When the mother and her motley crew of desperadoes decide to leave town, the hero refuses to let them go. Instead, he informs them that he intends to turn them over to the Confederate Army when it arrives in a few days. This would mean the action takes place in the 1860s during the American Civil War. Later, when they bury John Boone Hawkins, the date of his date on his wooden cross is 1888, more than twenty years after the end of the war in 1865.