"William "Bloody Bill" Anderson" Topic

Was this officer a patriot or a murderer?

Pardon in advance for my question but I had not very clear if he played a leading rol in the most viciously violent arena of the entire Civil War or he was simplement an assasin who likes his job.

thanks for your help.

Amicalement
Armand

A total brutal nut job who used the conflict to justify his personal "hobby"!! He never gathered much of a following and was considered way over the top by many of the slightly more rational irregulars out of Missouri! A very good book "The Devil Knows How to Ride" by Edward Leslie has a lot of good stuff about him and others of his era!

A bloody psycopath. Being the stauch defender of the South that I am, I don't claim him! :)

Of course that said, nutjobs appear on all sides in all wars. War simply allows this kind of creature free reign sometimes. The Yanks had their bad ones as well, but I think Bloody Bill is top of the list.

Maybe he just didn't have time to grow up. Contrary to "Josie Wales" BB was only 26 when he died.

Both. And a lunatic 'ta boot. He was also a "formative" influence on Jesse James. If you were a Missouri Southerner you probably would have called him a patriot (as well as all the other Bushwhackers.) Objectively, I would say his crusade was more of a personal vendetta than partizan warfare conducted for cause of the Confederacy.

I actually think that Quantrill is a more interesting figure as he was largely sane, a decent tactician, fancied himself an officer, and had a fairly strong sense of justice--at least until the Union upped the ante by declaring that all Guerrillas should be shot on sight.

I second "The Devil Knows How to Ride" for a good read and the Wargames Foundry Bloody Kansas range, including Anderson, is one of the best figure ranges ever sculpted in my opinion.

Bloody bill was a simple peace loving man pushed to go to war because of northern aggression and so what if he hung scalps from his saddle,i hang them from my car all the time
O what a subject for a film he would make,done right.In my opinion all yankees should go back north and stop invading southern soil.

A murdererous psychopath who got what he deserved, only too quickly. Too bad the remainder of his rebellious brethren didn't grace the gallows afterwards for their treason against the Republic.

They all should have been hanged as high as Haman.

He was a poor misguided, misunderstood psychopathic killer.

"Was this officer a patriot or a murderer?"

1. You know this is a topic that will probably end up in sniping between pro-Southern and pro-Northern people, thought I'm glad to see that hasn't happened yet.

2. There is a plethora of reading available on this. Instead of randomly starting topic after topic – all with "Do you think…"-style questions, how about doing some basic reading, and decide for yourself?

Read a few books on whatever topic you want to start a flame war over, and share your own opinions after having educated yourself a bit. Why you need to start topic after topic, seeking the opinion of others (as you apparently read next to nothing) is baffling.

JCBJCB, it sounds like he HAS read a few books. If you had, you know that those are about the only opinions of Anderson you'll find out there. The extreme "Lost Causers" think the first, everybody else, including most pro-Southern authors support the second view.

Any man that orders the killing of a whole trainload of unarmed, wounded men is hard to portray as a patriot of any nation that deserves to exist.

Don't think many serious Southern partisans (modern) want to give much support to Anderson. There were just too many "good" irregular or semi-irregular CSA raiders and such (Mosby, Morgan, Shelby, Forrest, and maybe even Quantrill) to give tribute to someone like Bloody Bill. He was notorious, and thats about the best aspect of his career!

"Was this officer a patriot or a murderer?"

Depends on your politics. He was no more ruthless or determined to break the enemies' will than William Tecumseh Sherman, just much lower level and on the opposing – and losing – side.

I recommend "Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy" as a good overview for the partisan warfare in the western theaters.

link

There is also a biography on Anderson, but I have forgotten the title at the moment. It was not as well written or informative as Gray Ghosts.

"… not very clear if he played a leading role in the most viciously violent arena of the entire Civil War…"

Not really. Figures such as Nathaniel Lyon, N. B. Forrest, van Dorn, etc. played much more significant roles.

Anderson was far too low on the command chain to exercise more than local and fleeting tactical influence.

"… or he was simplement an assassin who likes his job."

An element of that to be sure. Conflicts on frontiers are existential though. Often, unless you win, you die. His behaviour was not much different than that of U.S. cavalry on the frontier in the 1870s and 1880s.

Who was the nice guy that would line up Union prisoners to see how many his pistol could shoot through?

No idea. I think you are thinking of the Mexican Revolution. Pancho Villa had a guy who would do that. He got something like carpal tunnel syndrome from shooting so many peones for the hell of it.

Any man that orders the killing of a whole trainload of unarmed, wounded men is hard to portray as a patriot of any nation that deserves to exist.

Patriotism could still have been part of his motivation. That doesn't excuse his actions, of course.