The Redemption of Jesse James

Book excerpt: H. H. Lomax never intended to accompany Jesse James on his first bank robbery, but that was less dangerous than staying with Ma James and her frying pan. By then, though, young Lomax had survived everything Union soldiers and Confederate partisans could throw at him and his family during the Civil War in northwest Arkansas. With his sixth sense-humor-the resourceful Lomax recounts his Civil War adventures, ranging from his first encounter with nemesis Jesse James to his first love. Along the way he finds a fortune, buries a brother, confronts the meanest bushwhacker in Arkansas and survives on his wits with a little help from an abandoned Army mule. Conveying his narrative with both wit and poignancy, Lomax offers a fresh perspective on the legend of Jesse James and the dark days of the Civil War and its aftermath in the Ozarks. Things might have turned out differently, if only Jesse had listened to Lomax. At least that's what the rascal Lomax says as one of the greatest storytellers-or most accomplished liars-of the Old West