Bloody Bill Anderson

by Albert Castel

  More than likely Tom Goodman had seen Frank James at Centralia, although of course he would not have known or cared who he was. To him Frank—and for that matter Jesse, supposing he was indeed with Bill Anderson on September 27, 1864—could only have been a face among the bushwhackers who slaughtered his fellow soldiers and who would have done the same to him had it not been for his two guards. Following his escape and return to Hawleyville, the big sergeant succumbed to the physical and psychological ordeal that he had undergone while a prisoner, becoming so ill that he was unable to return to Atlanta before the expiration of his thirty-day leave or before the First Missouri Engineers set forth in mid-November with the rest of Sherman’s army on its March to the Sea. For a while the regiment’s rolls listed him as “killed on the North Missouri R.R.,” then as “absent without leave.” Not until after Sherman reached Savannah late in December did the First Missouri receive word that he was “absent sick in Iowa since Nov. 5, 1864.” And although he recovered his health by early 1865, it was impossible for him to rejoin the regiment while Sherman’s legions spent the winter and spring tramping through the Carolinas, Virginia, and finally on to Washington, D.C., for the grand victory parade. Not until summer did Goodman at long last find himself again with his army comrades, and then only for the purpose of being discharged with them at Louisville on July 22, 1865, and receiving his pay “in full” at St. Louis six days later. Presumably both in travelling to Louisville and then back to Hawleyville he took a North Missouri Railroad train that passed through Centralia.

  Figure E.2 Tom Goodman’s grave.

  COURTESY OF LORLEI K. METKE.

  In Hawleyville he resumed his trade of blacksmith. He also wrote, or rather had written for him by “Captain Harry A. Houston,” his A Thrilling Record, the booklet so often cited and quoted in this work. Published in 1868 by a job printer in Des Moines, it sold for fifty cents (“Liberal discounts made to booksellers”) and could be procured by ordering it directly from Goodman. Probably it achieved only a modest sale, and that confined largely to Iowa and Missouri. In any event it did not make enough money to compensate Goodman for what one must assume was a stagnant, if not dwindling, income from his blacksmith business in what was becoming the moribund village of Hawleyville. So when he heard from two brothers living in California of its nice climate and good opportunities, he decided to go there as well. In 1875 he and his family trekked across the plains and mountains in an ox cart to Sonoma County, where they settled on a ranch near Santa Rosa.

  Again he worked, along with his oldest son, James, as a blacksmith. Evidently he achieved a comfortable, if not affluent, living and became a respected member of the community, as did his sons and his brother George, with the result that an entire section of Santa Rosa became known as “the Goodman Place.” He also joined the local Grand Army of the Republic post and perhaps handed some of his comrades copies of A Thrilling Record or showed them the coat that Bloody Bill Anderson had given him. But all the years of hard work, military service, and the ten days he spent as a captive of the bushwhackers took their toll. Early in February 1886, two weeks shy of his fifty-seventh birthday, Tom Goodman died, according to his death certificate, of “disease of heart.” He was buried in Santa Rosa’s Rural Cemetery. An iron grill fence, constructed by his youngest son, Daniel, also a blacksmith, surrounds the grave site. In 1899 his wife Mary—who had refused to believe he died in 1864—joined him. His headstone, toppled by the great California earthquake of 1906, now rests in a bed of withered oak leaves.29

  Early in November 1864 some Union soldiers rode out to the Richmond cemetery to see where the remains of Bloody Bill Anderson lay. They found his grave decorated by a neat cairn and a bouquet. Outraged, they walked their horses back and forth across the grave, scattering the stones and trampling the flowers into the ground. Then they left, satisfied that it would be a long time before any secesh dared decorate the grave again.30

  Today flowers still appear every so often on the tombstone that now marks the probable site of Anderson’s grave in what since 1875 has been the Mormon cemetery in Richmond. Clearly there are those who see in him a heroic, romantic figure, a man driven by persecution and crimes against his family to wage a ruthless war of revenge until he died in a desperate, perhaps deliberately suicidal, charge.31

  There is some truth in this view of Anderson. But not enough. What he was is revealed both by what he did while alive and the gruesomely fascinating photographs Kice took of him dead. They convey the essential and therefore the most terrible truth of all about Bloody Bill, a truth that should not be ignored, for it applies to the present and the future as well as the past.

  Anderson was not unique. On the contrary, in war and peace, in all times and places, there are beings like him, or who become like him when given the stimulus and the opportunity: Savage.

  In this sense his spirit still lives and will do so until the end of time.

  Figure E.3 Bill Anderson’s grave (note: date of birth should be 1839).

  COURTESY OF DONALD R. HALE.

  Notes

  Preface

  1. George to Brownlee, November 26, 1958. Transcript in possession of author.

  Prologue: This is the Way We Do Business

  1. This account of the fight at Fayette, Missouri, on September 24, 1864, is based on the following sources: War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols. plus atlas; Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1881–1901), Series I, Vol. 1, part 1, pp. 410, 418, 433, 448; part 3, p. 459 (hereinafter cited as OR, with all references from Series I unless otherwise indicated; whenever a volume consists of more than one part, the volume number will appear before the OR and the part following it); S. S. Eaton to Father, September 26, 1864, John Eaton Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; W. H. Schrader, “Reminiscences of the Early History of Brunswick, Missouri,” The Brunswicker (Brunswick, Missouri), September 30, 1982 (reprint of article first published in 1914 or 1915); James M. Jacks, “A Brush with Bushwhackers,” National Tribune, September 29, 1910; Hamp B. Watts, The Babe of the Company (Fayette, Missouri: The Democratic Leader Press, 1913), pp. 18–21, 34; John McCorkle, Three Years with Quantrill (1914; reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), pp. 160–62; St. Louis Missouri Republican, October 3, October 28, 1864; History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri (St. Louis: National Historical Company, 1883), p. 284 (for note accompanying Benton’s scalp); John N. Edwards, Noted Guerrillas, or, The Warfare of the Border (1877; reprint, Dayton, Ohio: Press of the Morningside Bookshop, 1976), pp. 291–92.

  Chapter One: The Last Man You Will Ever See

  1. 41 OR 1:416; Watts, Babe of the Company, p. 21; Edwards, Noted Guerrillas, p. 292.

  2. For the origins and nature of the Civil War in Missouri and along the Kansas–Missouri border, see: Albert Castel, William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times (New York: Frederick Fell, 1962); Thomas Goodrich, Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861–1865 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995); and Richard S. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958).

  3. Castel, Quantrill, p. 184.

  4. Ibid., pp. 110–15.

  5. Richard Cordley, A History of Lawrence, Kansas, from the First Settlement to the End of the Rebellion (Lawrence: Lawrence Journal Press, 1895), quoted in Donald R. Hale, They Called Him Bloody Bill (Clinton, Mo.: The Printery, 1975), p. 2; Liberty (Mo.) Tribune, September 30, 1864.

  6. U.S. Census, 1860: Kansas, Breckenridge County, Agnes City Township; William E. Connelley interviews with Eli Sewell, Charles Strieby, and B. F. Meunkers, July 7, 1910, Box 13, William E. Connelley Collection, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas; William Michael Shimeall, “Arthur Ingrham Baker: Frontier Kansas: (Master’s thesis, Emporia State University, 1978), p. 117. The actual first name of Bill Anderson’s youngest sister was Martha, the same as her mot
her’s, but she was called Janie, presumably because her middle name was Jane.

  7. Connelley interviews with Sewell, Strieby, and Meunkers, Box 13, William E. Connelley Collection, Kansas State Historical Society. The 1860 U.S. Census for Agnes City Township, Breckenridge County, Kansas, lists as a member of the Anderson family Charles, age one year and born in Kansas. In a phone conversation on January 23, 1998, historian Carolyn Bartels of Independence, Missouri, informed author Albert Castel that she knows of living descendants of Ellis Anderson.

  8. Albert Castel, A Frontier State at War: Kansas, 1861–1865 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1958), pp. 214–15.

  9. The account of Baker’s career up to the spring of 1862 is based mainly on Shimeall’s thesis, cited in note 6 for this chapter. It is supplemented by interviews, also previously cited, by Connelley of Sewell, Strieby, and Meunkers, Box 13, William E. Connelley Collection, Kansas State Historical Society. For the 1860–61 drought, see Castel, Frontier State, pp. 14–15.

  10. Connelley interview with Strieby, Box 13, William E. Connelley Collection, Kansas State Historical Society.

  11. Shimeall, “Arthur Baker,” pp. 209, 212–216; Castel, Frontier State, p. 212.

  12. Baker was on friendly terms with the Andersons prior to taking Bill and Jim with him into Missouri and while editor of the Council Grove Press extolled the hospitality to be enjoyed at the Anderson’s home. Shimeall, “Arthur Baker,” pp. 216–17.

  13. The account of the killing of William Anderson Sr. and of the events leading up to and following it is based on these sources: Emporia News, May 17, 1862; Junction City Smoky Hill and Republican Union, May 22, May 29, 1862; Connelley interviews with Sewell, Strieby, and Meunkers; Shimeall, “Arthur Baker,” pp. 217–23.

  14. Some accounts assert that William Clarke Quantrill was a member of Anderson’s party (see for example Ted F. McDaniel, ed., Our Land: A History of Lyon County, Kansas (Emporia: Emporia State Press, 1976), p. 42. As will be seen, not only did Anderson and Quantrill dislike each other, but in early July 1862 Quantrill was personally involved in western Missouri operations designed to assist a Confederate recruiting detachment. See Castel, Quantrill, p. 81.

  15. Connelley interviews with Sewell, Strieby, and Meunkers, Box 13, William E. Connelley Collection, Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka Tribune, July 5, July 12, 1862; Emporia News, July 12, 1862; Shimeall, “Arthur Baker,” pp. 223–27; Randall M. Thiess, “Bloody Bill’s First Murder,” copy of typescript graciously supplied by the author.

  Chapter Two: I’m Here for Revenge

  1. William E. Connelley, Memorandum of Conversation with William H. Gregg, June 14, 1916, Box 1, William E. Connelley Collection, Kansas History Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. Gregg was one of Quantrill’s lieutenants until he left him in the winter of 1863–64 to join the regular Confederate army.

  2. The account of the Yeager raid into Kansas is based on the following sources: Council Grove Press, May 11, 1863; Kansas City Weekly Journal of Commerce, May 16, May 23, 1863; Leavenworth Daily Conservation, May 7, May 30, 1863; Leavenworth Daily Times, August 30, 1863; George Pilson Morehouse, “Diamond Springs, the Diamond of the Plains,” Kansas Historical Collections 15 (1915–18): 799–800; David Hubbard, “Reminiscences of the Yeager Raid, on the Santa Fe Trail, in 1863,” ibid 7 (1903–1904): 169–70.

  3. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 108–110; Castel, Frontier State at War, 112, 208, 215. According to reports in Missouri newspapers, Quantrill’s band used “middle men” to sell in Leavenworth horses and mules acquired on both sides of the border. (Lexington Weekly Union, January 3, 1863, quoting the Liberty Tribune and the Kansas City Weekly Journal of Commerce). Since the Red Legs sold stolen livestock and other plunder in Leavenworth, it is conceivable that they acted as these “middle men.” There may not be honor among thieves, but they will share profits when expedient.

  4. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 110–11, 116–19.

  5. 22 OR 2: 377–78.

  6. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts, pp. 138–39; Kansas City Weekly Journal, May 13, 1865.

  7. Wyandotte Gazette, August 1, 1863; Leavenworth Daily Conservative, August 2, August 4, August 8, 1863; Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, August 6, 1863.

  8. Castel, Quantrill, 118–19.

  9. The best study of the Kansas City prison collapse is Charles F. Harris, “Catalyst of Terror: The Collapse of the Women’s Prison in Kansas City,” Missouri Historical Review 89 (April 1995): 290–306, and the account presented here is based on it.

  10. William H. Gregg Manuscript, p. 90, State Historical Society of Missouri.

  11. St. Louis Missouri Daily Democrat, November 12, 1864.

  12. For Quantrill’s career prior to the Lawrence raid, see Castel, Quantrill, pp. 22–121.

  13. Testimony of William Bullene in John C. Shea, comp., Reminiscences of Quantrill’s Raid upon the City of Lawrence, Kansas (Kansas City, Mo.: Isaac C. Moore, 1879), p. 14.

  14. Ibid. For a full account of the Lawrence raid and massacre, see Thomas Goodrich, Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence Massacre (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1991).

  Chapter Three: Such a Damn Outfit

  1. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 144–49.

  2. Ibid., pp. 150–53; Thomas Goodrich, Black Flag, pp. 107–11.

  3. Castel, Quantrill, p. 167.

  4. Ibid., pp. 156–63.

  5. Ibid., pp. 163–68.

  6. Frank Smith, who joined Quantrill’s band as a young member in 1863, states in his manuscript memoirs that he never heard of Anderson marrying her (Frank Smith Manuscript, Notes and Extracts, Research Files of Albert Castel). On the basis of this, Castel, in Quantrill, p. 164, refers to her as his mistress, but as a result of subsequent research and reflection, he now believes that they were married.

  7. Julia Lovejoy to her family, May 10, 1864, Kansas Historical Quarterly 16 (May 1948): 207–208.

  8. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 168–69.

  9. Reynolds to Quantrill, March 10, 1864, Thomas C. Reynolds Papers, Library of Congress.

  10. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 169–71.

  11. Ibid., 171–72. For additional information (and speculation) concerning Quantrill, Kate King, and Quantrill’s stay in the Perche Hills, see Donald R. Hale, We Rode with Quantrill (Clinton, Mo.: The Printery, 1974), pp. 112–21.

  12. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 175–76; Goodrich, Black Flag, pp. 129–30.

  13. Castel, Quantrill, pp. 176–79.

  14. Quoted in Goodrich, Black Flag, p. 135.

  Chapter Four: Let the Blood Flow

  1. 34 OR 1: 1001–1002; OR 2: Ibid., 76; Kansas City Daily Journal, June 16, 1864; Brownlee, Gray Ghosts, p. 138.

  2. 34 OR 1: 1007–1008; 41 OR 2: 76.

  3. 34 OR 4: 564–65; St. Joseph Morning Herald, July 8, 1864, quoting the Lexington Weekly Union of July 1, 1864.

  4. Carrollton Weekly Democrat, July 8, 1864.

  5. 41 OR 2: 75–77.

  6. History of Carroll County, Missouri (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Company, 1881), pp. 343–45; Carrollton Weekly Democrat, July 22, July 29, 1864.

  7. Huntsville Randolph Citizen, July 15, July 22, 1864, quoted in the Columbia Missouri Statesman, July 22, July 29, 1864; Louisiana (Mo.) Journal, July 23, 1864; Kansas City Star, December 3, 1912, Donald R. Hale, They Called Him Bloody Bill: The Life of William Anderson, Missouri Guerrilla (Clinton, Mo.: The Printery, 1975), pp. 18–22.

  8. 41 OR 2: 367, 490, 496; Kansas City Daily Journal, July 28, 1864; Columbia Missouri Statesman, July 29, 1864.

  9. 41 OR 1: 125; Ibid., OR 2: 367, 394; Columbia Missouri Statesman, August 5, 1864.

  10. 41 OR 2: 421–23; St. Joseph Morning Herald, July 28, August 3, 1864; History of Monroe and Shelby Counties, Missouri (St. Louis: National Historical Company, 1884), pp. 769–71; Hale, Bloody Bill, pp. 23–24. For railroad bridge burning in 1861 by pro-Confederate civilian saboteurs and the consequent inauguration of a no-quarter policy toward guerrillas by Union military authorities
in Missouri, see Brownlee, Gray Ghosts, pp. 23–25.

  11. 41 OR 2: 479; Huntsville Randolph Citizen, quoted in Macon (Mo.) Gazette, August 11, 1864; St. Louis Missouri Democrat, November 11, 1864; History of Carroll County, 348–49.

  12. Macon (Mo.) Gazette, August 11, 1864, quoting Huntsville Randolph Citizen; Carrollton Weekly Democrat, August 5, 12, 1864; History of Carroll County, pp. 350–51.

  13. St. Joseph Morning Herald, August 10, 1864.

  14. Ibid., August 13, 1864.

  15. Ibid., August 10, 1864.

  16. 41 OR 2: 479, 481–82, 506–10. For difficulty of Union forces in obtaining intelligence regarding the guerrillas, see Maj. R. Leonard to Brig. Gen. C. B. Fisk, ibid., pp. 80–81.

  17. Ibid., p. 490. For a revealing description of the condition of Matlack’s command, see ibid., pp. 656–57.

  18. 41 OR 3: 424; Castel, Quantrill, pp. 178, 184.

  19. 41 OR 2: 437–38. For plundering by the Seventeenth Illinois, see Brig. Gen. J. B. Douglass to Fisk, August 31, 1864, ibid., p. 963, in which Douglass states, “As to the Seventeenth Illinois, all reports from them are that they are almost worthless, and we cannot rely on them.” The notion that the Missouri guerrillas tied down large numbers of Union troops who otherwise would have been employed in major campaigns east of the Mississippi is, to put it mildly, greatly exaggerated.