Commemorating Two Notable Civil War Incidents - Centralia, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 39° 12.761 W 092° 08.248
15S E 574464 N 4340732
The Civil War struck hard here. A massacre and a battle.
Waymark Code: WMKMXY
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/04/2014
Views: 2
County of memorial: Boone County
Location of memorial: W. Railroad St. @ Rollins St., next to train tracks, Centralia
Marker erected by: Wabash Railroad Company
Date erected: June 27, 1957
THE MASSACRE
On this ground, on September 27, 1864, guerilla forces operating against the U.S. Government captured a passenger train of the North Missouri Railroad (now Wabash Railroad) as part of a program to destroy the railroad, and shot down 22 Federal soldiers. The Depot, all coaches of the train, and a following freight train were set ablaze and destroyed.
THE BATTLE
Near here, on that same afternoon, a pursuing portion of the 39th Missouri Infantry Volunteers engaged the greatly superior, guerilla forces. In a wild and merciless battle the Union troops were almost totally annihilated. In point of fatalities to the vanquished according to Centralia & Boone County historians, this battle was without parallel in the annals of the Civil War.
Seventy-nine of the soldiers were buried on the railroad right-of-way east of Centralia until 1873, when the War Department removed the bodies to the National Cemetery at Jefferson City, Missouri.