I know this is an old post, but I have to point out that we don't need to assume anything about the timing.
It's 1880--presumably late fall or winter--when Delilah is attacked (the screen tells us explicitly that it is 1880). Little Bill tells Davey and Quick Mike to come back in the spring to hand over the horses.
Next we see them do that, and it's late spring--which would be 1881--as evinced by Shorty telling them they're late and he was getting ready to call Little Bill in a few days to have him go after them.
The main part of the film takes place in July 1881. We know that definitively because of the discussion and newspaper headlines on the train (as well as Little Bill's "...on Independence Day," comment) which announce Charles Guiteau's assassination attempt* on President Garfield. Guiteau (an unhinged fanatic who believed Garfield owed him an ambassadorship) shot Garfield on July 2, 1881, and since the other men on the train are not aware of all the details yet, we can then assume that Little Bill is correctly giving the date when he punches English Bob.
English Bob is kicked out of town the next day, which would be July 5, and the rest of the action takes place over the course of the next week or so (Bill Munny is unconscious for three days, remember).
*I say "assassination attempt" because Garfield did not die until September, so at the time it truly was only an attempt. Not to mention that had it not been for some absolutely horrific medical malpractice, Garfield would very likely have lived; the bullet shot by Guiteau actually only penetrated the stout President's abdomen (missing all organs) by a few inches. But then various doctors etc. went poking around inside the wound, looking for the bullet and trying to determine the extent of the damage, with various implements, including unwashed fingers and sharp bits of metal. They managed to dig their own canal in the poor man's abdomen, puncture his previously unharmed liver, and introduce all sort of germs and filth. The end result was that a three- or four-inch wound became a tunnel of infection eleven inches or so long. They made that even worse by administering emetics and enemas, and then feeding the liver-compromised President brandy and milk. Garfield suffered a horrible painful death, and it was really due to the lack of proper care.
In fact, this medical malpractice was so well-known even at the time (when medicine was certainly not what it is today, and admittedly some of Garfield's treatment was according to the best possible methods of the day) that when Guiteau was tried, he said, "Your Honor, I admit to the shooting of the President, but not the killing." He wasn't entirely wrong.
Of course he was hung anyway. As he mounted the gallows (actually, he *danced* onto the gallows), he recited a poem he'd written, which went:
I am going to the Lord-y
Glory Hallelujah! Glory!
...and then they pulled the lever.
*****
People said love was blind, but what they meant was that love blinded them.
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