FREE ESSAY ON CHARACTERS WE CALL GUNFIGHTERS

CHARACTERS WE CALL GUNFIGHTERS

The Characters we call Gunfighters
The period following the Civil War was a time of great uneasiness. It was an era that
gave rise to the Western outlaws. They were bandits, gunfighters, and men guilty of
hundreds of crimes, but they were also important in shaping American folklore. Two
important factors contributed to the making of these legends. The transition that these
men under went from solider to ranch hand or cowboy, and the making of their legends
through the media molded the way we perceive gunfighters today. I feel that the media had
a major role in creating the characters, legends and hero's that we learn about in
history.
The Civil War gave many young men a taste of conflict and killing. Many that fought the
War were a very tender age and very impressionable. According to an article written by
Mark Sufrin called The Western Gunman, he said that the Civil War soldiers were to much
in love with killing after years of violence to settle down(23). After the Civil War many
of the men were hired by ranchers as ranch hands which paid little for their hard work.
Many of the young cowboys found themselves craving the life they had lived for four years
of violence and killing. It was these impulses that caused them to run rampant across the
west, robbing banks and holding up trains. As the west was growing so was the need for
law and order. Town sheriff's and U.S. Marshal's took on that role. This would pave the
way for the so called gunman and gunfighters. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
One example of this was a young man named Jesse James who fought in the Civil War when he
was fifteen. He and his older brother Frank were in the pro-southern guerrillas led by
William C. Quantrill. After the war, Jesse formed a highly successful gang. They held up
banks, stagecoaches, and trains until 1876 when the gang was shot to pieces by the folks
of Northfield, Minnesota when they tried to rob two banks at once  (vol.5, 39 ). These
soldiers turned cowboys paved the way for the story writers and movie makers of America
to work their magic and create their legends.
The west has its setting in the immense plains, and mountain ranges of the United States
lying west of the Mississippi River, in particular the Great Plains and the southwest. It
provides a rich mine for stories of adventure. Many of the legends in the west were due
to the writings in the dime novels. Tales of the West became a popular form of regional
writing and created frontier outlaws and hero's, such as Billy the kid. In book The
Gunfighters, The first dime novels incorporated frontier lore, and conflicts between
cowboys and Indians. Dime novels are seen as precursors of the west. It also became
material for the great western movies. One of the first films was The Great Train Robbery
(1903)(117), which set the pattern for many films that followed. These mediums have
glamorized the west and the characters in it. It has been a favorite of young and old
alike.
Several things led to the making to the legendary characters of the west. The telling of
their lives through books and movies has made America embrace the men we call
Gunfighters. 
Works Cited
Sufrin, Mark. The Western Gunman. American History Illustrated July 1970:
Horan, James D. The Gunfighters . New York: Random House Publishing, 1994
Unsigned Article in an encyclopedia
Western. Encyclopedia Britannica. 1980, Vol. 5,pg 39