The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Bloody Bill Andersonthe Centralia Massacre (9/23/1864)-Feb 16th, 2005

www.millersparanormalresearch.com ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

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William "Bloody Bill" Anderson

One of the most feared of all Missouri guerillas was William T Anderson who actually considered himself a Kansan. It was said that he carried a silk cord on which knots were tied for every Yankee killed and that he sometimes frothed at the mouth during battle. His was also known to scalp his Federal victims, which is probably one reason why he received the name of "Bloody Bill." Bill was described as being tall, sinewy and lithe with long black hair that curled and fell to his shoulders. He had prominent cheekbones and small angry eyes.

William "Bloody Bill" Anderson

William was born in Randolph County, Missouri in 1840. His parents were William and Martha (Thomason) Anderson. Bill was one of six children who included Ellis, James, Mary C, Josephine and Martha. Also living with them were his grandparents, William and Martha Thomason. His father was a hatter and the family moved from Palmyra, Missouri to Huntsville, Missouri between 1847-1848.

In 1850, the father went to California to join the gold rush leaving the family in Huntsville. During this time, Bill and his brothers were the heads of the family and their relationship with their sisters were both brotherly and fatherly. The father returned in 1854 and the family relocated to Breckinridge Co, Kansas (which is now Lyon County) in 1857.

In March of 1862, his father was murdered while Bill and his brother, Jim were on a trip to Fort Leavenworth. The murders were either Pro-Northern neighbors or a squad of Union soldiers. There are several accounts of the murder. One account claims that Union soldiers hanged him because his name appeared on a list of southern sympathizers. Another account says that a neighbor who accused him of horse theft murdered him. Bloody Bill later killed this same neighbor.



When Bill and his brother returned home that evening and found their father dead, his campaign of revenge began that same evening when he sneaked up behind a Union picket and broke his neck. The next night he killed another Union soldier and was almost caught by a federal calvaryman and had to shoot him in order to escape. He left that same night for the Missouri border and joined up with Quantrill.

In August of 1863, Federals arrested his three sisters along with other some other women in an attempt to draw out the guerilla soldiers. They imprisoned the women in a makeshift prison located in a building in Kansas City. Mysteriously, this building collapsed killing his sister Josephine and maiming Mary for life. This event was the reason cited behind the attack on Lawrence and intensified Bill’s hatred of the Federals.

Bill was content to ride with Quantrill, being a follower instead of a leader until a quarrel with Quantrill in 1864 caused him to form his own band of guerillas. This band included 16 year old Jesse James and they became the most feared band of all guerillas. Bloody Bill showed no mercy to Union soldiers and killed them on sight. He showed no sympathy to Pro-northerners and raided their homes and stores, murdering those that offered resistance. There is only one known case of when he spared the life of a union officer and he did so because he admired his bravery. There are other accounts of his band robbing southern sympathizers and returning the loot with apologies when their loyalties were revealed.



On March 2, 1864, Bloody Bill married Bush Smith, a young girl from Sherman, Texas but this did nothing to curtail his taste for blood and his need for revenge. They moved to a small farmhouse in Ray County, Missouri.

In a letter sent to a local newspaper, Bloody Bill wrote, "I have chosen guerilla warfare to revenge myself for the wrongs that I could not honorably avenge otherwise. I lived in Kansas when the war commenced. Because I would not fight the people of Missouri, my native state, the Yankees sought my life but failed to get me. Revenged themselves by murdering my father, destroying all my property, murdered one of my sisters and have kept the other two in jail for 12 months. But I have fully glutted my vengeance. I have killed many, I am a guerilla. I have never belonged to the Confederate Army, nor do my men."

On Oct 26, 1864, just south of Richmond in Ray County, Missouri, Bill and his guerilla band was ambushed by Captain Samuel P Cox and his union troops. They were caught completely unaware. A skirmish ensued and it is said that Bill and another of his men rode right through the Federal line. When his comrade was shot from his horse, Bill turned around to assist him and it was at this time that he was riddled with bullets and killed. Upon examining the personal items found on his body, he had seven pistols, $600 in cash and 2 watches. Private papers found in his saddlebags from General Price identified him as William T Anderson.


Partisan Ranger Memorial in Albany, Missouri (North of Orrick)

Bill’s body was taken to Richmond, Missouri where it was propped up in a chair and a pistol was placed in the dead mans hand for photographs. A short time later, the Union troopers decapitated him and placed his head on a telegraph pole at the entrance to the town. His torso was roped and tied to a horse where it was dragged through the streets of Richmond before being buried in an unmarked grave outside of town.

Years later, Cole Younger visited the site of Bloody Bills grave and requested that a funeral procession be held for him, in which is was. His grave was marked years later.

As with the other legendary guerillas, it is claimed that another man who resembled Bloody Bill was riding Bill’s horse on that fateful night near Richmond and that he was the one whom they identified as "Bloody Bill." One claim is that Bill Anderson changed his name and escaped to Erin Springs, Oklahoma where he ran a saloon. Another report was that Bill settled in Salt Creek, Brown County, Texas where he lived for about sixty years under an assumed name. There may be some truth to this last report as a man resembling "Bloody Bill" died there on November 2, 1927 and found on his bedside table was a photograph of three young women who were later identified as the sisters of William T "Bloody Bill" Anderson.

[SAMWolf]

Centralia Massacre and Battle

THE PRELUDE TO BATTLE

By 1864, most of the major Civil War battles between the regular military forces of the Confederacy and the Union had been fought in the state of Missouri. Confederate units were now located in states to the south of Missouri and other than an occasional soiree into the state, the conflict now consisted of skirmishes between guerrilla forces, with loose attachment to the Confederacy establishment, and the federal forces who were attempting to maintain tranquillity in this state.

The guerrilla units were mostly young men from the western counties of the state who had seen considerable action and experienced family and property destructions from the continual border warfare with the "jayhawkers" from Kansas and Federal retaliations to their home communities.

A key target of the guerrillas was the North Missouri Railroad which ran from St. Louis to Macon where it joined the cross state Hannibal to St. Joseph railroad. An almost continual series of guerrilla raids on the bridges and tracks of the North Missouri Railroad were carried out to hamper the movement of Federal troops and supplies. It was part of this campaign that brought a large force of guerrilla bands to Centralia during the late summer of 1864. In mid-August of 1864, a combined Federal military force encircled a bushwhacker camp near Dripping Springs, north of Columbia Four guerrillas were killed and several more wounded or taken captive during this skirmish.

A band of guerrillas, under the command of G. W. "Wash" Bryson, on September 7, 1864, stopped a freight train two miles east of Centralia and took off several Federal soldiers and 40 horses, just what the bushwhackers needed for their raids. After threatening to shoot the prisoners, they were released after a few days.

A bushwhacker force under the command of Bloody Bill Anderson had attempted to route Federal Troops stationed in Fayette in mid September but were repelled by heavily armed and well entrenched Federal militia.

On September 23, 1864, a Federal wagon train in route to Rocheport from Sturgeon was ambushed at Goslins's Lane by guerrillas led by George and Thomas Todd. Eleven of the Federal troops were killed and over 18,000 rounds of ammunition captured. This ambush would lead to what has become the most infamous activities in Boone County, the Centralia Massacre and the Battle Of Centralia.

The Todds and their band, joined up with the large bushwhacker force headed by Bil1 Anderson. The forces of Anderson and the Todds rendezvoused in northern Boone County with the intent of holding up a North Missouri railroad mail train.

THE CENTRALIA MASSACRE

On the morning of September 27, some 30 to 50 bushwhackers, some dressed in captured Union uniforms, under the leadership of Anderson rode into the village of Centralia whose population was less than 100 persons.While waiting for the train, they terrorized local civilians, robbing and burning stores and killing a civilian who had attempted to defend a young woman. The stage from Columbia came in to the community and they robbed the passengers. One of the stage passengers was Congressman James S. Rollins, a prominent Boone County citizen who has been identified as the "father of the University of Missouri for his role in locating the University in Columbia. Rollins and the other state passengers, which included Boone County Sheriff James Waugh, gave fictitious names and identities to the bandits. The stage coach robbery was interrupted when they heard a train whistle, coming from the east. This was a passenger train that had left St. Charles earlier that morning.

The train crew saw the guerrilla band as they approached Centralia and decided to run through Centralia at top speed, but Anderson's men had placed a barricade of railroad ties across the track and forced the train to stop. In searching the train they found 23 unarmed Union soldiers who were on furlough headed to their homes in Northwest Missouri and Southwest Iowa. The civilian passengers were robbed of all valuables. The soldiers were taken from the train, and ordered to disrobe. After isolating one of the soldiers, Sergeant Tom Goodman, the other 22 soldiers were shot and killed on the spot, witnessed by the horrified Centralia residents and train passengers. One German civilian on the train who was wearing military clothing was also killed, as he could not speak English to tell the bushwhackers of his civilian status.

Sgt. Goodman was spared, taken hostage by the Anderson guerrillas, and lived to write of the whole incident in a book after the conclusion of the Civil War.

The guerrillas set fire to the Centralia depot, sacked and set fire to the train and then sent it on its way, west, with no crew aboard, to later crash and be destroyed.

[SAMWolf]

THE CENTRALIA BATTLE



Word of the massacre quickly spread. A unit of the Thirty-ninth Missouri Infantry was in the vicinity, searching for the guerrilla bands an were dispatched to Centralia. The troops, under Major A. V. E. Johnston, were largely new recruits, riding farm horses and armed with Enfield muskets, a heavy muzzle-loading gun.


Air photo showing approximate size of Centralia, Mo. at time of Civil War and location of Massacre and Battle location.

Upon arriving in Centralia the frightened citizens told the Union troops at the band of Bloody Bill Anderson numbered less an 10 men and had moved to the southeast from Centralia. Ignoring warnings from some Centralians that there were more bushwackers bivouacked south of town, the Federal Infantry followed the guerrilla trail, expecting to find a relatively small force as had been described to them. About three miles southeast of Centralia, they became entangled in a guerrilla ambush.


Air photo showing disposition of various guerrilla forces around Centralia Battlefield. Initially Anderson's group lead Johnston's group into the field and then they turned and engaged Johnston along with all the other guerilla bands hidden in the trees.

The inexperienced Federal troops, with their single shot riles followed the traditional warfare practice of advancing on foot, leaving their horses tended by a few soldiers. They marched into a three-sided formation of several hundred hidden guerrillas, each armed with several Colt revolvers, and within minutes, the Union troops were nearly annihilated. The few soldiers that were not killed on the first guerrilla vollies, ran back to their horses, but the guerrillas with their faster horses, overtook the fleeing troops and within the hour, over 120 soldiers were killed. Some nearly reached the sanctuary of Sturgeon some ten miles from the battle- ground, before the guerrillas completed the rout.



Three of the guerrillas were reported killed in the battle. Among the guerrillas in action on that date were Frank James and his younger brother, Jesse. Historical accounts challenge whether Jesse James was a part of the Battle of Centralia, but later year lectures by Frank James, seem to confirm his participation. Some accounts credit Jesse James as the slayer of Major Johnston, commander of the ill-fated Union troops. Cole Younger was also listed as a member of the guerrilla force.

Additional Sources:

centralia.missouri.org/massacre
www.bigcountry.de
www.geocities.com/mosouthron/partisans
www.cityofrichmondmo.org
www.mmcwrt.org

[SAMWolf]

AFTERMATH

Many of the bodies were recovered and sent back to their homes by Federal troops that came to the area shortly after the battle ceased, but 79 of the bodies were buried in a common grave, along side the railroad tracks in Centralia.



The hostage from the Centralia Massacre, Sgt. Tom Goodman, was taken along by Bloody Bill Anderson's band as they moved west to avoid Union troops. On the tenth day of his capture, Goodman managed to escape from the bushwhackers as they prepared to cross the Missouri River at Rocheport.

Bloody Bill Anderson was killed by Federal troops in western Missouri less than a month after the Centralia Massacre and Battle.

The events at Centralia were the last reported slayings in Boone County, although the guerrilla plunderings were a repeated affair almost to the very end of the Civil War.

In 1873, the bodies of the victims of the Centralia Massacre and Battle were moved to a National cemetary in Jefferson City. An obelisk marker still memorializes the remains of the victims. It was reported that every body reinterred showed a bullet hole in the forehead directly between the eyes.

The James brothers, Cole Younger and many of the other bushwhackers became the nucleous of the outlaw gangs that roamed and terrorized the mid-west for much of the remaining portion of the 19th century.



In 1957, during the celebration of Centralia's centennial, the Wabash Railroad, successor to the North Missouri Railroad, donated a monument to the two Centralia events, adjacent to the railroad terminal. In 1989, this monument was relocated in a nearby Centralia park to provide better access to the many Civil War history buffs who visit the area.

On September 27, 1994, a memorial marker was dedicated near the site of the Centralia battle to better describe the action that took place in 1864. This marker was erected by the Boone County Historical Society on this 130th anniversary of the Centralia Civil War events.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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[snippy_about_it]

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Good Wednesday Morning Everyone.

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[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[SafeReturn]

good morning Snippy

[Iris7]

Been digging around looking for Missouri war materials, Redlegs, guerrillas, all of that stuff. Found one short piece I liked on the last days of William Quantrill, and that was all.

I think any biographer has to have sympathy with his subject to do any sort of justice to his enterprise. I find no sympathy, generally, in the materials I found about the Missouri affair. Everything was very partisan, vile evil this or that, psychopathic killers all of them, mother rapers, father rapers, and crazy as John Wayne Gacey.

Find this interesting. Also, the Northern sympathizers are the more virulent.

The sort of violence done in Missouri, and in other places, is very much par for the human course. Too much fear makes too much anger makes folks bloody minded. When a person knows he will be killed soon he often figures to take a few of his killers with him. Just how things are.

Plenty of tragedy in that war. Plenty enough for anyone. More than enough for me.

[GailA]

Good morning...promising to be another warm day...it ended up at 74 yesterday, in the 60's today.

[U S Army EOD]

My middle name is Anderson, so don't mess with my Daddy or my Sisters.

[The Mayor]

February 16, 2005

Temporary Tears

Read:
1 Peter 5:6-11

May the God of all grace, . . . after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. -1 Peter 5:10

Bible In One Year: Leviticus 24-27

Author George MacDonald wrote, "God has come to wipe away our tears. He is doing it; He will have it done as soon as He can; and until He can He would have them flow without bitterness; to which end He tells us it is a blessed thing to mourn because of the comfort that is on its way."

While we wait for that comfort, we can be assured that God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to bear the trial. Every difficult circumstance is timed with exact precision. Every hard situation is screened through His perfect love. We will not suffer one moment more, nor will we suffer more intensely than is necessary. "To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure" goes an old Basque saying. In other words, God will not allow those most vulnerable to life's difficulties to be overtaken by them.

There may be deep waters through which you must wade; there may be fires through which the ore of your character must pass. But in the midst of them God promises to be your partner, companion, and faithful friend. He will "perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).

And then, when He has finished His work, He will take you home to heaven and wipe away all your tears-forever (Revelation 21:4). -David Roper

He knows our burdens and our crosses,
Those things that hurt, our trials and losses;
He cares for every soul that cries-
God wipes the tears from weeping eyes. -Brandt

Tears are often the telescope by which we can see into heaven.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Why Would A Good God Allow Suffering?
When Hope Is Lost

[alfa6]

Good Morning Bump to the Freeper Foxhole on a fine Wednesday Morning.

For the last 30 years I have made numerous trips from Kansas City to St Louis each year. In the town of High Hill IIRC, which is about 90 miles west of St. louis, there is been a large red brick house. About 5 years ago or so a sign went up anoucing the "Anderson Mansion" at this brick house. I have always been meaning to stop but as I am usually on a day trip I haven't had time to stop. I will have to make time on one of my next trips to check this out.

I am prepared to be fleeced :-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Snippy.

You better be getting ready to meet with the Chamber. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

[SAMWolf]

Hi SafeReturn.

[SAMWolf]

The WBTS gave an "excuse" to some people to perpetrate their evil. Both sides had their share of butchers and murderers who used the war as a cover for their acts. Both governments for the most part turned a blind eye to it too.

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA. We had a clear but cold and windy day yesterday. Looks like more of the same today.

[SAMWolf]

My middle name is Anderson, so don't mess with my Daddy or my Sisters.

LOL! YES, SIR!!

[SAMWolf]

While we wait for that comfort, we can be assured that God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to bear the trial.

Some of the most important tests you'll be required to pass in this life.