Book Reviewed: The Summer of 1876 by Chris Wimmer

The outlaws of the Northfield Raid The summer of 1876 was an important time in the Old West era. In a ninety-day period from mid-June to mid-September, three major events happened: the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, and the Northfield Raid. Around this same time, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson patrolled the streets of Dodge City, and Deadwood in South Dakota was becoming the richest and a notorious boomtown in the American West. Northfield was a growing Minnesota community, which had two colleges, the completion of a railroad, with many prominent business leaders and a healthy bank. The latter drew the attention of America’s most notorious bank robbers: the James-Younger Gang. In late August 1876, the James-Younger Gang headed for Minnesota. The gang consisted of brothers Jesse and Frank James; brothers Bob, Jim, and Cole Younger; Clell Miller; Charlie Pitts; and Bill Stiles. Upon arriving in the state, the gang divided into scouting parties of two, three, and four men. Looking for sites to execute their plans, they considered several banks in Minnesota, and their last choice was Northfield. It was a difficult time when the Battle of the Little Bighorn resulted in the biggest defeat to the American military. That was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory. Much of this book deals with these historical facts and the most relevant story of the Northfield raid are found in the last three chapters of the book. The detail of the raid is based on the facts discussed in many other books, and on the History cable channel.