Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots: Centralia, Missouri: The Battle of Centralia

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Post #7

by Tonya McQuade

Centralia Battle Site

In my previous post, I wrote about the Centralia Massacre, which took place in Centralia, Missouri, on September 27, 1864, and involved the killing of 23 unarmed Union soldiers who were heading home on furlough. If you didn't read that post, start there for a fuller retelling. Both events are included in the book I am writing.

It would be bad enough if William “Bloody Bill” Anderson and his guerrilla band had stopped with the Centralia Massacre. However, the killing was far from done. Union Major Andrew Vern Emen Johnston and his 39th Missouri Volunteer Infantry of new recruits, most operating as "mounted infantry" and riding farming horses and mules, rode into Centralia later that afternoon, drawn by the smoke from the burning train and train depot.

Johnston – who did not have much military experience – was determined to pursue Anderson and his men despite the town’s warnings that his troops were outgunned and outnumbered. In the armed confrontation that followed, Anderson’s guerrillas killed 123 of the 155 Union troops, their outmoded muzzle-loading rifles no match for the guerrillas’ revolvers.

Union Major A.V.E. Johnston

Johnston and his men arrived at the guerrilla encampment two and half miles from downtown Centralia to find approximately 400 guerrillas – the largest group ever under Anderson’s command - camped there along Young's Creek on the farm of Col. M. G. Singleton, an ex-Confederate officer home on parole and under bond. Johnson then ordered his men to form a battle line and march on foot toward the guerrillas across the field. They soon found themselves surrounded on three sides by guerrillas riding on horseback, and within three minutes, the lopsided battle was over.

Looking out across the battle site

According to this description on History.net: "Anderson’s guerrillas, each man well-armed with several six-shot revolvers, burst out of the tree line at a gallop. Johnston’s infantrymen fired one ragged, largely ineffective volley with their single-shot Enfield rifle-muskets but had no time to reload before the guerrillas overran the Union battle line, shooting Johnston’s men down with their rapid-firing pistols. Meanwhile, from the timber to Johnston’s right and left, hundreds more guerrillas charged the disintegrating Union line. Panicked Union soldiers tried to flee but the guerrillas, well-mounted on vastly superior horseflesh, quickly rode them down. Only a handful of Johnston’s men escaped, leaving the mutilated bodies of 123 of their comrades on the battlefield. The battle lasted perhaps three minutes and as few as only three guerrillas were killed."

Altogether, 123 Union troops, plus their horses, were killed, most shot on the field and others as they attempted to flee. Only about two dozen escaped, with some later staying in town to help with the burial of Union soldiers who had died. Johnston himself was killed by a 17-year-old ruffian named Jesse James, who was part of Anderson’s guerrilla band along with his brother Frank and reportedly bragged about the killing later. Only three guerrillas were killed in the battle, with another ten wounded.

Jesse James fought in the Battle of Centralia

and bragged about shooting Union Major A.V.E. Johnston

According to Claire Wolnisty in Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865, "These guerrillas ... seized the chance to consolidate their revenge against the federal forces who had occupied various sections of the Missouri-Kansas region since the mid-1850's. At Centralia, proslavery forces finally had the clear advantage over their opponents. Anderson's proslavery men killed Johnston and all but 32 of his outnumbered men in the Battle of Centralia. Sergeant Goodman [the officer captured in the Centralia massacre] called the scene a drunken 'carnival of blood,' and the incident became notorious for the torture and mutilations that Anderson's men inflicted on the survivors of the battle."

After this, the Union was determined to track down Bloody Bill and put an end to his brutal attacks. They finally caught up with him on October 26 near Orrick, Missouri. There, under the command of Lt. Col. Samuel P. Cox, a former army scout, a brief battle erupted between the Union soldiers and Anderson and his approximately 150 men. Anderson was shot in the head and died instantly. Knowing how anxious Missourians were to see Anderson captured or killed, Union soldiers photographed his dead body, then paraded his body through the streets of Richmond, Missouri, before burying it nearby. They also decapitated his corpse and displayed his severed head on a post.

The Body of “Bloody Bill” Anderson, shortly after he was killed by Union soldiers

Photograph by Robert B. Kice. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The same day that Anderson and his bushwhackers achieved their brutal victory in Centralia, Price and his army of 8,000 men suffered significant losses in their attack on Fort Davidson near Pilot Knob (which James C. Hale wrote about in his letter in my previous post). Their attack on the fort had resulted in horrific Confederate casualties, and the Union troops – after a day under siege but with few casualties - had slipped out during the night, evacuating the fort but blowing up its powder magazine, leaving Price and his men to wonder how things had gone so badly for them. Due to their setback, they gave up on the idea of retaking Missouri - but guerrilla attacks continued through the end of the war.

That small red mark in the northeast corner

of Boon County is Centralia

During our April visit to Missouri, Mike and I visited Centralia, both in pursuit of seeing these sites and to see the town where my great-great grandparents had lived and were buried. After visiting the site of the Centralia Massacre in the downtown area, we followed the road out of town to the site of the Battle of Centralia on Rangeline Road. There are just a few commemorative markers, but not a lot of history told at the site. Most of my information came from various online sources prior to our visit, so it certainly helped to know the details beforehand.