William T. Anderson was born around 1840 in Hopkins County, Kentucky, to William C. and Martha Anderson. … See more

After the Civil War began in 1861, the demand for horses increased and Anderson transitioned from trading horses to stealing them, reselling them as far away as New Mexico. He worked with his brother Jim, their fri… See more

Missouri had a large Union presence throughout the Civil War, but was also inhabited by many civilians whose sympathies lay with the Confederacy. From July 1861 until the end of the war, the state suffered u… See more

Four days after the Lawrence Massacre, on August 25, 1863, General Ewing retaliated against the Confederate guerrillas by issuing General Order No. 11, an evacuation order that evicted almost 20,000 people from four c… See more

Anderson and his men rested in Texas for several months before returning to Missouri. Although he learned that Union General Egbert B. Brown had devoted significant attention to the border area, Anderson l… See more

On the morning of September 27, 1864, Anderson left his camp with about 75 men to scout for Union forces. They soon arrived at the small town of Centralia and proceeded to loot it, robbing people and searching the town for val… See more