William T. Anderson

William T. Anderson (1839 – October 26, 1864), better known as Bloody Bill, is one of the deadliest and most brutal pro-Confederate guerrilla leaders in the American Civil War.

Anderson leads a band that targets Union loyalists and Federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas.

Raised by a family of Southerners in Kansas, Anderson begins supporting himself by stealing and selling horses in 1862.

After his father is killed by a Union-loyalist judge, Anderson flees Kansas for Missouri.

There, he robs travelers and kills several Union soldiers.

In early 1863, Anderson joins Quantrill's Raiders, a pro-Confederate group of guerrillas that operates in Missouri.

He becomes skilled at guerrilla warfare, earning the trust of the group's leaders, William Quantrill and George M. Todd.

Anderson's acts as a guerrilla lead the Union to imprison his sisters; after one of them dies in custody, Anderson devotes himself to revenge.

He takes a leading role in the Lawrence Massacre, and later participates in the Battle of Fort Blair.

In late 1863, while Quantrill's Raiders spend the winter in Texas, animosity develops between Anderson and Quantrill.

Anderson, perhaps falsely, implicates Quantrill in a murder, leading to the latter's arrest by Confederate authorities.

Anderson subsequently returns to Missouri as the leader of a group of raiders and becomes the most feared guerrilla in the state, killing and robbing dozens of Union soldiers and civilian sympathizers throughout central Missouri.

Although Union supporters view him as incorrigibly evil, Confederate sympathizers in Missouri see his actions as justified, possibly owing to their mistreatment by Union forces.

In September 1864, he leads a raid on Centralia, Missouri.

Unexpectedly, they are able to capture a passenger train, the first time Confederate guerrillas have done so.

In what becomes known as the Centralia Massacre, possibly the war's deadliest and most brutal guerrilla action, his men kill 24 Union soldiers on the train and set an ambush later that day that kills more than 100 Union militiamen.

A month later, Anderson is killed in battle.

Historians have made disparate appraisals of Anderson: some see him as a sadistic, psychopathic killer, but for others, his actions can not be separated from the general lawlessness of the time.

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