William T. Anderson - Death

Death

Union military leaders assigned Lieutenant Colonel Samuel P. Cox to kill Anderson, providing him a group of experienced soldiers. Soon after Anderson left Glasgow, a local woman saw him and told Cox of his presence. On October 26, 1864, he pursued Anderson's group with 150 men and engaged them in battle. Anderson and his men charged the Union forces, killing five or six of them, but turned back under heavy fire. Only Anderson and one other man, the son of a Confederate general, continued to charge after the others retreated. Anderson was hit by a bullet behind an ear, likely killing him instantly. Four other guerrillas were killed in the attack. The victory made a hero of Cox and led to his promotion.

Union soldiers identified Anderson by a letter found in his pocket and paraded his body through the streets of Richmond, Missouri. The corpse was photographed and displayed at a local courthouse for public viewing, along with Anderson's possessions. Union soldiers claimed that Anderson was found with a string that had 53 knots, symbolizing each person he had killed. Union soldiers buried Anderson's body in a field near Richmond in a fairly well-built coffin. Some of them cut off one of his fingers to steal a ring. Flowers were placed at his grave, to the chagrin of Union soldiers. In 1908, Cole Younger, a former guerrilla who served under Quantrill, reburied Anderson's body, and in 1967, a memorial stone was placed at the grave.

Archie Clement led the guerrillas after Anderson's death, but the group splintered by mid-November. Most Confederate guerrillas lost heart around that time, owing to a cold winter and the failure of General Price's 1864 Missouri campaign, which ensured that the state would remain under Union control. As the Confederacy collapsed, most of Anderson's men joined Quantrill's forces or traveled to Texas. Jim Anderson moved to Sherman, Texas, with his two sisters. In 1868, he married his brother's widow.