Bloody Bill Anderson - Raider and Guerrilla
From the Santa Fe Trail to the Civil War - Bill Anderson Was There
Oct 6, 2009 Janelle Gann-Austin
Bill Anderson was a teenager living on Bluff Creek in Kansas in 1862 when his father was murdered. Some accounts say the senior Anderson was killed because of his southern sympathies. An account by Steve Glassman in his book “It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail” says he went to confront Arthur I. Baker. Baker had become engaged to Anderson’s daughter Mary Ellen, and then become engaged to another woman. Glassman’s account says that Anderson stopped in Baker’s store to have a drink before confronting Baker. “While William Sr. was nipping at the jug, a bystander removed the caps from his guns. When the older Anderson then burst into Baker’s home and rampaged up the steps, he was met with a blast of Baker’s own scattergun. He was killed instantly. Bill and Jim (Anderson) fled immediately to Missouri, later sending a man to retrieve their three sisters,” according to Glassman.
Bill and his Brother Jim Return to Missouri
Once back in Missouri, Bill Anderson joined William Quantrill’s guerrilla band. According to civilwarhistory.com, Anderson’s three sisters Josephine, Mary Ellen, and Martha were being held by Union forces in Kansas City. The Union forces were holding female loved ones of those in guerrilla bands in an effort to prevent further guerrilla raids. The building serving as the jail collapsed. Josephine was killed and Mary was maimed. A few days after the collapse, Quantrill’s forces raided and burned Lawrence, Ks. The collapse of the jail was allegedly the reason the group attacked Lawrence.
Anderson Forms his own Guerrilla Band
In 1864, Anderson left Quantrill’s band after they argued, according to millersparanormalresearch.com. Anderson then formed his own band, which included 16-year-old Jesse James. Bill’s March 2, 1864 marriage to Texan Bush Smith did nothing to curb his activities, states millersparanormalresearch.com.
"Bloody Bill" Meets His End, or Does He?
It was on October 27, 2864, in Orrick, Missouri when according the civilwarhistory.com, Anderson’s band of guerrillas was “ambushed by Captain S.P. Cox and his Union troops. Anderson was caught completely unaware and was riddled with bullets then left for dead in his saddle. His loyal followers put up a fight to try and recover Anderson’s corpse, but they were driven back by superior firepower.”
The account goes on to state that “Anderson’s body was taken to Richmond, Missouri where it was propped up in a chair and a pistol was placed in the dead man’s hand then photographs were taken. A short while later, the Union troopers, full of loathing for the dead man, decapitated Anderson and impaled his head on a telegraph pole at the entrance to the town as a signature to all that the infamous killer was indeed dead. Anderson’s torso was roped and tied to a horse then dragged along the streets of Richmond before being dumped in an unmarked grave outside of town.” So was the end of Bloody Bill Anderson. Or was it? Two accounts state that not Anderson, but a man resembling him was killed in Orrick. One story is that he escaped to Erin Springs, Oklahoma and ran a saloon. Another story is that he settled in Salt Creek, Texas under an assumed name. According to civilwarhistory.com, “…a man resembling Anderson died on November 2, 1927 in Salt Creek, and on the bedside table was a photograph of three young women – later identified as Anderson’s sisters.”
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