William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a southern sympathizing bushwhacker born in Missouri and raised in Kansas. Anderson planned to destroy railroad infrastructure in Centralia, Missouri. Bloody Bill Anderson. He became a skilled bushwhacker, earning the trust of the group's leaders, William Quantrill and George M. Todd. Assuming, of course, that you're brave enough to get within handgun range of those animals. William Thomas Anderson was born in Randolph County, Missouri in 1837, the exact date and location of his birth, remain uncertain. The Dalton gang, cousins of the Younger brothers and imitators of the James gang, met their end at a bloody dual bank robbery in this Kansas town. [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. On July 30, Anderson and his men kidnapped the elderly father of the local Union militia's commanding officer. As you said, they could have obtained pistols from the local population but remember, the average farmer probably wouldn't have shelled out the $15.00 to buy a sidearm as he was more dependent on a long arm & $15.00 was a fortune. [47] The raiding party was pursued by Union forces but eventually managed to break contact with the soldiers and scatter into the Missouri woods. The Texas Gun Collector article suggested the family had indicated John Shanton owned a farm in Missouri where Frank and Jesse James would hide out. John Wallace (within shouting distance of this marker); Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan (within shouting distance of this marker); Ray County Bicentennial Memorial (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); 1856 Courthouse Cornice Planter (about 300 feet away). William T. Anderson (1840 - October 26, 1864), better known as Bloody Bill, was one of the deadliest and most brutal pro- Confederate guerrilla leaders in the American Civil War. [27], In May 1863, Anderson joined members of Quantrill's Raiders on a foray near Council Grove, Kansas,[27] in which they robbed a store 15 miles (24km) west of the town. Residents resented seizure of supplies and the increasingly harsh measures to control them. In June and July, Anderson took part in several raids that killed Union soldiers, in Westport, Kansas City and Lafayette County, Missouri. The cashier pulled a gun on him and James killed him in self-defence. [155] As the Confederacy collapsed, most of Anderson's men joined Quantrill's forces or traveled to Texas. The trip was not successful and he returned to Missouri without the shipment, saying his horses had disappeared with the cargo. Then I noticed Bloody Bill Anderson and he has a very small existence in Josey Wales. After he returned to Council Grove he began horse trading, taking horses from towns in Kansas, transporting them to Missouri and returning with more horses. Also see . [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. While on public display, a local photographer documented his death. Born in Randolph County, Missouri in 1839, William T. Anderson would, by his death on October 26, 1864, be known and feared throughout the Unionas "Bloody Bill" Anderson, a barbaric, pro-Confederateguerilla leader in the American Civil War. [54] During the winter, Anderson married Bush Smith, a woman from Sherman, Texas. [52] Not satisfied with the number killed, Anderson and Todd wished to attack the fort again, but Quantrill considered another attack too risky. Jesse James. [45] The guerrillas under Anderson's command, notably including Archie Clement and Frank James, killed more than any of the other group. Union troops set his body up for public viewing and photos at the Richmond, Missouri courthouse. Depending on which side you asked, these bushwhackers were either heroes or criminals. Location: Missouri, United States. This would effectively put Bloody Bill on the list of about 450 confederate guerrillas who rode into Lawrence on that fateful day. Powered by Tetra-WebBBS 6.21 / TetraBB PRO 0.30 2006-2012 tetrabb.com. [60][61][62] They told General Cooper that Quantrill was responsible for the death of a Confederate officer; the general had Quantrill arrested. The Death of William Anderson Get A Copy Kindle Unlimited $0.00 Amazon Stores As a general rule, bushwhackers would attack quickly and withdraw if they began receiving serious casualties. Handsome, rugged American leading man John Russell (whose credits are often confused with those of child actor Johnny Russell) attended the University of California, where he was a student athlete. Answer: Coffeyville. For the American Revolutionary War loyalist, see, Anderson's middle name is unknown. [142] Anderson and his men charged the Union forces, killing five or six of them, but turned back under heavy fire. 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. On July 15, 1864 "Bloody Bill" Anderson returned home. [48] After a dead raider was scalped by a Union-allied Lenape Indian during the pursuit, one guerrilla leader pledged to adopt the practice of scalping. [103], Anderson ordered his men not to harass the women on the train, but the guerrillas robbed all of the men, finding over $9,000 (equivalent to $156,000 in 2021) and taking the soldiers' uniforms. Smaller bands avoided fights with larger detachments of Union soldiers, preferring to ambush stragglers or loot Union supporters and their property. 100, in April 1863, set a national policy, outlining guerrillas and their treatment. . William "Bloody Bill" Anderson . . They often used unorthodox tactics to fight Union troops, such as using a small party of horsemen to lure them into an ambush. [107] The guerrillas set the passenger train on fire and derailed an approaching freight train. Maupin, pictured above. Details on John (b. In 1976, the book was adapted into a film, The Outlaw Josey Wales, which portrays a man who joins Anderson's gang after his wife is killed by Union-backed raiders. Many bushwhackers wore a distinctive shirt, such as this one on T.F. 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. Gen. Henry Halleck. The Union troops took his body to Richmond, Mo. Anderson and his men were in the rear of the charge, but gathered a large amount of plunder from the dead soldiers, irritating some guerrillas from the front line of the charge. Burial. Longley's Bloody Bill Anderson Mystery Group on July 13, 2009: " Francis M Richardson was a carpenter as shown in the 1860 Grayson County Texas Census. The Missouri act was an offshoot of the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act instituted by Confederate President Jefferson Davis in April 1862. Wood describes him as the "bloodiest man in America's deadliest war"[164] and characterizes him as the clearest example of the war's "dehumanizing influence". The Missouri Partisan Ranger Act , On July 17, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas Hindman issued the Missouri Partisan Ranger Act. Add to your list and mine, Bloody Bill Anderson for he was a ruthless, vicious killer. declared martial law in August 1861, giving Union forces broad powers to suppress those who resisted Union control. While on public display, a local photographer documented his death. Although some men begged him to spare them, he persisted, only relenting when a woman pleaded with him not to torch her house. Relatives of William T. Anderson , known as "Bloody Bill". As a general rule, bushwhackers would attack quickly and withdraw if. ; Battle of Albany Civil War Marker near Orrick, Mo. They drew the Union troops to the top of a hill; a group of guerrillas led by Anderson had been stationed at the bottom and other guerrillas hid nearby. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman was the head of the Confederate Army's Trans Mississippi Department in Little Rock, Ark. [2] His siblings were Jim, Ellis, Mary Ellen, Josephine and Janie. At least 40 members of the 17th Illinois Cavalry and the Missouri State Militia were in town and took shelter in a fort. His gun changed a few times, semi, handgun, revolver . Not long after her driver left to find help, three rambunctious New Jersey cavalrymen, all white, approached Brooks, demanding her money. The .500 Bushwhacker is the biggest, baddest handgun cartridge in the world right now. [81], On July 23, 1864, Anderson led 65 men to Renick, Missouri, robbing stores and tearing down telegraph wires on the way. The guerrillas, however, quickly learned the signals, and local citizens became wary of Union troops, fearing that they were disguised guerrillas. This is his story. After hearing of the engagement, General Fisk commanded a colonel to lead a party with the sole aim of killing Anderson. [58], A short time later, one of Anderson's men was accused of stealing from one of Quantrill's men. The residents of Lawrence, Kansas, would never forget what happened on August 21, 1863, if indeed they were lucky enough to survive. I will have to go through my library to see what I can find. He was quite fast with a pair of Colt Dragoons, but he killed Wilson Anderson with a shotgun loaded with birdshot. [38], Although Quantrill had considered the idea of a raid on the pro-Union stronghold that was the town of Lawrence, Kansas before the building collapsed in Kansas City, the deaths convinced the guerrillas to make a bold strike. One way he sought to prove that loyalty was by severing his ties with Anderson's sister Mary, his former lover. In September 1864, Anderson led a raid on the town of Centralia, Missouri. ; and Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville, Mo. I do not claim to be an expert on guerrilla warfare in Missouri but am a student of the war in general. 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. [23] They also attacked Union soldiers, killing seven by early 1863. Please note that we are about 6-7 months in backorder and the wait is worth it. Your choice of white or . [82] In late July, the Union military sent a force of 100 well-equipped soldiers and 650 other men after Anderson. 4. The Fate of the Bushwhackers After the attack, one of Anderson's guerrillas scalped a dead militiaman. Quantrill and other guerrillas nonetheless sought and sometimes received formal Confederate commissions as partisan rangers. Union troops used horses to drag Anderson's body through the streets around the Ray County Courthouse. He worked with his brother Jim, their friend Lee Griffith and several accomplices strung along the Santa Fe Trail. [13], Upon his return to Kansas, Anderson continued horse trafficking, but ranchers in the area soon became aware of his operations. Bloody Bill Anderson "Bill Anderson!" William Clarke Quantrill commands. [55] Anderson ignored Quantrill's request to wait until after the war and a dispute erupted, which resulted in Anderson separating his men from Quantrill's band. . In July of 1864 Anderson moved his operations to Carroll and Randolph Counties. The Gun manufacturers did not provide extra cylinders for each firearm sold. Local citizens demanded possession of the corpse. Usually a wife, sister, mother or sweetheart used ribbons, shells and needlework to create the ellaborately [sic] decorated shirts. [148] Union soldiers buried Anderson's body in a field near Richmond in a fairly well-built coffin. [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. Union leaders branded bushwhackers as outlaws, issuing multiple orders to suppress guerilla activities. This may help as far as relatives of Bloody Bill Anderson,who was William T.Anderson born 1839,son of William Anderson and Martha Thomasson. The guerrillas were only able to shoot the Union horses before reinforcements arrived; three of Anderson's men were killed in the confrontation. 1. . Stories about Anderson's brutality during the War were legion. [138] Local residents gathered $5,000, which they gave to Anderson; he then released the man, who died of his injuries in 1866. The act sanctioned guerrilla activities against the Union army while attempting to gain some measure of control over the guerrillas. In early 1863 he joined Quantrill's Raiders, a group of Confederate guerrillas which operated along the KansasMissouri border. [143] The victory made a hero of Cox and led to his promotion. TII Armory's James Tow says it's powerful enough to ethically take any game animal on the planet, including all the African Big 5. The younger Anderson buried his father[17] and was subsequently arrested for assisting Griffith. so there couldn't have been that many to obtain from citizens. [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. A stagecoach soon arrived, and Anderson's men robbed the passengers, including Congressman James S. Rollins and a plainclothes sheriff. 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. . (. [Photo captions, clockwise from top left, read] They had hoped to attack a train, but its conductor learned of their presence and turned back before reaching the town. Forces of Change and the Enduring Ozark Frontier: The Civil War. Desperate to put a stop to Anderson's bloodshed, the Union Army eventually raised a small militia to hunt him down. Biographer Larry Wood claimed that Anderson's sisters aided the guerrillas by gathering information inside Union-controlled territory. [77][78] His fearsome reputation gave a fillip to his recruiting efforts. 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. View character biography, pictures and memorable quotes. [50] Shortly after the initial assault, a larger group of Union troops approached Fort Blair, unaware the fort had been attacked and that the men they saw outside the fort dressed in Union uniforms were actually disguised guerrillas. Dec 28, 2022. Their families and other local Confederate sympathizers supplied them with shelter, food, medical care and tactical information about Union activities. [152] In 1967, a memorial stone was placed at the grave. Bushwhacker activities in Missouri increased as a response to Federal occupation and increasingly brutal attacks and raids by Kansas soldiers, or jayhawkers. 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. [162] He also appears as a character in several films about Jesse James. [89] In mid-September, Union soldiers ambushed two of Anderson's parties traveling through Howard County, killing five men in one day. The U.S. Government provided a veteran's tombstone for Anderson's grave in 1967. 1840-1864. One of the leading authorities on the Civil War in the western theater, Albert Edward Castel earned his B.A. [163], Historians have been mixed in their appraisal of Anderson. James Jay Carafano. [19] Baker and his brother-in-law brought the man to a store, where they were ambushed by the Anderson brothers. Missouri's southern sympathizers hated Union Brig. [6] Kansas was at the time embroiled in an ideological conflict regarding its admission to the Union as slave or free, and both pro-slavery activists and abolitionists had moved there in attempts to influence its ultimate status. It is possible that Jim Anderson might have married Bloody Bill's widow IF the 22 August 1866 marriage of J. M. Anderson and Malinda Anderson was the marriage of James Madison Anderson and Malinda Bush Smith. [23], Missouri had a large Union presence throughout the Civil War, but was also inhabited by many civilians whose sympathies lay with the Confederacy. The two were prominent Unionists and hid their identities from the guerrillas. [165] Castel and Goodrich view Anderson as one of the war's most savage and bitter combatants, but they also argue that the war made savages of many others. After a brief gunfight, Baker and his brother-in-law fled into the store's basement. On the western Missouri border, especially, much of the hardships experienced by these families could be traced to the violence of the 1850s Kansas Missouri Border War. [24] Confederate General Sterling Price failed to gain control of Missouri in his 1861 offensive and retreated into Arkansas, leaving only partisan rangers and local guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" to challenge Union dominance. In addition, it is included in the Missouri - A State Divided: The Civil War in Missouri series list. After the war, several guerrillas, such as Frank and Jesse James, continued their violent behaviors, becoming infamous outlaws. A low-level conflict had already been raging in the Missouri-Kansas borderlands in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War. A lack of Confederate military presence in Missouri led Southern sympathizers to form guerrilla groups to harass Union soldiers and pro-Union citizens. The argument is not that some of the members carried multiple sidearms but certainly not every member did. [75] Many militia members had been conscripted and lacked the guerrillas' boldness and resolve. There is a new generation of Westerns, typified by the work of writer/actor/producer Taylor Sheridan in the prequel to his hit show Yellowstone (2018), titled 1883 (2022). Fueling this conflict was a dispute over whether Kansas should be a slave-holding state or not. My 1888 Luscomb #b. Anderson's bushwhacking marked him as a dangerous man and eventually led the Union to imprison his sisters. William "Bloody Bill" Anderson A sociopath who lived for spilling blood, William Anderson was one of the most fearsome leaders of Confederate guerrillas in Civil War Missouri. A wide-brimmed slouch hat was the headgear of choice. There he met Baker, who temporarily placated him by providing a lawyer. A Note on Sources [1] There he robbed travelers and killed several Union soldiers. It was Anderson's greatest victory, surpassing Lawrence and Baxter Springs in brutality and the number of casualties. Touch for map. Anderson led a band that targeted Union loyalists and Federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas. [9][d] On June 28, 1860, William's mother, Martha Anderson, died after being struck by lightning. Only advantage would have been if you were behind a barrier, in a gun battle. [157], After the war, information about Anderson initially spread through memoirs of Civil War combatants and works by amateur historians. Again, everyone can have an opinion about that statement. "Bloody Bill" redirects here. 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 From famous outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James to lawmen like Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok to trailblazing pioneers and frontiersmen, this podcast tells the true stories of the real-life characters who shaped this iconic period in American history. Often group sizes fluctuated as they came together for larger raids and then broke apart after the raid. [143] Only Anderson and one other man, the son of a Confederate general, continued to charge after the others had retreated. [50], They departed earlier in the year than they had planned, owing to increased Union pressure. A lot of the federal troops in Missouri were Infantry & only the officer's would have pistols. 2. [108] Anderson's band then rode back to their camp, taking a large amount of looted goods. Born in Kentucky in 1839 before moving to Missouri and eventually living in Kansas when the Civil War started, Bill Anderson soon earned the nom de plume "Bloody Bill." An unusual event made a guerrilla out of William Anderson. Death 27 Oct 1864 (aged 24-25) Albany, Ray County, Missouri, USA. NPS Ozark Historic Research Study (Submitted on October 1, 2020, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. They found the guerrillas' horses decorated with the scalps of Union soldiers. Bloody Bill Anderson got little respect in death. Cole Younger, 1913, The Federal command in St. Louis, Mo. Carrying multiple loaded guns gave them an edge against soldiers equipped with a single-shot, muzzle-loading musket. [127] Although many of them wished to execute this Union hostage, Anderson refused to allow it. [12] In late 1861, Anderson traveled south with Jim and Judge Baker in an apparent attempt to join the Confederate Army. The Man Who Killed Quantrill.

Illinois Photo Enforcement Speed Ticket, Bristol University Exam Dates, Do Bananas Weigh More When Frozen, What Is Operational Approach Army, Hillsborough County Summer Camp 2022, Articles B