The Centralia Massacre and
Battle
September 27, 1864* |
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| The Civil War in Boone
County, Missouri |
By 1864, most of the major Civil War battles
between the regular military forces of the Confederacy and the Union had
been fought in the state of Missouri. Confederate units were now located
in states to the south of Missouri and other than an occasional soiree
into the state, the conflict now consisted of skirmishes between guerrilla
forces, with loose attachment to the Confederacy establishment, and the
federal forces who were attempting to maintain tranquility in this state.
The guerrilla units were mostly young men from the
western counties of the state who had seen considerable action and
experienced family and property destruction from the continual border
warfare with the "jayhawkers" from Kansas and Federal
retaliations to their home communities.
A key target of the guerrillas was the
North Missouri Railroad which ran from St. Louis to Macon where it joined
the cross state Hannibal to St. Joseph railroad. An almost continual
series of guerrilla raids on the bridges and tracks of the North Missouri
Railroad were carried out to hamper the movement of Federal troops and
supplies. It was part of this campaign that brought a large force of
guerrilla bands to Centralia during the late summer of 1864.
In mid-August of 1864, a combined Federal military force
encircled a bushwhacker camp near Dripping Springs, north of Columbia.
Four guerrillas were killed and several more wounded or taken captive
during this skirmish.
A band of guerrillas, under the command of G. W.
"Wash" Bryson, on September 7, 1864, stopped a freight train two
miles east of Centralia and took off several Federal soldiers and 40
horses, just what the bushwhackers needed for their raids. After
threatening to shoot the prisoners, they were released after a few days.
A bushwhacker force under the command of Bloody Bill
Anderson had attempted to route Federal Troops stationed in Fayette in
mid-September but were repelled by heavily armed and well entrenched
Federal militia.
On September 23, 1864, a Federal wagon train in route to
Rocheport from Sturgeon was ambushed at Goslins's Lane by guerrillas led
by George and Thomas Todd. Eleven of the Federal troops were killed and
over 18,000 rounds of ammunition captured. This ambush would lead to what
has become the most infamous activities in Boone County, the Centralia
Massacre and the Battle Of Centralia.
The Todds and their band, joined up with the large
bushwhacker force headed by Bill Anderson. The forces of Anderson and the
Todds rendezvoused in northern Boone County with the intent of holding up
a North Missouri Railroad mail train.
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| Air photo
showing approximate size of Centralia, Mo. at time of Civil War and
location of Massacre and Battle location. |
On
the morning of September 27, some 30 to 50 bushwhackers, some dressed in
captured Union uniforms, under the leadership of Anderson rode into the
village of Centralia, whose population was less than 100 persons. While
waiting for the train, they terrorized local civilians, robbing and
burning stores and killing a civilian who had attempted to defend a young
woman. The stage from Columbia came in to the community and they robbed
the passengers. One of the stage passengers was Congressman James S.
Rollins, a prominent Boone County citizen, who has been identified as the
"father of the University of Missouri" for his role in locating
the University in Columbia. Rollins and the other state passengers, which
included Boone County Sheriff James Waugh, gave fictitious names and
identities to the bandits. The stage coach robbery was interrupted when
they heard a train whistle, coming from the east. This was a passenger
train that had left St. Charles earlier that morning.
The train crew saw the guerrilla band as they approached
Centralia and decided to run through Centralia at top speed, but
Anderson's men had placed a barricade of railroad ties across the track
and forced the train to stop. In searching the train they found 23 unarmed
Union soldiers who were on furlough headed to their homes in Northwest
Missouri and Southwest Iowa. The civilian passengers were robbed of all
valuables. The soldiers were taken from the train, and ordered to disrobe.
After isolating one of the soldiers, Sergeant Tom Goodman, the other 22
soldiers were shot and killed on the spot, witnessed by the horrified
Centralia residents and train passengers. One German civilian on the train
who was wearing military clothing was also killed, as he could not speak
English to tell the bushwhackers of his civilian status.
Sgt. Goodman was spared, taken hostage by the Anderson
guerrillas, and lived to write of the whole incident in a book after the
conclusion of the Civil War.
The guerrillas set fire to the Centralia depot, sacked
and set fire to the train and then sent it on its way, west, with no crew
aboard, to later crash and be destroyed.
The Centralia Battle
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| Air photo showing
disposition of various guerrilla forces around Centralia
Battlefield. Initially Anderson's group lead Johnston's group
into the field and then they turned and engaged Johnston along with
all the other guerilla bands hidden in the trees. |
Word
of the massacre quickly spread. A unit of the Thirty-ninth Missouri
Infantry was in the vicinity, searching for the guerrilla bands and were
dispatched to Centralia. The troops, under Major A. V. E. Johnston, were
largely new recruits, riding farm horses and armed with Enfield muskets, a
heavy muzzle-loading gun.
Upon arriving in Centralia, the frightened citizens told
the Union troops that the band of Bloody Bill Anderson numbered less than
100 men and had moved to the southeast from Centralia. Ignoring warnings
from some Centralians that there were more bushwhackers bivouacked south
of town, the Federal Infantry followed the guerrilla trail, expecting to
find a relatively small force as had been described to them. About three
miles southeast of Centralia, they became entangled in a guerrilla ambush.
The inexperienced Federal troops, with
their single shot rifles, followed the traditional warfare practice of
advancing on foot, leaving their horses tended by a few soldiers. They
marched into a three-sided formation of several hundred hidden guerrillas,
each armed with several Colt revolvers, and within minutes, the Union
troops were nearly annihilated. The few soldiers that were not killed on
the first guerrilla volleys, ran back to their horses, but the guerrillas
with their faster horses, overtook the fleeing troops and within the hour,
over 120 soldiers were killed. Some nearly reached the sanctuary of
Sturgeon some ten miles from the battleground, before the guerrillas
completed the rout.
Three of the guerrillas were reported killed in the
battle.
Among the guerrillas in action on that date were Frank
James and his younger brother, Jesse. Historical accounts challenge
whether Jesse James was a part of the Battle of Centralia, but later year
lectures by Frank James, seem to confirm his participation. Some accounts
credit Jesse James as the slayer of Major Johnston, commander of the
ill-fated Union troops. Cole Younger was also listed as a member of the
guerrilla force.
The Aftermath
Many of the bodies were recovered and sent back to their
homes by Federal troops that came to the area shortly after the battle
ceased, but 79 of the bodies were buried in a common grave, along side the
railroad tracks in Centralia.
The hostage from the Centralia Massacre, Sgt. Tom
Goodman, was taken along by Bloody Bill Anderson’s band as they moved
west to avoid Union troops. On the tenth day of his capture, Goodman
managed to escape from the bushwhackers as they prepared to cross the
Missouri River at Rocheport.
Bloody Bill Anderson was killed by Federal troops in
western Missouri less than a month after the Centralia Massacre and
Battle.
The events at Centralia were the last reported slayings
in Boone County, although the guerrilla plunderings were a repeated affair
almost to the very end of the Civil War.
In 1873, the bodies of the victims of the Centralia
Massacre and Battle were moved to a National cemetery in Jefferson City.
An obelisk marker still memorializes the remains of the victims. It was
reported that every body reinterred showed a bullet hole in the forehead
directly between the eyes.
The James brothers, Cole Younger and many of the other
bushwhackers became the nucleolus of the outlaw gangs that roamed and
terrorized the mid-west for much of the remaining portion of the 19th
century.
In 1957, during the celebration of Centralia's
centennial, the Wabash Railroad, successor to the North Missouri Railroad,
donated a monument to the two Centralia events, adjacent to the railroad
terminal. In 1989, this monument was relocated in a nearby
Centralia park to provide better access to the many Civil War history
buffs who visit the area.
On September 27, 1994, a memorial marker was
dedicated near the site of the Centralia Battle to better describe the
action that took place in 1864. This marker was erected by the Boone
County Historical Society on this 130th anniversary of the Centralia Civil
War events.
Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Armies
SERIES I, VOLUME 41
ROCHEPORT, September 24, 1864
Major Leonard with detachments of the Ninth Missouri
State Militia met seven of Anderson's men yesterday, killed six of them,
captured 7 horses and thirty revolvers. Boone and Howard Counties are full
of rebels. I met them on every road from Mexico to this place.
J.B. DOUGLASS
Brigadier-General
ROCHEPORT, September 24, 1864
Colonel Matthews' escort of eighty men for baggage train
was surprised late yesterday evening seven miles northeast from this
place. Twelve of his men were killed on the ground and quite a number are
yet missing. The entire train, consisting of quartermaster and commissary
stores and all his ammunition, was captured. The rebels were said to be
commanded by the two Todds, Anderson, and Gooch, numbering 300 men. On
receiving news of the fight, I sent the First Iowa, and part of the Third
Missouri to the scene of action. They arrived in the night and remained on
the ground, and Colonel Draper having arrived I ordered him out at 3
o'clock this morning with 250 men, making the whole Federal force about
350. The rebels moved west into Howard County toward the river. We are out
of commissary supplies; send us some by first boat.
J.B. DOUGLASS
Brigadier-General
MACON, September 27, 1864
Major Johnston attacked Anderson at Centralia this
afternoon. Our forces are cut to pieces and Major Johnston supposed to be
killed. Major Johnston had parts of two companies, probably 200 men.
Captain Smith supposed to be killed. Rebels have 600 or 700 men.
E.A. KUTZNER
Colonel, & c.
HDQRS. THIRTY-NINTH
REGT. INFTY. MISSOURI VOLS.
Macon, Mo., September 29, 1864
CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that detachments of
Companies A, G, and H of this regiment, under the command of Major A.V.E.
Johnston, left Paris, Mo., at 10 p.m. on the 26th instant, march during
the night, and about 7 o'clock on the morning of the 27th instant struck a
trail which was supposed to be that of Anderson's guerrillas. The command
followed said trail to Centralia, where information was received that
Anderson had burned the depot and two trains on the North Missouri
Railroad, and murdered 24 soldiers, who where returning to their homes.
The Major determined at once to attack the enemy, and sending a dispatch
to Sturgeon for reinforcements and leaving Capt. Theis with thirty-three
men in the town, marched with 125 of his command one mile and a half in a
southeasterly direction, when discovering the guerrillas, formed his line
of battle and dismounted his men. About the time the order was executed
Anderson charged with his whole force, a part of which had been concealed
by a hollow in the prairie. Our forces had but time to fire one volley,
when the enemy from his great superiority of numbers and arms broke
through the line, completely surrounding troops, giving no quarter and
mutilating bodies. Captain Thies, hearing Major Johnston was killed and
his command cut to pieces, ordered a retreat and, succeeded in saving
eighteen of the thirty-three men left in the town.
I have to deplore the loss of brave and
chivalrous Maj. A. V. E. Johnston, Capt. J. A. Smith, and an officer of
merit, and the gallant soldiers who fell on this bloody field.
Herewith enclosed please find return of the killed,
wounded and missing.
I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully your
obedient servant,
ED. A. KUTZNER
Colonel, Commanding
Return of the killed, wounded, and missing in the
Thirty-ninth Regiment infantry Missouri Volunteers, at
Centralia, Mo., September 27, 1864.
Recapitulation: killed, 2 officers, 114 enlisted men; wounded 2 enlisted men; missing, 6 enlisted men; total,
124.
I certify that the above is a correct return of the
killed, wounded, and missing in the Thirty-ninth Regiment Infantry
Missouri Volunteers at the engagement at Centralia, Mo., September 27,
1864.
THOMAS C. TRIPLER
First Lieut. and Adjt.
Thirty-ninth Regt. Infty. Missouri Vols.
STURGEON, September 29, 1864
After leaving Centralia on Tuesday the guerrillas fell
back about two miles to the timber, keeping pickets in view of the town.
Major Johnston then following their trail with 150 men. He went to where
they were, and when he came into sight dismounted his men and formed them
in line, each man holding his own horse. The guerrillas were moving toward
him, but checked up at this, but soon came on a charge. When 150 yards
distant the major ordered his men to fire, which they did bringing enemy
to a halt. After the volley they came on and when within 100 yards the men
began to break, many of them not firing the second shot, and none of them
more than that. It then became a scene of murder and outrage at which the
heart sickens. Most of them were beaten over the head, seventeen of them
were scalped, and one man had his privates cut off and placed in his
mouth. Every man was shot in the head. One man had his nose cut off. One
hundred and fifty dead bodies have been found, including the twenty-four
taken from the train. I moved down to Centralia yesterday, and knowing
that Douglass and Major King were somewhere in the country toward which
Anderson is supposed to have taken, I did not follow. I endeavored in
every way to find out their whereabouts, but have not been able to hear of
them since they went into that country. Anderson was at least thirty hours
ahead of me when I got to Centralia, and I knew he must turn back or cross
the river before I could get to him. I came back here, after ordering the
citizens to bury the eighty-five bodies left at Centralia, as this was the
best point at which to get information from the country. Colonel Stauber
sent out scouts this afternoon, which have not yet returned to ascertain
the cause of firing heard by citizens of the country south of this. The
party has orders to not to fight, but get information. As soon as it
returns I will give results.
DAN M. DRAPPER
LieutenantColonel
| * WEBMASTER NOTE: The above text was obtained from an
excellent pamphlet prepared by the Boone County Historical Society for the
Centralia Area Chamber of Commerce. A complete copy of the pamphlet can be
obtained from the Centralia Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 235, Centralia,
Mo. 65240. The interpretation as to the extent of the battlefield is
mine based upon a field trip to the location plus several discussions with
William Lay, Andy Papin, Jim Denny and Roger Baker |
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| Field Trip participants moving down the hill of the
Centralia Battlefield from Johnston's position (west) to that of
Anderson's (east). Photograph taken looking west from Anderson's
position on battle map in above article. Photo courtesy of Jim Denny, DNR. |
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| Fall Field Trip Participants: Jim Denny of DNR,
Leader; Art Draper, Hermann; Randy Puchta, Hermann; Larry Leech,
Fayette; and MMCWRT
members: Andy Papen, Dave Poché and Bill Lay. Photo courtesy of Jim
Denny, DNR |
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