Thomas Coleman Younger
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Portrait of Cole Younger taken when he was a prisoner at the Minnesota State Prison, c. 1889
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Thomas Coleman Younger January 15, 1844 Jackson County, Missouri, USA |
| Died | March 21, 1916 (aged 72) Lee's Summit, Missouri, USA |
| Resting place | Liberty Cemetery / Andrews Fist 38°55′2″N 94°21′45″W / 38.91722°N 94.36250°W |
| Nationality | American |
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Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (January 15, 1844 – March 21, 1916) was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw leader with the James–Younger Gang. He was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger, who were also members of the gang.
Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger, was born on January 15, 1844 on the Younger family farm in Jackson County, Missouri. He was a son of Henry Washington Younger, a prosperous farmer from Greenwood, Missouri and Bersheba Leighton Fristoe, daughter of a prominent Jackson County farmer. Cole was the seventh of fourteen children.
During the American Civil War, savage guerrilla warfare wracked the state of Missouri. Younger's father was a Union supporter, but he was shot dead anyway by a Union soldier from Kansas. After that, Cole Younger sought revenge as a pro-Confederate guerrilla or "bushwhacker" under William Clarke Quantrill. By 1862, the Confederate Army had been forced to withdraw from the state, and most of the fighting involved pro-Union and pro-Confederate partisans rather than regular armies. However, the bushwhackers held a special hatred for the "red leg" Union troops from Kansas who frequently entered Missouri and earned a reputation for ruthlessness. Younger rode with Quantrill in a retaliatory raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863, during which about 200 citizens were killed and the town looted and burned.
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