Taylor was severely wounded in the summer of 1864 , losing his right arm to a shotgun blast . The James brothers then joined the bushwhacker group led by William " Bloody Bill " Anderson . Jesse suffered a serious wound to the chest that summer . The Clay County provost marshal reported that both Frank and Jesse James took part in the Centralia Massacre in September , in which guerrillas stopped a train carrying unarmed Union soldiers returning home from duty and killed or wounded some 22 of them ; the guerrillas scalped and dismembered some of the dead . The guerrillas also ambushed and defeated a pursuing regiment of Major A.V.E. Johnson 's Union troops , killing all who tried to surrender , who numbered more than 100 . Frank later identified Jesse as a member of the band who had fatally shot Major Johnson
Centralia Massacre
Centralia Massacre (Missouri)
Jesse James