Frank
and Jesse James of Clay County, Missouri, signed up as members of the home
guard, a pro-Confederate force under state control. Soon they found that even
the lax rules of the militia were to much for them, so when Brig. General
Sterling Price left the state for Arkansas they became bushwhackers, or
renegade raiders.
Little
is known with certainty about their Civil War years, which have become
embellished with legends. Many of these folk tales were spawned after the pair
of cutthroats became central figures in the brief era known as the Wild West.
