Hello forum members!
Just got to thinking. When most people think of the Old Western frontier, they think of Prairies, plains, tall grass, mesas, mountains, cactus. Western states/territories like Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, the Dakotas or even California come to mind. But Southern states are almost never brought up or thought of. The only exception, and Southern state that possibly comes to mind even more than the above mentioned states when one thinks of the Cowboy and Outlaw, is Texas. The Lone Star State.
However, we tend to forget that Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri (west of the Mississippi) and even states like Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida were frontier too.
True Grit takes place in Arkansas and Oklahoma. In real life John Wesley Hardin was arrested and captured by Texas Rangers in Florida. Nathan Bedford Forrest, before he was a Wizard of the Saddle in the War was also a Constable in Mississippi (and a pretty good gunfighter with nerves of steel)
BUT, we never really hear about anything that happened after the War in the South except for Reconstruction and how a lot of other Southerners drifted into Texas and the West to be cowboys herding cattle from Texas to Kansas and Missouri.
But what about after Reconstruction. What about 1877 forward? Who were some famous outlaws and lawmen and incidents in, say Louisiana or Mississippi? I live in north Louisiana and was wondering this. What kind of guns did they prefer?
I do know my great great great grandfather Capt. John Lewis Conner was a Sheriff or Constable in Winston County, Mississippi.