Bloody Bill Anderson by Albert E. Castel

Nowhere was the Civil War as savage as it was in Missouri - and nowhere did it produce a killer more savage than William Anderson.

Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 2003.This book talks about the short, savage life of a civil war guerrilla. The Civil War Story of Bloody Bill Anderson. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1998. Bloody Bill Anderson: The Short, Savage Life of a Civil War Guerrilla. Bill Anderson in Command.” Columbia Missouri Statesman. “ The Other Anderson: Bloody Bill’s Brother Jim.” v. Articles in the Missouri Historical Review The Society’s call numbers follow the citations in brackets. “Bloody Bill” Anderson in the research centers of The State Historical Society of Missouri. The following is a selected list of books, articles, and manuscripts about William T. He continues to be regarded as one of the most brutal Civil War guerillas.

After his photograph was taken, Anderson was decapitated by militia officers. His body was placed in a wagon and transported to Richmond, Missouri. On October 26, 1864, Anderson was killed by the Missouri State Militia who had found his camp near Albany, Missouri, in Ray County. Anderson was the most feared and vicious bushwhacker in Missouri, especially after he ordered and conducted the massacre of Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri, on September 27, 1864. Bushwhackers were bands of soldiers that did not belong to an organized military force. He joined forces with fellow bushwhacker William Clarke Quantrill and tortured and terrorized people in Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. This event further fueled Anderson’s hostility towards all Union soldiers.Īnderson then conducted one brutal raid after another. One sister died and the other was crippled when the Kansas City building they were imprisoned in collapsed. Then two of his sisters were imprisoned by order of Union commander General Thomas Ewing because they were suspected of being guerrilla supporters. After Anderson’s father was killed in a confrontation over a horse in 1862, Anderson sought revenge and killed a local judge and his brother-in-law. His father, a hatter with Southern sympathies, moved his family to Kansas where they were met with hostility because they refused to fight against the South. While Anderson claimed Missouri as his native state, it is more likely that he was born in Kentucky around 1838. Even the state of his birth is uncertain. Little is known about Anderson’s early life.

He is considered one of the vilest figures on either side of the war. Anderson’s nickname was “Bloody Bill” because he murdered and butchered Union soldiers and sympathizers during the Civil War. “Bloody Bill” Anderson was a notorious Confederate guerrilla leader with whom Jesse James associated for a brief period during the Civil War.

Bloody Bill Anderson by Albert E. Castel