An Outlaw's Redemption

True Facts

· Shaving soap — the earliest recorded use of shaving cream comes from Mesopotamia. The Sumerians used animal fats and ashes from wood to create primitive soaps which they would apply to their beards before shaving, similar to the way fur was removed from animal hides. Until the early 20th century, bars or sticks of hard shaving soap were used. Later, tubes containing compounds of oils and soft soap were sold. In 1919, Frank Shields, a former MIT professor developed the first "shaving cream", but until that time, shaving soap was sold in bars and applied straight to the whiskers much like a bar of soap.

· Jimmy gives Weston "hardtack" with a side of bacon when they first meet. Hardtack is a type of bread or cracker made from flour and water. It was first mass produced in the 1660's and Roman Legions used to eat it, too, although it was called "buccellum" back then. In the Civil War it was part of the Union soldiers' daily rations...in fact, it was a large portion of their diet.

· Never sell your saddle. This was a true belief at the time. Many saloons would buy them from cowboy's down on their luck.

· Abraham Lincoln did give a speech at the Illinois State Fair in October of 1854. There was, however, no robbery to my knowledge, and he did not share a meal with a notorious outlaw. He was a devout Christian who found his strength in God and believed He was the anchor which had seen him through his many hardships. The meal he ordered at the hotel was his favorite in real life, although the cake mentioned was Mary Todd's own recipe. He was known to have a bit of a sweet tooth and declared his wife's cake to be "the best in Kentucky". Much of the advice Lincoln offers to Barlow were actual quotes made by him in real life. I just used them to my advantage.

· John Patton was really the Mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1858-1859. He eventually became the Sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan and even the Justice of the Peace at one point. He died November 15, 1900.

· Rachel says "antebellum". The word simply means "before the war". A term associated with the Civil war after the conflicts were over. The word comes from the Latin phrase "ante bellum" (literally meaning "before the war"). It's earliest known print appearance in English dates back to the 1840's.

· The Newspaper clipping which reads: "War Declared!!" is an actual newspaper headline from the Civil War.

· On April 12, 1859, Detroit did host their first national championship billiard match, with Michael Phelan of New York defeating local favorite John Seereiter for the $15,000 top prize (in today's values it would be more than $400,000). There was however no bet made between John Patton and Thaddeus Skylar which caused a gunman to be involved. Thad was a fictional character I created.

· The Centralia Massacre. While my depiction of the events is from my own imagination as well as what I learned from history. Frank and Jesse James took part in one of the bloodiest atrocities of the Civil War: The Centralia Massacre. Described by witnesses as a "carnival of blood". It was a raid on the small Missouri town of Centralia on September 27, 1864, at 9AM. While the gang they were apart of was looting the town and murdering anyone who protested, a train pulled into the center of town with 24 unarmed Union soldiers on leave from the army. Bloody Bill Anderson and his men quickly stripped the soldiers of their clothing, so they could use them as disguises, and shot them dead. Nearby Union troops caught wind of the violence and headed toward the town to put an end to it. The gang set up an ambush, captured, and then killed all 150 soldiers. Jesse James himself was credited with killing Union Major A.V. E. Johnson in the massacre. Many of the soldiers were beheaded, disemboweled, and slowly tortured. After the violence was over, the gang then proceeded to mutilate and scalp the bodies. While all of this is true, I did not use the correct date; in my book I say it was September 27, 1861, instead of 1864 because I wanted it to correspond with Jimmy's letter from the Siege of Lexington.