I'll begin by asking how you learned William Blackmore's middle initial was "O." And, what makes you think he was from Carroll County? I'm familiar with the middle initial "O" for this man, but I never before heard William Blackmore was from Carroll County. My reason for asking these two questions is to see if you have a source for this information that I have not seen.

There is not much information out there about William Blackmore.

There are at least two credible lists of men who rode with Bill Anderson during 1864 (one that includes Wm. Blackmore):

John N. Edwards in his 1877 book "Noted Guerrillas" on page 356 lists 60 men who followed Frank James of Clay County to join Bill Anderson in 1864. This list includes a William Blackmore. A number of Clay County men, like Frank James and others, joined Bill Anderson that year, including Frank's 16-year-old brother Jesse and Ninian Litton (also called "Ning," "Ling," and "Nin."). Remember Ninian Litton two paragraphs below. Since Edwards interviewed a number of surviving guerrillas to write his book, his lists of guerrillas tend to be credible. The odds are good that many of the men Edwards listed that Frank James brought to him were from Clay County, Frank's home.

Hamp Watts of Howard County in his 1913 memoir listed 60 names that he remembered who were in Bill Anderson's band during his three months with Anderson in 1864. Watts was also a teenager when he joined the band and he wrote there were many more he could not remember. It seems reasonable that Watts would tend to remember better men's names who, like him, joined Anderson from Howard and Boone Counties. Watts did not list Blackmore's name, but Watts did list eleven of the same men that Edwards said came with Frank James to join Anderson in 1864. This tends to add credibility to Edwards' list.

Rose Mary Lankford in her 1999 "Encyclopedia of Quantrill's Guerrillas" examined several Blackmore entries in the 1860 census of that region of Missouri and discovered that among three Blackmore children living in the Ninian Litton household in Platt Township of northwest Clay County is a 12-year-old, Kentucky-born boy, W. O. Blackmore. She feels, and I agree, that since Ninian Litton was a noted guerrilla of Clay County who also rode with Bill Anderson, then W. O. Blackmore--who would be age 16 in 1864--is probably the same man Edwards named.

William Blackmore's name appears on several other lists of guerrillas, particularly of those who rode with Bill Anderson in 1864, but I didn't find that any of them added more than what I listed above from Edwards' 1877 book, Hamp Watts' 1913 memoir, and Rose Mary Lankford's 1999 analysis of Blackmore males in the 1860 census of that region.

Now, please tell me, where did you obtain your information? Do you have any more on this man?

Bruce Nichols