Made an Outlaw
FROM 1861 TO 1865, war-torn Missouri produced its share of guerrillas and brigands. The deeds of many Missourians who rode “under the black flag”—“Bushwhacker Bill” Wilson, Cole Younger, and “Little Arch” Clement, to name just a few—fell far outside the bounds of what were considered the “acceptable” rules of conduct during wartime. One man who stood out among this company for his unbridled dedication to mayhem was Sam Hildebrand, known as the “Big River Bushwhacker.”
Not surprisingly, Hildebrand claimed to have been “driven to it” by outrages committed against him and his family. It was the same assertion that was echoed by the Jameses and the Youngers, among others: Frank and Jesse James pointed to the near-fatal hanging of their stepfather by Union soldiers, while Cole Younger and his siblings used the murder of their father as justification for their guerrilla
