The scenes of the Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, Kansas were filmed in Pattonsburg, Missouri. Pattonsburg was flooded out during the great flood of 1993, and the town was relocated leaving many empty buildings and homes available.
The novel upon which the movie is based opens with Jake participating in a lynching of a man in front of the man's family. The man's son tries to interfere, and Jake shoots the boy in the back. There is the sense that he does this in large part to gain the trust of the men in his group, many of whom see him as a foreigner, but he is criticized by some for shooting the boy in the back instead of facing him eye-to-eye.
The looting and burning of Lawrence, Kansas occurred on August 21, 1863.