Description: Myers collection image that, perhaps, rivals any other in his Civil War guerrilla collection historically. The left image is William T. Anderson, "Bloody Bill. The right image shows the flag of "Reed's Raiders (William "Wild Bill" Reed a guerrilla band leader in which Bill Anderson originally served early in the War before joining Quantrill). Later, Reed joined Anderson and the flag became the one Blood Bill took into Battle. The flag is a black pirate flag with a single star in the left hand corner. It is the only known actual image of a battle carried black flag extant. However, other black pirate flags have been documented as being used by the South in the Civil War. It is thought to have indicated, "Fight me and die"!
The images were taken by E.A. Baldwin and cased together as a memorial to Bill Anderson in 1865. The journal notes that there were three copies of the images when presented. One to Anderson's cousin Thomas Anderson, one to Bill Reed's son Botch Reed and one kept by E.A. Baldwin himself. Baldwin gave his copy years later to his son-in-law Gus Myers.
The main focus in the right image is the black flag. However, the center young man is Thomas Anderson. Thomas Anderson was Bill's uncle's son who went with Bill, Jim, and the sisters to Missouri in 1860 after the death of their parents. The young boy, Tom, was the boy who rode to Anderson to alert him that Bill's sisters had been captured by the Yankees and taken to the St. Louis prison. He would be about 16-17 in this 1865 image.
Picture Stats for MissouriGuerrilla.com(Ctrl+D)
Views: 5214
Height: 700 Width: 1046 ID: 947
Posted by: Emory Cantey at September 30, 2015, 09:15 pm
