Vigilantism was common in many frontier regions, and historians have demonstrated that citizens’ efforts to punish wrongdoers were usually based on a perception that justice was not being carried out. This painting was reproduced in Western Field and Stream in September 1897, along with a caption by the magazine’s editor explaining that it depicted a real occurrence. “Some years since a band of organized outlaws, by their boldness and repeated acts of plunder, exhausted the forbearance of the cattlemen of Wyoming,” he wrote. “They made frequent incursions upon the ranges, collected large bands of stock, drove them to distant railway stations and disposed of them. They infested the wildest and most inaccessible portions of the mountains, were well armed and equipped, and for a long time had followed their piratical vocation with comparative immunity.”

Cameron continued: “The ranchers leagued together to rid the territory of this gang. They gathered every available man employed upon the ranges, supplied him generously with ammunition, and rode out one day… . The fight was a stubborn one, but it could have but one ending. The gang was broken up. Many of them were killed; the remnant surrendured to the uncompromising cowpunchers. Mr. Russell, with his usual power and grasp, has taken the dramatic climax of the incident and made it a picture such as few—indeed, any—but he could paint.” Although Russell outwardly approved such activity, he had many friends who sometimes found themselves on the other side of the law. Interestingly, here he shows this event from the perspective of the defeated rustlers, and his characterization seems somewhat sympathetic to their plight.