photo #9426141

For years, fear seemed to walk ahead of him across Missouri.On October 26, 1864, guerrilla leader William "Bloody Bill" Anderson walked into an ambush near Albany, Missouri. He had no idea that Union soldiers under Colonel Samuel P. Cox were waiting.By then, Anderson's name had become almost as feared as his actions.His band of guerrillas had spent months raiding communities, attacking Union forces, and disappearing before their enemies could retaliate. Just days earlier, Anderson's men had attacked a train in Centralia, killing 22 Union soldiers before engaging the 39th Missouri.But that October afternoon, the hunter finally became the hunted.As Anderson and his men moved through the rural Missouri countryside, the Union soldiers closed in. Suddenly, gunfire ripped through the road. Anderson was wounded and killed, ending the life of one of the most notorious guerrilla leaders of the American Civil War.His body was later taken to Richmond, Missouri, where Union soldiers publicly displayed it. Photographers captured the grim scene, preserving an image that became part of the dark mythology surrounding Missouri during its frontier war.To Union sympathizers, Anderson was remembered as a ruthless killer. To Confederate sympathizers, he was a guerrilla fighter in a war where the line between soldier, party, and outlaw became dangerously blurred.More than 150 years later, his name still lives on.But perhaps the strangest part of his story is what happened after the shooting stopped.A man became a photographer, and a photograph became a legend.And the legend became the story that people still discuss today. When a man becomes more famous than ever before in his life, how much of the person remains and how much belongs to the legend?