaches across Missouri and beyond.
From the smoldering remains of the Civil War to the daring daylight robberies that shocked the nation, this is the true-crime saga of the James-Younger Gang-how they rose from defeat to become the most notorious outlaws in American history.