The Story of Cole Younger is the incredible first-person account of the author's turbulent life as a Confederate officer, bushwhacker, outlaw, and Wild West showman. Although many historians now consider this account to be more of a Wild West PR campaign than a reliable source of fact, Younger tells an undoubtedly entertaining and bombastic story that offers modern readers a rare look into the mindset of Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction, an era whose political and social division provides valuable context for turbulent modern times.
After being released from prison in 1901 at the age of 57, Younger took it upon himself to record the deeds of his life, starting with his humble upbringings on the Younger Family Farm and the tragic loss of his father at the hands of a Union soldier (despite his father being a Union supporter himself). The increasing violence of the Civil War combined with young Cole's desire for revenge lead him to leave home and join up with a guerilla band marshalled by William Clark Quintrell. Quintrell's band, along with many of the other "bushwhackers" of the era, operate in relative freedom to raid and retaliate in the chaos that defined the Civil War in the southern states. With the end of the war, Younger and his brothers seamlessly shift from a soldier's life to an outlaw's, specializing in train, bank, and stagecoach robbery. The gang gains notoriety with each crime committed, although Younger is careful to frame these acts not as born of wanton violence or greed, but from a drive to deliver justice for the Union's destruction of Missouri and the suffering of Confederate loyalists. The gang's deeds would culminate in their attempted robbery of The First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, which is thwarted thanks to resistance from the local population. In the violence that ensued, many gang members were killed while Younger and his brother were wounded and sentenced to life in prison. Life on the inside softens Younger, who writes of himself as a model inmate and uses the time to reflect and eventually decide to write his story down, "to clear up the record." Following his release from prison, Younger capitalized on his reputation by joining Wild West shows and speaking publicly about his experience as a soldier and, to a lesser extent, as an outlaw. Despite repenting his deeds and converting to Christianity at the end of his life, Younger's deeds live on as a central building block of the Wild West and post-Civil War mythos.
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