Bloody Bill Anderson

by Albert Castel

  20. Hamp B. Watts, The Babe of the Company: An Unfolded Leaf from the Forest of Never–to– be–Forgotten Years (Fayette, Mo.: The Democratic–Leader Press, 1913), p. 6; William A. Settle Jr., Jesse James Was His Name (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1966), pp. 20–23, 26–27.

  21. Lexington Weekly Union, January 28, 1865.

  22. Jim Cummins, Jim Cummins’s Book Written by Himself (Denver: Reed Publishing Company, 1903), quoted in Goodrich, Black Flag, p. 137.

  23. 41 OR 1: 689–90.

  24. 41 OR 1: 249–53; Leavenworth Daily Conservative, quoted in LaGrange (Mo.) National American, September 1, 1864; History of Carroll County, pp. 352–53; Settle, Jesse James, p. 27.

  25. 41 OR 2: 795.

  26. Ibid., p. 858.

  27. Ibid., pp. 859–60. Throughout the summer and fall of 1864, Federal military reports and correspondence repeatedly referred to Quantrill as still commanding a large force of bushwhackers and even as being the supreme chieftain of all guerrillas in western Missouri. Many rank-and-file bushwhackers were themselves unaware of his true status.

  28. 41 OR 1: 300; ibid, 2: 880–81; Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 16, 1864; Watts, Babe of the Company, pp. 11–12.

  29. 41 OR 3: 8–9; Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 16, 1864; Gallatin North Missourian, September 22, 1864.

  30. Jefferson City State Times, September 10, 1864.

  31. Watts, Babe of the Company, p. 17.

  32. 41 OR 3: 194; J. Thomas Fyfer, History of Boone County, Missouri (St. Louis: Western Historical Company, 1882), pp. 437–39.

  33. Watts, Babe of the Company, p. 17.

  34. 41 OR 1: 415, 432–33; ibid., 3: 348–49.

  35. Watts, Babe of the Company, p. 18; Frank Smith Manuscript Notes and Extracts, pp. 124–26; William E. Connelley, Quantrill and the Border Wars (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1910), pp. 452–53.

  36. Watts, Babe of the Company, pp. 21–22. Quantrill did not participate in the attack but at least one of the few men who accompanied him did, that being Jim Little, who was badly wounded. Quantrill returned to his hideout in the Perche Hills immediately after the fight, taking Little with him. Most of the bushwhackers never saw him again. See Castel, Quantrill, pp. 186–87.

  Chapter Five: There are Guerrillas There

  1. Unless indicated otherwise in a note, all the descriptions appearing in the text of Goodman’s experiences, observations, and thoughts are derived from Thomas M. Goodman, “A Thrilling Record” (Des Moines, Iowa: Mills & Company Steam Book & Job Printing House, 1868; Facsimile Edition, with Introduction, Notes, and Appendix by Thomas R. Hooper, Marysville, Missouri: Rush Printing Company, 1960). This small book (fifty-eight pages of text) was written by Goodman with the assistance of “Captain Harry A. Houston,” who “edited and prepared” Goodman’s account.

  2. Frederick H. Dyer, comp., A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, Iowa: The Dyer Publishing Company, 1908), pp. 1320, 1332; 38 OR 1: 127, 136; Albert Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992), p. 502.

  3. Photocopies of Goodman’s Mexican War service record and of his discharge from the Union army, National Archives; U.S. Census, 1860, Hawleyville, Page County, Iowa; Letters from Betty M. Pierce and Lorlei K. Metke to Thomas Goodrich, 1983– 1992.

  4. Thomas P. Lowry, The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1994), p. 77.

  5. U.S. Census, 1850, Hardin County, Kentucky; U.S. Census, 1860, Hawleyville, Page County, Iowa; photocopy of Goodman’s discharge; letters from Betty M. Pierce, Lorlei K. Metke, and Thomas R. Hooper to Thomas Goodrich, 1983–1992.

  6. Paris (Mo.) Mercury, September 30, 1864, quoted in The Canton (Mo.) Press, October 6, 1864; 41 OR 1: 443; ibid., 3: 397, 488; Fyfer, History of Boone County, p. 453.

  7. Goodman, Record, pp. 17–20.

  8. 41 OR 3: 397; Watts, Babe of the Company, pp. 22–3; Fyfer, History of Boone County, p. 439; Edgar T. Rodemyre, History of Centralia, Missouri (Centralia: Fireside Guard, 1936), pp. 34–5.

  9. Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 24.

  10. Paris (Mo.) Mercury, September 30, 1864, quoted in The Canton (Mo.) Press, October 6, 1864; “Centralia Massacre,” clipping from Sturgeon (Mo.) Leader, August 9, 1895, in Lewis M. Switzler Papers, Western Historical Manuscripts Collection, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. The Paris Mercury account is the only known available contemporary account of Johnston’s movements during the night of September 26–27, 1864, and presumably is based on the testimony of members of his command. The Sturgeon Leader article originally appeared in the Washington (D. C.) National Tribune and evidently was written either by a member of Johnston’s command or by someone who interviewed surviving members.

  11. Johnston’s service record, microfilm, State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri; History of Marion County, Missouri (St. Louis: E. C. Perkins, 1884), pp. 517–18; Louisiana (Mo.) Journal, August 6, 1863; 13 OR: 271–72.

  12. Paris (Mo.) Mercury, September 30, 1864, quoted in The Canton (Mo.) Press, October 6, 1864; “Centralia Massacre” clipping, Switzler Papers.

  13. Possibly the force observed by Johnston consisted of a party of Confederate recruits commanded by Capt. G. W. Bryson of Boone County. The day before, mistaking Anderson’s men for Federals because of the Union uniforms they wore, the recruits had fired some shots at the guerrillas before realizing their mistake. An angry Anderson told them to stay away from his outfit, which they did. This would account for them being to the northeast of Centralia. See Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 439–40.

  14. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts, p. 24; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 24–27.

  15. Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 30, 1864; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 441–43.

  16. C. B. Rollins, ed., “Letters of George Caleb Bingham to James S. Rollins,” Missouri Historical Review 33 (October 1938): 48; Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 30, 1864; Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 27.

  17. Goodman, Record, pp. 19–20.

  18. “Statement of the Conductor of the Train,” St. Louis Missouri Democrat, October 10, 1864. Hereinafter cited as Overall Statement. This statement also appears in Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 56–60.

  19. “Centralia Massacre” clipping, Switzler Papers.

  20. James Clark, various newspaper interviews regarding the Centralia Massacre, newspaper clipping, Centralia Scrapbook, State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Hereinafter cited as Clark Interviews.

  21. Goodman, Record, p. 21.

  22. Clark Interviews.

  23. Overall Statement.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Goodman, Record, p. 21; Overall Statement; Clark Interviews.

  Chapter Six: You All are to Be Killed

  1. Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 30, 1864; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 26–27, Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 443–45, 447; Rollins, ed., “Letters of Bingham,” p. 48, note 8. This last source refers to Rollins’s hiding place as “Nancy’s room,” which would seem to indicate that it was the hotel maid’s room.

  2. Goodman, Record, pp. 21–22; Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 28.

  3. Clark Interviews.

  4. Goodman, Record, pp. 21–22; Clark Interviews; St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 30, 1864; Fyfer, History of Boone County, 439–46; Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 29.

  5. Goodman, Record, p. 22.

  6. Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 30, 1864; Fyfer, History of Boone County, p. 446.

  7. Goodman, Record, pp. 22–24; Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 30, 1864; St. Joseph Morning Herald, September 30, October 2, 1864; Kansas City Daily Journal, October 4, 1864; Atchison Freedom’s Champion, September 29, 1864, quoted in Manhattan (Kans.) Independent, October 3, 1864; J. F. Benjamin to John Paddock, September 30, 1864, John and Diana Benjamin Letters, State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri; Fyfer, History of Boone County, p. 44
3; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 29–31.

  8. Goodman, Record, p. 24; St. Joseph Morning Herald, September 30, 1864; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 448–49.

  9. Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 450–51. According to this account, which presents no source but was probably based on the testimony of one or more residents of Centralia, the bushwhacker Peyton Long persuaded Anderson not to search for Rollins, saying, “You can get another man just as good as he is, without half the trouble.” Though plausible, this story lacks an authentic ring.

  10. Clark Interviews; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 449–51; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 31–32.

  11. Goodman, Record, p. 27.

  12. Clark Interviews; St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 30, 1864.

  13. Ibid.; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 449–52. Rollins had been captured by guerrillas during the summer of 1863 but was released unharmed. Perhaps the bushwhackers feared that taking a United States congressman prisoner and killing him would lead to harsh Federal reprisals against their families and prominent Confederate sympathizers. See James Madison Wood Jr., “James Sidney Rollins: Civil War Congressman from Missouri” (master’s thesis, University of Missouri, 1947), p. 109.

  Chapter Seven: The Lord Have Mercy

  1. Goodman, Record, pp. 28–31.

  2. St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican, September 30, 1864; “Centralia Massacre” clipping, Switzler Papers: Fyfer, History of Boone County, p. 452; Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 35. According to a letter in the Louisiana (Mo.) Journal, October 8, 1864, that purports to report an interview with a member of Johnston’s command who went to Centralia, Johnston’s force first went to Sturgeon, where at noon it saw smoke arising from the area around Centralia and so marched there. This seems to be very compelling evidence that Johnston went to Centralia by way of Sturgeon, and it also would help explain why it took him so long to reach Centralia, which is only about twenty miles from Paris. All the other sources, however, both primary and those based on the testimony of participants and eyewitnesses, state that Johnston marched directly to Centralia; several of them also say that he entered Centralia from the east; and, finally and most conclusively, neither Clark nor anyone else who accompanied him to Sturgeon during the early afternoon mentions meeting or seeing Johnston’s force while they were on the way to Sturgeon, something they surely would have done, especially since Johnston would have gone to Centralia from Sturgeon by way of the wagon road that paralleled the railroad. Either the writer of the Louisiana Journal letter misunderstood or misreported what the member of Johnston’s command told him, or else that member garbled his account or for some reason lied.

  3. Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 453–56; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 35–36; “Centralia Massacre”clipping, Switzler Papers.

  4. Why he found this astonishing cannot be explained. Presumably he could see that the Federals were infantry equipped with rifles. The Enfield rifles carried by Johnston’s men were close to four and a half feet long. To reload one after discharging its single shot, a soldier had to tear open a paper cartridge with his teeth, pour black powder down the barrel, press a lead bullet down into the muzzle with his thumb, withdraw an iron ramrod from beneath the barrel and use it to press the bullet down the barrel onto the powder, remove and replace the ramrod, pull back the hammer to half cock, extract a metal cap filled with fulminate of mercury from a pouch attached to his belt, afix it to a nipple, full cock the hammer, and then—and not until then—would his weapon be ready to be fired again. To do all of these things rapidly and correctly while on a plunging, rearing, frightened horse in the middle of battle bordered on the impossible. And even if done, it was just as difficult to aim and fire the rifle accurately. The only way Johnston’s troops could hope to repel the forthcoming guerrilla onslaught was to fight on foot.

  Moreover, they were not necessarily at a disadvantage. Soldiers on foot possessed far greater killing power than those on horseback, so much so that Civil War cavalry as often as not fought on foot, employing carbines. Indeed, most Confederate troopers in the West, notably Nathan Bedford Forrest’s “critter company,” dispensed with sabers altogether and went into battle on foot and with long-barreled Enfields. By the same token, veteran infantry in both armies asked for nothing better than a chance to take on a mounted cavalry charge. Given time to fire their three shots a minute from the protection of either a natural obstacle (such as a thick hedge) or a man-made one (a stout rail fence would do), they could empty so many saddles that the surviving assailants would literally turn tail before they got close enough to use their pistols, much less slash anybody with a saber. Only if attacked at close range and while in the open, or from the flank and rear, did foot soldiers need to fear horse soldiers. This rarely happened, and a good, experienced commander would make sure not to let it happen.

  5. 41 OR 1: 309, 417, 440–41; ibid., 3: 521; Goodman, Record, pp. 31–32, Frank Smith Manuscript Notes and Extracts, pp. 127, 130; Paris (Mo.) Mercury, September 30, 1864, quoted in The Canton (Mo.) Press, October 6, 1864; Columbia Missouri Statesman, September 30, 1864; St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, September 29, September 30, October 4, 1864; Kansas City Weekly Journal, October 1, October 8, 1864; Liberty Tribune, September 30, 1864; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 457–58; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 36–38; Howard C. Conrad, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri (4 vols.; New York, Louisville, and St. Louis: The Southern History Company, 1901), 1: 555. Frank James, in an interview published in the Columbia Missouri Herald, September 24, 1897, asserted that his brother, Jesse, shot and killed Johnston. Given the circumstances, not only was it unlikely that anyone could have seen who shot whom at Centralia, there is reason to doubt that Jesse was even at Centralia. (See interview with Morgan T. Mattox, June 30, 1864, and William H. Gregg to William E. Connelley, in William E. Connelley Collection, Box 1, Kansas Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.) Frank James was not a reliable source, especially when relating anything having to do with himself and Jesse.

  6. Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 459–61; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 38–40.

  7. Frank James Interview, Columbia Missouri Herald, September 24, 1897; Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 40.

  8. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Draper, 41 OR 1: 440; Goodman, Record, p. 33. Only four of Johnston’s men who took part in the battle on the ridge were not killed, and two of them were mortally wounded. 41 OR 3: 552.

  9. John McCorkle, Three Years with Quantrill (written by O. S. Barton and first published in 1914; reprint with notes by Albert Castel and commentary by Herman Hattaway, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), pp. 163–65, and Frank Smith Manuscript Notes and Extracts, pp. 129–31, claims that George Todd planned and commanded the guerrilla ambush at Centralia; Rodemyre, Centralia, p. 36, states that George Todd and John Thrailkill were in command but also (p. 24) that Quantrill was present and played an influential role; and W. C. Todd, a bushwhacker who evidently was a relative of Tom Todd, claims that George Todd was in charge in a publication titled Civil War in Missouri: The Centralia Fight (n.p., n.d., copy of file at State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri), pp. 9–10. McCorkle, Three Years with Quantrill, p. 163, also asserts that George Todd disapproved of the slaughter of the Union troops in Centralia and “severely reprimanded Anderson for doing it.” Given the murders and massacres perpetrated by George Todd and bushwhackers serving under him (cf. Baxter Springs), this is highly unlikely. In any case, Anderson received the credit (so to speak) for Centralia from the Federals, as witness the report of Lt. W. T. Clarke, aide-de-camp to Fisk, who, after investigating the Centralia massacres, notified Fisk on September 30, 1864, that “Anderson was in command; Todd was second.” 41 OR 3: 521.

  10. Clark Interviews.

  11. 41 OR 1: 443; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 463–64.

  12. Goodman, Record, p. 34; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 461–64; Rodemyre, Centralia, pp. 60–68.

  13. Goodm
an, Record, pp. 34–35

  Chapter Eight: Reserved

  1. This chapter is, for obvious reasons, based on Goodman’s account as presented in his Thrilling Record. It has here and there been supplemented by an interview he gave to the St. Joseph Herald-Tribune that appeared in the October 14, 1864, issue of that paper and was reprinted on pages 59–61 of the 1960 facsimile edition of his Thrilling Record.

  2. St. Louis Tri-Weekly Republican, September 30, 1864; Fyfer, History of Boone County, pp. 465–67.

  3. Along this line, Price’s chief of engineers, Capt. T. J. Mackey, referred to Anderson as a “colonel” when giving testimony at a court of inquiry on Price’s Missouri expedition of 1864. (41 OR 1: 888). However, there is no evidence that either Anderson or Quantrill ever received a Confederate colonel’s commission as partisan rangers.

  4. Ibid., 3: 395–96, 592.

  5. For a full discussion of the tactics used by the bushwhackers, see Albert Castel, “Quantrill’s Bushwhackers: A Case Study in Guerrilla Warfare,” Winning and Losing in the Civil War: Essays and Stories (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), pp. 133–44.

  Chapter Nine: How Do You Like That?

  1. Castel, Price, pp. 200–27.

  2. St. Louis Tri-Weekly Republican, October 28, 1864.

  3. St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, October 27, 1864; St. Louis Tri-Weekly Republican, October 28, 1864; History of Monroe and Shelby Counties, Missouri (St. Louis: National Historical Company, 1884), p. 769.

  4. 41 OR 1: 632, 718, 888; ibid., 3: 893; ibid., 4: 854; Kansas City Weekly Journal, November 12, 1864; St. Louis Tri-Weekly Republican, October 8, October 14, 1864, Castel, Price, pp. 228–29.

  5. Goodman, Record, pp. 56–67.

  6. Ibid., pp. 11, 57.

  7. Walter Williams, ed., A History of Northeast Missouri (2 vols.; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1913), 1: 497; Conrad, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 3: 1260; Lewis to Fisk, August 21, 1864, 41 OR 3: 795.