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Book Cover for: The Gunfighters from Wild West: How Confederate Veterans and Fortune-Seekers Created America's Most Legendary Outlaws - Inspired by Bryan Burrough, Larry Phelps

The Gunfighters from Wild West: How Confederate Veterans and Fortune-Seekers Created America's Most Legendary Outlaws - Inspired by Bryan Burrough

Larry Phelps

A riveting exploration of how the Civil War's aftermath unleashed a generation of armed men across the American frontier, creating the most legendary gunfighters in history.

When the guns fell silent at Appomattox in 1865, the real violence was just beginning. Thousands of Confederate veterans and fortune-seeking drifters headed west, carrying with them the brutal skills learned in four years of warfare and a willingness to settle disputes with lead rather than law. From the cattle towns of Kansas to the mining camps of Arizona, these men would write their names in gunsmoke across the American landscape.

The Gunfighters from Wild West tells the interconnected stories of America's most famous outlaws and lawmen-Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, and Butch Cassidy-revealing how their paths crossed in the same dusty streets and smoky saloons. This isn't just a collection of separate legends, but the epic tale of how post-war violence created a new breed of American hero.

Follow Jesse James as he transforms from Confederate guerrilla to the nation's most wanted bank robber. Witness Wild Bill Hickok's evolution from Illinois farm boy to the deadliest lawman on the frontier. Watch Billy the Kid come of age in the chaos of the Lincoln County War, and see how Wyatt Earp walked the thin line between badge and bullet. Meet Doc Holliday, the educated gentleman killer whose tuberculosis made him fearless, and ride with Butch Cassidy and Sundance on their final desperate escape to South America.

Drawing on extensive research and vivid storytelling, this book separates myth from reality while celebrating both. It reveals how newspaper correspondents, dime novelists, and eventually Hollywood transformed brutal killers into romantic heroes, creating a mythology that still defines the American West today.

The Gunfighters from Wild West is the definitive account of how violence, ambition, and the closing frontier forged America's most enduring legends-and why their stories continue to captivate us more than a century later.

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Book Details

  • Publisher: Independently Published
  • Publish Date: Jun 1st, 2025
  • Pages: 66
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.14in - 0.22lb
  • EAN: 9798286090846
  • Categories: United States - 19th Century