ANDERSON, WILLIAM
Anderson, William
(February 2, 1837–October 27, 1864)
Confederate Guerrilla
“B
loody Bill” Anderson was among
the cruelest and most barbaric
rebels of the Civil War. A leader of
Confederate “Bushwhackers,” his raid on
Centralia, Missouri, was one of the war’s great
atrocities and secured its perpetrator an infa-
mous reputation.
William Anderson was born probably in
Kentucky on February 2, 1837; having lived
briefly in Missouri, his family relocated to a
settlement near Council Grove, Kansas. The
frontier at that time still reeled from the effects
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which al-
lowed territories to join the Union as either a
free state or slave state according to the will of
the inhabitants. This well-intentioned legisla-
tion triggered a wave of hatred and bloodshed
between pro- and antislave factions. Gunfights,
abductions, and murders were commonplace
and contributed to the general sense of law-
lessness. For good measure, the local criminal
element openly partook of these proceedings,
enriching themselves under the guise of the
slavery issue. The ensuing rancor and blood-
shed bequeathed to the territory an uncomely
reputation as “bleeding Kansas.”
Anderson’s father enjoyed something of a
shady reputation, and in March 1862 he was
gunned down in a squabble with a pro-Union
settler. Anderson himself, who had matured
into a tall, handsome young man, also ac-
quired a reputation as a horse thief and
brooked no delay in accelerating his reputa-
tion for banditry. Once the Civil War com-
menced in April 1861, groups of former antag-
onists divided up into two separate camps
based upon their prior political affiliations.
Northern marauders were known as “Jay-
hawkers,” their Southern counterparts “Bush-
whackers.” Both sides were utterly ruthless
toward the other and frequently committed
crimes against innocent civilians, their prop-
erty, and anybody else who got in their way.
Initially, Anderson parleyed his criminal
talents by fighting—and plundering—for the
antislavery forces in Kansas. After his father’s
death he relocated the rest of his family to
western Missouri before changing sides. He
was by now little more than a frontier hooli-
gan, but in 1863 his career and activities took
a spectacular leap into barbarism. The cata-
lyst for Anderson’s behavior was the apparent
arrest of his two sisters on the suspicion that
they were aiding Southern guerrillas. They,
and a number of other women, were kept con-
fined in a dilapidated jail in Kansas City. On
August 13, 1863, the building collapsed, killing
one of Anderson’s sisters and gravely injuring
the other. This accident, which Anderson be-
lieved to be deliberate, intensified his hatred
for Unionists and prompted him to join a
guerrilla band under Capt. William Clarke
Quantrill. By dint of guile and mercilessness,
he eventually rose to become one of Quan-
trill’s leading lieutenants.
On August 21, 1863, Anderson accompanied
Quantrill on his bloody raid against Lawrence,
Kansas. They were accompanied by such fu-
ture outlaw luminaries as Frank James, Cole
Younger, and others. The raiders lined up and
executed nearly 200 men and boys before burn-
ing Lawrence to the ground. Anderson’s initia-
tion in the affair was grim: He later bragged
about killing no less than 14 victims. Six weeks
later Anderson dressed his men in captured
Union clothing. Thus garbed, they lured an un-
suspecting militia patrol into ambush at Baxter
Springs before wiping them out. The raiders
next wintered in Texas, where Anderson was
married and was commissioned a lieutenant by
Quantrill. However, he soon broke with that in-
famous leader over the issue of executing one
of his men for desertion. Anderson then culled
dissident elements together and formed his
own band of marauders. Furthermore, he re-
mained determined to carry on his personal