Bloody Bill Anderson - C S A - Civil War Poster

William T. Anderson was born 1839 and died during the end of the Civil War in 1864. He was a Confederate States guerrilla and earned a reputation as Butcher Bill operating out of Kansas and Missouri States. He started out with the infamous Quantrill's Raiders in Texas, but later branched out on his own. His father was killed by a Union-loyalist Judge and one of his sisters died while in Union custody. It was this event, some say, which launched him on a bloody vendetta of revenge. He sought out Union troops and sympathizers and made sure their deaths were slow, torturous, and painful. There are several events during the Civil War that marked him as a brutal and unhinged psychopath. Some say he earned the reputation as a psychopathic killer, but others say it is not so easy to define his actions during such a lawless and chaotic time. And, there were many in Kansas and Missouri who praised his efforts because of the oppressive and sadistic nature of Union troops.