Author Topic: Right Photo, Wrong Date: Jesse James Buffs Misdate an Important Photo  (Read 8459 times)

Offline Shotgun Steve

  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 703
    • Home of the Plainsmen
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0

From left: Fletch Taylor, Frank James, Jesse James.

The photograph immediately above this paragraph is one of the most important images of Jesse James in existence. Unlike most photos of him, it is undisputed in its authenticity. It also offers a rare juxtaposition of Jesse and his brother Frank in the same frame. In addition, it includes their wartime guerrilla commander (Jesse's first, after he began to fight in the Civil War), Fletch Taylor, standing on the left. What may be the most interesting thing about this photo, however, is the fact that Jesse James buffs insist on giving it the wrong date.
If you open a recent issue of Wild West magazine, you will find this photo occupying the better part of a page, with a caption that patiently explains that it was taken in a studio in Nashville in 1866 or 1867. Jesse James, we are informed, was receiving treatment in Nashville at the time for the crippling wound to his lung that he received in May 1865. The photo, we are told, is often mistakenly given a date of 1864.

That caption reflects the conventional wisdom among the dedicated fraternity of Jesse James buffs. At some point, a researcher found a link between the picture and the Nashville studio, so the buffs now dismiss the idea that the photo could have been taken during the war.

There is only one problem with this theory. Examine the image of Fletch Taylor closely. Note his right arm, how it, well, how it exists. Note also from Frank's jacket that this is not a reversed image, so that Taylor's right arm is indeed his right arm. In August 1864, Taylor had his right arm amputated at the shoulder after getting hit with a devastating shotgun blast. The wound and amputation were well documented at the time; one Missouri newspaper expressed the wish that it had been a mortal injury.

If Taylor has his right arm in this photo, then, it is simply impossible for the picture to have been taken any later than August 1864. In all likelihood, it dates to May or June of 1864, soon after Jesse and Frank joined Taylor's band of guerrillas.

No amount of documentation can erase this simple physical fact. Taylor's arm did not grow back, therefore the photo was taken before he lost it. Indeed, the link to the Nashville photo studio probably stems from the fact that it was copied there. Jesse James lived in Nashville, and no doubt visited there prior to settling in the city; he may well have had the photograph photographed. This seems obvious. Why, then, do buffs insist that it was taken in 1867, and not during the war?

For one thing, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that one piece of evidence proves everything. When the first researcher to find a link to the Nashville studio uncovered that bit of documentation, it must have seemed like a eureka moment. After all, it fit with an alibi that Jesse James himself gave to newspaper editor John Newman Edwards: He claimed that he could not have taken part in any robberies by the ex-Confederate guerrillas between 1865 and 1868 because he was still recovering from his lung wound, and visited a Dr. Eve in Nashville in 1867. There's another appeal to matching the photo and the alibi: Jesse James buffs tend to be protective of the bandit, and are prone to look with favor on anything that might exonerate him. But I'm only guessing; I can't get inside someone else's head.

There are other problems with Jesse James's alibi, besides the whopper about Taylor's arm in this photo. The only evidence that Jesse was bedridden for two or three years is Jesse's own story, given to Edwards. On the other hand, there are a number of accounts from the 1865-1868 period that depict Jesse as active and apparently healthy, starting no later than 1866. The sources include a future Clay County sheriff and at least two others, including one man who insisted to the press that he recognized both Frank and Jesse as participants in the Richmond robbery in 1867. I believe it is possible that his 1865 wound festered for years, but I also note in my book that lung wounds are actually surprisingly survivable (provided no major blood vessels are severed), due in part to the nature of the soft tissue of the lungs.

Taylor's right arm means that this photo must have been taken before August 1864. The insistence that it was taken in 1867, however, suggests a curious desire by many buffs to believe Jesse's own story. Jesse James was many things: a truly remarkable bandit, a ruthless killer, a man with a passion for publicity. But honest he was not, at least not in his public alibis.


I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same of them."

Home of the Plainsmen
http://lastoftheplainsmen.freeforums.org/index.php



NCOWS# 2910
STORM#  233
GAF# 693
U.S. Army
U.S. Marine Corp
Michigan Army National Guard

Offline Mogorilla

  • NCOWS Member
  • Top Active Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 1866
  • NCOWS #: 3306
  • GAF #: 883
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 95
Re: Right Photo, Wrong Date: Jesse James Buffs Misdate an Important Photo
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2010, 12:09:18 PM »
I am glad someone finnally noticed this.  I moved to the KC area of Missouri about 21 years ago, fresh out of college.  I caught Jose Wales on a rerun and it got me thinking, a few books later, I learned about Fletcher's arm, and the ~66/67 date of this photo.  I immediately had the arm issue and If Jesse was so poorly he was convalescing in Nashville, what was he doing robbing a bank in Feb. 1866?  Thanks for posting.  this is one of those things that had bothered me

Offline Dr. Bob

  • Dr. Bob
  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 3673
  • Physician and Sporting Gent aka Bob Dorian
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Right Photo, Wrong Date: Jesse James Buffs Misdate an Important Photo
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2010, 10:19:37 PM »
Great photo and info!  Thanks!!  ;D  ;D
Regards, Doc
Dr. Bob Butcher,
NCOWS 2420, Senator
HR 4
GAF 405,
NRA Life,
KGC 8.
Warthog
Motto: Clean mind  -  Clean body,   Take your pick

Advertising

  • Guest

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk

© 1995 - 2023 CAScity.com