characters we call gunfighters
The period following the Civil War was a time of great uneasiness. It was an era that gave rise to the Western outlaws. They were bandits, gunfighters, and men guilty of hundreds of crimes, but they were also important in shaping American folklore. Two important factors contributed to the making of these legends. The transition that these men under went from solider to ranch hand or cowboy, and the making of their legends through the media molded the way we perceive gunfighters today. I feel that the media had a major role in creating the characters, legends and hero's that we learn about in history. The Civil War gave many young men a taste of conflict and killing. Many that fought the War were a very tender age and very impressionable. According to an article written by Mark Sufrin called "The Western Gunman", he said that the "Civil War soldiers were to much
Horan, James D. The Gunfighters . New York: Random House Publishing, 1994 Sufrin, Mark. "The Western Gunman." American History Illustrated July 1970: The west has its setting in the immense plains, and mountain ranges of the United States lying west of the Mississippi River, in particular the Great Plains and the southwest. It provides a rich mine for stories of adventure. Many of the legends in the west were due to the writings in the dime novels. Tales of the West became a popular form of regional writing and created frontier outlaws and hero's, such as Billy the kid. In book The Gunfighters, "The first dime novels incorporated frontier lore, and conflicts between cowboys and Indians. Dime novels are seen as precursors of the west. It also became material for the great western movies. One of the first films was The Great Train Robbery (1903)"(117), which set the pattern for many films that followed
Some common words found in the essay are:
Civil War, Northfield Minnesota, Train Robbery, Tales West, William Quantrill, Mississippi River, Indians Dime, Encyclopedia Britannica, civil war, , House Publishing, dime novels, western gunman, encyclopedia britannica, call gunfighters, legends west,
Approximate Word count = 617
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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