In October of 1864, Anderson's unit was trapped and outnumbered in Missouri, and 'Bloody Bill' was killed when he charged the Union troops. The Andersons barricaded the door to the basement and set the store on fire, killing Baker and his brother-in-law. The Bushwhacker in Missouri. Their families and other local Confederate sympathizers supplied them with shelter, food, medical care and tactical information about Union activities. 100% heavyweight Gildan brand cotton t-shirt. For the American Revolutionary War loyalist, see, Anderson's middle name is unknown. He addressed the prisoners, castigating them for the treatment of guerrillas by Union troops. . As Quantrill and Todd became less active, "Bloody Bill" Anderson emerged as the best-known, and most feared, Confederate guerrilla in Missouri. You certainly wouldn't do that aboard a horse. [116] Anderson achieved the same notoriety Quantrill had previously enjoyed, and he began to refer to himself as "Colonel Anderson", partly in an effort to supplant Quantrill. The cashier pulled a gun on him and James killed him in self-defence. [65], On July 6, a Confederate sympathizer brought Anderson newspapers containing articles about him. If they were caught, Federals considered them criminals not prisoners of war. KANSAS CITY Ten women and girls, including three sisters born in Randolph County, were killed or seriously injured when a building owned by state Treasurer George Caleb Bingham . Concluding that eliminating the bushw[h]acker's support network would. The Union troops took his body to Richmond, Mo. They later fought under "Bloody Bill" Anderson . [Map inset] Nearby Civil War attractions include Pioneer Cemetery and Ray County Museum in Richmond, Mo. William Thomas Anderson was born in Randolph County, Missouri in 1837, the exact date and location of his birth, remain uncertain. [126] The Union soldier held captive at Centralia was impressed with the control Anderson exercised over his men. They often used unorthodox tactics to fight Union troops, such as using a small party of horsemen to lure them into an ambush. From July 1861 until the end of the war, the state suffered up to 25,000 deaths from guerrilla warfare, more than any other state. The Federal command in St. Louis, Mo. They used it to attack other boats, bringing river traffic to a virtual halt. Todd rested his men in July to allow them to prepare for a Confederate invasion of Missouri. The decree exiled about 10,000 people in Jackson, Cass, Bates and northern Vernon counties in Missouri. In 1908, the ex-guerrillas and former outlaws Jim Cummins and Cole Younger arranged for a funeral service at Anderson's gravesite. In addition, it is included in the Missouri - A State Divided: The Civil War in Missouri series list. [11] He joined the freight shipping operation for which his father worked and was given a position known as "second boss" for a wagon trip to New Mexico. declared martial law in August 1861, giving Union forces broad powers to suppress those who resisted Union control. Posted on 19th March 2021. Anderson led a band of volunteer partisan raiders who targeted Union loyalists and federal soldiers in the states of Missouri and Kansas. II. [160] Asa Earl Carter's novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (1972) features Anderson as a main character. [70] On July 15, Anderson and his men entered Huntsville, Missouri and occupied the town's business district. As far as the partisans carrying extra cylinders, that is possibly a misnomer unless, they cannibalize other pistols just for the cylinders & that wouldn't make sense. [20], William and Jim Anderson soon formed a gang with a man named Bill Reed; in February 1863, the Lexington Weekly Union recorded that Reed was the leader of the gang. Bushwhacker activities in Missouri increased as a response to Federal occupation and increasingly brutal attacks and raids by Kansas soldiers, or jayhawkers. His family had been living in Council Grove, Territory of Kansas at the . Browning James A. Anderson led a band that targeted Union loyalists and Federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas. A wide-brimmed slouch hat was the headgear of choice. [13], Upon his return to Kansas, Anderson continued horse trafficking, but ranchers in the area soon became aware of his operations. Cartridge belts standard with up to 18 bullet loops in your [] III. The reason for the bloody raid that left nearly two hundred men dead and caused between $1 million and $1.5 million in damage (in 1863 dollars) is still the subject of speculation. Among his troops was a well-established group of guerrilla fighters led by William Anderson, who was known by the nickname " Bloody Bill ." Among his guerrillas was a pair of southern Missouri brothers named Frank and Jesse James. "An unusual event made a guerrilla out of William Anderson. [Photo captions, clockwise from top left, read] Often group sizes fluctuated as they came together for larger raids and then broke apart after the raid. 11. On March 12, 1864, in the midst of a bloody war which had long overflowed its thimble, Margaret Brooks was returning from her home near Memphis, Tennessee when her wagon broke down in Nonconnah Creek. The Death of William Anderson , On Oct. 27, 1864, about 300 men of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, led by Union Lt. Col. Samuel P. Cox, ambushed Anderson and his guerrilla force in Ray County's Albany, Mo. Some local citizens suspected the Anderson family was assisting Griffith and traveled to their house to confront the elder William Anderson. Local citizens demanded possession of the corpse. William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson (circa 1838 - October 26, 1864) was a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War. Bloody Bill was played by John Russell who played Marshall Stockburn in Pale Rider. After a brief gunfight, Baker and his brother-in-law fled into the store's basement. I will have to go through my library to see what I can find. [16] In May 1862, Judge Baker issued an arrest warrant for Griffith, whom Anderson helped hide. [117][118] Sutherland saw the massacre as the last battle in the worst phase of the war in Missouri,[119] and Castel and Goodrich described the slaughter as the Civil War's "epitome of savagery". Quantrill expelled him and warned him not to come back, and the man was fatally shot by some of Quantrill's men when he attempted to return. The most infamous order came in response to a brutal guerilla attack on Lawrence, Kan. The Union militias sometimes rode slower horses and may have been intimidated by Anderson's reputation. [53], On October 12, Quantrill and his men met General Samuel Cooper at the Canadian River and proceeded to Mineral Springs, Texas, to rest for the winter. [108] Anderson's band then rode back to their camp, taking a large amount of looted goods. The muzzle-loaders required no special ammunition or training and were effective out to about seventy-five or one hundred yards. The notorious Bloody Bill was killed in a Union ambush in Missouri. I have also read it was several Cavalry troopers, but that is another story. [129] Anderson presented him with a gift of fine Union pistols, likely captured at Centralia. These companies will be governed in all respects by the same regulations as other troops. Residents. [96] Although a large group of guerrillas was assembled, their leaders felt there were no promising targets to attack because all of the large towns nearby were heavily guarded. These "guerrilla shirts" were pullovers with a deep v-neckline and four large pockets. Many of Anderson's men also despised the Union, and he was adept at tapping into this emotion. I do not claim to be an expert on guerrilla warfare in Missouri but am a student of the war in general. Missouri's southern sympathizers hated Union Brig. En route, they entered Baxter Springs, Kansas, the site of Fort Blair. [60] Sutherland described Anderson's betrayal of Quantrill as a "Judas" turn. Historians have made disparate appraisals of Anderson; some see him as a sadistic, psychopathic killer, while others put his actions into the perspective of the general desperation and lawlessness of the time and the brutalization effect of war. [138] Local residents gathered $5,000, which they gave to Anderson; he then released the man, who died of his injuries in 1866. They buried him in an unmarked grave in Richmond's Pioneer Cemetery. One one hand, they were useful, serving to tie down Union forces. [7][b] Animosity and violence between the two sides quickly developed in what was called Bleeding Kansas, but there was little unrest in the Council Grove area. [140][139] He left the area with 150 men. Usually a wife, sister, mother or sweetheart used ribbons, shells and needlework to create the ellaborately [sic] decorated shirts. William T. Anderson was born around 1840 in Hopkins County, Kentucky, to William C. and Martha Anderson. USA. Stockburn gets a good look at the Preacher and says "YOU". Cole Younger, 1913, The Federal command in St. Louis, Mo. ; Battle of Albany Civil War Marker near Orrick, Mo. The next day, the elder Anderson traveled to the Council Grove courthouse with a gun, intending to force Baker to withdraw the warrant. If they were Bill's, he would have had 7 pistols on his person which to me is a little hard to believe. On July 30, Anderson and his men kidnapped the elderly father of the local Union militia's commanding officer. [23], Missouri had a large Union presence throughout the Civil War, but was also inhabited by many civilians whose sympathies lay with the Confederacy. [139][140] Anderson killed several other Union loyalists and some of his men returned to the wealthy resident's house to rape more of his female servants. Gen. John McNeil, the "Butcher of Palmyra." "The war brought on hate and strife and killing around here. [167], In a study of 19th-century warfare, historian James Reid posited that Anderson suffered from delusional paranoia, which exacerbated his aggressive, sadistic personality. [130] Price was disgusted that Anderson used scalps to decorate his horse, and would not speak with him until he removed them. They often used unorthodox tactics to fight Union troops, such as using a small party of horsemen to lure them into an ambush. On July 17, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas Hindman issued the Missouri Partisan Ranger Act. from Wichita State University and his Ph.D. in History and Political Science from the University of Chicago. [99][100] As the guerrillas robbed the stagecoach passengers, a train arrived. Bloody Bill Anderson was a character played by John Russell in the 1976 film 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' directed by Clint Eastwood. [128] On October 6, Anderson and his men began travelling to meet General Price in Boonville, Missouri;[124][129] they arrived and met the general on October 11. Anderson was known for his brutality towards Union soldiers, and pro Union partisans, who were called Jayhawkers. [3] His schoolmates recalled him as a well-behaved, reserved child. Jesse James. [143] Only Anderson and one other man, the son of a Confederate general, continued to charge after the others had retreated. [117] However, Frank James, who participated in the attack, later defended the guerrillas' actions, arguing that the federal troops were marching under a black flag, indicating that they intended to show no mercy. Unexpectedly, his men were able to capture a passenger train, the first time Confederate guerrillas had done so. [43] Anderson personally killed 14 people. As a general rule, bushwhackers would attack quickly and withdraw if they began receiving serious casualties. Add to your list and mine, Bloody Bill Anderson for he was a ruthless, vicious killer. Born in Kentucky in 1839 before moving to Missouri and eventually living in Kansas when the Civil War started, Bill Anderson soon earned the non de plume "Bloody Bill.". Community & Conflict website entry (Submitted on October 1, 2020, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.) The order was intended to undermine the guerrillas' support network in Missouri. 11, but guerrilla activity continued throughout the war in other regions of the state. By the time of his death in 1864 Anderson had become one of the most sought after men in Missouri and had left a trail of blood and hatred across the west and central portions of the state. William T. Anderson[a] (c. 1840 October 26, 1864), known by the nickname "Bloody Bill" Anderson, was a soldier who was one of the deadliest and most notorious Confederate guerrilla leaders in the American Civil War. In early 1863 he joined Quantrill's Raiders, a group of Confederate guerrillas which operated along the KansasMissouri border. However, his gun of choice was said to be the Dance .44 caliber cap and ball revolver. Raised by a family of Southerners in Kansas, Anderson began to support himself by stealing and selling horses in 1862. (, At the time, some U.S. states allowed slavery, primarily those in the south, and some explicitly forbade it, primarily those in the north; whether newly created states would be "slave states" was a contentious and hotly debated issue. Violence dropped in the area affected by Order No. It was Anderson's greatest victory, surpassing Lawrence and Baxter Springs in brutality and the number of casualties. Marshal, but spoke amicably with an acquaintance he found there. Anderson and his men camped with at least 300 men, including Todd. Anthony Edwards as "Goose" in Top Gun (1986) : [56] In March 1864, at the behest of General Sterling Price, Quantrill reassembled his men, sending most of them into active duty with the regular Confederate Army. He favored swift execution of captured guerrillas. Official Records of the American Civil War, "Sideshow no longer: A historiographical review of the guerrilla war", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_T._Anderson&oldid=1137633714, People of Missouri in the American Civil War, People with sadistic personality disorder, Confederate States of America military personnel killed in the American Civil War, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Use shortened footnotes from November 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 17:50. A short time later, another six of Anderson's men were ambushed and killed by Union troops;[90] after learning of these events, Anderson was outraged and left the area to seek revenge. Others, like William Anderson, had already entered a dark abyss from which there was no return and no escape except death. Serving in the US Marine Corps in WW II, he earned a battlefield commission and decorations for valor at Guadalcanal. Quantrill and other guerrillas nonetheless sought and sometimes received formal Confederate commissions as partisan rangers. [119], Anderson left the Centralia area on September 27, pursued for the first time by Union forces equipped with artillery. Even then, reloading the powder & ball would have been almost as fast as changing out the cylinder. Born about 1839 in Kentucky, the family early moved to Missouri, where William grew up near the town of Huntsville in Randolph County. Operating against Unionists in the midst of the guerrilla war in Missouri and Kansas, he was a leading figure in the infamous Lawrence Massacre and the Centralia Massacre, gaining the nickname "Bloody Bill" for the perceived savagery of his exploits. While on public display, a local photographer documented his death. Etsy Search for items or shops Close search Skip to Content Sign in 0 Cart Gifts for Every Valentine Jewelry & Accessories Anderson was fatally shot twice in the back of the head. John Nichols, a bushwacker who operated in Johnson and Pettis Counties in 1862-1863, prior to his execution in Jefferson City, Missouri, October 30, 1863