Part of the back story of Maverick is that the brothers were Texans who had fought for the Union.
1849, I’m assuming? A recent rerun I was watching was talking about the territorial governor, even though Nevada became a state in 1864, so it had to be sometime pre or during the Civil War.
Nope, the boys fought for the confederacy, and got captured and given a choice. Prison camp or fight indians out west. They chose the fight out west option.
I’m not familiar with the prequel but yeah they must not have meant 1949. The series Bonanza dates itself explicitly relative to various historical events, especially toward the beginning. In season 1 Episode 18 ‘A House Divided’ a Southern sympathizer sows discord in Virginia City and among the Cartwrights, this is apparently on the eve of the war. Another S 1 episode features a (the) Paiute War (of 1860). In S. 4 Ep. 9 ‘The War Comes to Washoe’, statehood convention delegates debate which side Nevada will take in the Civil War (there was a failed convention in 1863). The idea seemed to be Bonanza presented Nevada 100 yrs before the air date so 1859-1860 in Season 1, though obviously not a ‘history lesson’ overall. Some ‘post CW’ episodes, by that rule, have themes of CW veterans.
There was a reference in Maverick to “Seward’s Folly” which dates it to 1867.