He worked with his brother Jim, their friend Lee Griffith and several accomplices strung along the Santa Fe Trail. 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. Baker, a local judge who was a Confederate sympathizer. In June and July, Anderson took part in several raids that killed Union soldiers, in Westport, Kansas City and Lafayette County, Missouri. [91], Anderson met Todd and Quantrill on September 24, 1864; although they had clashed in the past, they agreed to work together again. Bloody Bill dead. While they rested at the house, a group of local men attacked. From Donald Hale's book " They call him Bloody Bill" it stated that Cox had sent a Lt. Baker to act as bait to lure Bill & his troops into an ambush. Union leaders branded bushwhackers as outlaws, issuing multiple orders to suppress guerilla activities. Actor: Rio Bravo. Anderson participated in Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863. Fueling this conflict was a dispute over whether Kansas should be a slave-holding state or not. [57] Quantrill appointed him a first lieutenant, subordinate only to himself and to Todd. [5] The Anderson family supported slavery, though they did not own slaves. As soon as the company attains the strength required by law it will proceed to elect the other officers to which it is entitled. While on public display, a local photographer documented his death. [133] The group then traveled west, disregarding the mission assigned by General Price[134] in favor of looting. . III. Anderson suggested that they attack Fayette, Missouri, targeting the 9th Missouri Cavalry, which was based at the town. The defeat resulted in the deaths of five guerrillas but only two Union soldiers, further maddening Anderson. Cartridge belts standard with up to 18 bullet loops in your [] [26] In early 1863, William and Jim Anderson traveled to Jackson County, Missouri, to join him. There are other examples as well, such as . Local citizens demanded possession of the corpse. [143] Only Anderson and one other man, the son of a Confederate general, continued to charge after the others had retreated. [136][137] Anderson indicated that he was particularly angry that the man had freed his slaves, then trampled him with a specially trained horse. Burial. ; Battle of Albany Civil War Marker near Orrick, Mo. More lies and sensationalized stories have been told of William T. Anderson than any other Civil War Border War guerrilla except those of William Clarke Quantrill himself. declared martial law in August 1861, giving Union forces broad powers to suppress those who resisted Union control. An unusual event made a guerrilla out of William Anderson. A wide-brimmed slouch hat was the headgear of choice. Depending on which side you asked, these bushwhackers were either heroes or criminals. [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 this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. After a building collapse in the makeshift jail in Kansas City, Missouri, left one of them dead in custody and the other permanently maimed, Anderson devoted himself to revenge. [18], On July 2, 1862, William and Jim Anderson returned to Council Grove and sent an accomplice to Baker's house claiming to be a traveler seeking supplies. Anderson and his men camped with at least 300 men, including Todd. In July of 1864 Anderson moved his operations to Carroll and Randolph Counties. [122] In the aftermath of the massacre, Union soldiers committed several revenge killings of Confederate-sympathizing civilians. The order was intended to undermine the guerrillas' support network in Missouri. They also targeted strategically important infrastructure like bridges, telegraph lines and railroads. 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 . There were those that came & went and the largest number had to have been the raid on Lawrence. Anderson and Todd launched an unsuccessful attack against the fort, leading charge after futile charge without injury. Quantrill and other guerrillas nonetheless sought and sometimes received formal Confederate commissions as partisan rangers. The Fate of the Bushwhackers
Bloody Bill Anderson. . Local citizens demanded possession of the corpse. NPS Ozark Historic Research Study (Submitted on October 1, 2020, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. They claimed to be fighting for the Confederacy, but in fact, their murdering and looting benefited only their pocketbooks. [155] As the Confederacy collapsed, most of Anderson's men joined Quantrill's forces or traveled to Texas. The most infamous order came in response to a brutal guerilla attack on Lawrence, Kan. On July 17, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas Hindman issued the Missouri Partisan Ranger Act. A low-level conflict had already been raging in the Missouri-Kansas borderlands in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War. [15] The Anderson brothers escaped, but Baker was captured and spent four months in prison before returning to Kansas, professing loyalty to the Union. [45] The guerrillas under Anderson's command, notably including Archie Clement and Frank James, killed more than any of the other group. 1:27. En route, they entered Baxter Springs, Kansas, the site of Fort Blair. [104] Anderson forced the captured Union soldiers to form a line and announced that he would keep one for a prisoner exchange but would execute the rest. Anderson led a band that targeted Union loyalists and Federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas. Anderson's horse, saddle & 2 pistols were presented later to a general. (, Although Wood states that Baker's group sought to join the Confederate army, Castel and Goodrich write that the group planned to conduct ", In his 2003 history of Civil War Missouri, Bruce Nichols stated that Reed led the gang until mid-July 1863. [156] Jim Anderson moved to Sherman, Texas, with his two sisters. [13] Anderson had told a neighbor that he sought to fight for financial reasons rather than out of loyalty to the Confederacy. After a brief gunfight, Baker and his brother-in-law fled into the store's basement. . They had hoped to attack a train, but its conductor learned of their presence and turned back before reaching the town. If they were caught, Federals considered them criminals not prisoners of war. [152] In 1967, a memorial stone was placed at the grave. A wide-brimmed slouch hat was the headgear of choice. He protested the execution of guerrillas and their sympathizers, and threatened to attack Lexington, Missouri. Anderson led a band that targeted Union loyalists and Federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas. [140][139] He left the area with 150 men. The act sanctioned guerrilla activities against the Union army while attempting to gain some measure of control over the guerrillas. Wood believes that these stories are inaccurate, citing a lack of documentary evidence. Anderson, perhaps falsely, implicated Quantrill in a murder, leading to the latter's arrest by Confederate authorities. [141] On October 26, 1864, he pursued Anderson's group with 150 men and engaged them in a battle called the Skirmish at Albany, Missouri. General Orders No. Similarly, Jesse James' brother Frank became . Touch for map. Gen. Henry Halleck. Please note that we are about 6-7 months in backorder and the wait is worth it. 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. Bloody Bill Anderson - Lies and Sensationalism. USA. Usually a wife, sister, mother or sweetheart used ribbons, shells and needlework to create the ellaborately [sic] decorated shirts. [68] The letters were given to Union generals and were not published for 20 years. [12] In late 1861, Anderson traveled south with Jim and Judge Baker in an apparent attempt to join the Confederate Army. Two hesitated coming down the steps. After camping near New Hope Church in Fort Henry about. A significant historical year for this entry is 1913. [157], After the war, information about Anderson initially spread through memoirs of Civil War combatants and works by amateur historians. The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board - Archive is maintained by Webmaster [49], Four days after the Lawrence Massacre, on August 25, 1863, General Ewing retaliated against the Confederate guerrillas by issuing General Order No. The rapid rate of fire made the revolver perfect for the quick attacks executed by these men. A State Divided: The Civil War in Missouri. [124] Anderson watched the fire from nearby bluffs. If they were Bill's, he would have had 7 pistols on his person which to me is a little hard to believe. [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. Soon after Anderson left Glasgow, a local woman saw him and told Cox of his presence. Maupin, pictured above. [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. During the American Civil War, the James family sided with the Confederates, and Frank and Jesse James joined a group of guerrillas, or . In one of the passenger cars they found 23 unarmed Union soldiers on furlough and headed home on leave. Etsy Search for items or shops Close search Skip to Content Sign in 0 Cart Gifts for Every Valentine Jewelry & Accessories [4] In 1857, they relocated to the Kansas Territory, traveling southwest on the Santa Fe Trail and settling 13 miles (21km) east of Council Grove. 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. That being said,if you multiply 700 troops times 6 revolvers each, that comes to 4200 pistols. Anderson and his companion "took a negro girl of 12 or 13 years old into . Serving in the US Marine Corps in WW II, he earned a battlefield commission and decorations for valor at Guadalcanal. [132], Anderson traveled 70 miles (110km) east with 80 men to New Florence, Missouri. Eventually, the six-shot revolver became the weapon of choice for the bushwhacker because it was considered better for firing from horseback.