in the process of try to establish the audience empathy with jake roedel ( tobey maguire ) the filmmaker slander the north and the jayhawkers . missouri never withdraw from the union and the union army be not an invading force . the southerner fight for state right represent the right to own slave and elect crooked legislature and judge and and employ a political spoil system . there nothing noble in that . the missourian could have easily travel east and join the confederate army . it seem to me that the story have nothing to do with ambiguity . when jake leave the bushwhacker and it not because he saw error in his way and he certainly doesn not give himself over to the virtue of the cause of abolition .