Loosely inspired by the "cattle wars" of the 1880s and 1890s, in which wealthy cattle barons gradually displaced independent homesteaders and small-scale ranchers, Frederic Remington's painting depicts the deadly aftermath of a shootout over the ownership of an unbranded cow. The last man standing may be under fire from the attacker at the left. In 1895, an illustration based on the painting accompanied a nostalgic article by Remington’s friend Owen Wister in Harper’s Monthly about the history of cowboys, whom Wister likened to Anglo-Saxon knights. Remington and Wister's glorification of the American cowboy as a symbol of Anglo-Saxon culture was a response to the perceived threat represented by increasing immigration. The artist sought to celebrate the cowpuncher, but the painting’s mournful tone was a reminder that this mythic figure and his frontier world were vanishing.