Every time I read something about Missouri Confederate guerrilla Bill Anderson it is often used with some variation of the phrase “he was known as Bloody Bill Anderson.” Except during the Civil War and for over a quarter century thereafter, that nickname doesn’t seem to have existed. I don’t find it in the historical record until 1891, at which time it appears the St. Louis Dispatch coined the phrase as an almost 20th century invention. Anybody know of or find any earlier references to the nickname?