| Nowhere
was the Civil War as savage as it was in Missouri —
and nowhere did it produce a killer more savage than William
Anderson. For a brief but dramatic period, “Bloody Bill”
played the leading role in the most violent arena of the entire
war — and did so with a vicious abandon that spread
fear throughout the land.
A name associated
with William Quantrill and Jesse James, Bloody Bill Anderson
was known for never taking prisoners. A former horse thief
turned bushwhacker, he became the scourge of Kansas and Missouri
with a reputation for unspeakable atrocities. Sometimes he
left the bodies of dead Federal soldiers scalped, skinned,
and castrated. Sometimes he decapitated them and rearranged
their heads. Wherever Bloody Bill rode, the Grim Reaper rode
alongside.
In telling this
story of bitter bloodshed, historians Castel and Goodrich
track Bloody Bill’s reign of terror over increasingly
violent raids. He rode with Quantrill in the infamous sack
of Lawrence and killed more victims than any other raider.
Then he led the brutal Centralia Massacre, a blood-soaked
nightmare recounted here hour-by-hour from firsthand accounts.
More than compiling
a chronicle of horrors, Castel and Goodrich have produced
the first full-fledged account of Anderson’s career.
They examine his prewar life, explain how he became a guerrilla,
then describe the war that he and his men waged against Union
soldiers and defenseless civilians alike. The authors’
disagreements on many aspects of Anderson’s gruesome
career add a fascinating dimension to the book.
Only 26 when he
was killed charging an ambush, Bloody Bill Anderson had already
become a legend. This book takes readers behind the legend
and provides a closer look at the man — and at the face
of terror.
“The first scholarly biography of Bloody Bill Anderson,
the most savage and sadistic of all Civil War guerrillas.
There is gore galore in this authoritative yet pulse-quickening
narrative of ‘bitter bloodshed,’ for no other
rebel guerrilla was more clearly motivated by revenge than
Bloody Bill.”
— Daniel Sutherland in Civil War History
“An honest
and feeling study that makes the case that the Civil War in
Missouri was ‘different’ [and] that the one word
that sums up Bloody Bill is ‘savage.’”
— Missouri Historical Review
“A fine and
compelling narrative, highly recommended.”
— Library Journal
Albert Castel is the author of several classic
works on the Civil War, including Decision in the West:
The Atlanta Campaign of 1864, which won the prestigious
Lincoln Prize.
Thomas
Goodrich is the author of numerous books on the West,
including Scalp Dance and War to the Knife. |
