revenge myself for wrongs that I could not honorably revenge otherwise. I lived in Kansas when this war commenced. Because I would not fight the people of Missouri, my native State, the Yankees sought my life, but failed to get me. Revenged themselves by murdering my father, destroying all my property, and since that time murdered one of my sisters and kept the other two in jail twelve months".
             During his early years as a guerrilla fighter William gained notoriety as being barbaric in his treatment of the communities that he raided and he was especially cruel to those communities of German descent in Lafayette County, Missouri, in his 1863 July raids. During these raids William would routinely scalp and mutilate his victims and display the scalps upon his horse's bridal. Early in the Civil War it became the practice of federal forces to regard the guerillas as common criminals rather than soldiers and so, under the command of General Halleck in March of 1862, they officially instituted a policy of executing captured guerillas. Further, federal forces began rounding up and imprisoning family members of suspected guerillas. Anderson's family was one of the families rounded up and imprisoned in make-ship prisons in Kansas. The guerilla leaders accepted such terms and often killed the soldiers they captured. "No Quarter" became the rallying cry of both sides with Missouri and Kansas civilians caught in the middle. When the no quarter policy seemed to only encourage guerilla activity, the federal commanders began harassing civilians who were suspected of assisting the Confederate cause by aiding the guerillas. Men and even young boys were often murdered by federal troops when they would not betray the hiding places of guerilla bands. These incidences further enraged An
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