Day Trip

by Vicki Wood Centralia’s Historic Battlefield

Missouri Civil War history at battlefield and park.

Centralia. Not a place one thinks of when chasing Civil War history. But it is the place of the shortest battle in the Civil War, with “Bloody Bill” Anderson, along with Jesse James gunning down Union Federalists in one of the most terrorizing ambushes ever.

The Centralia Battlefield marks the location that a horrific incident was completed that began between the people of Centralia, the railroad, guerilla fighters, and Union forces intersecting on the train tracks at the corner of Missouri and Love Avenues.

Two dozen Union soldiers were riding the railways home to northwest Missouri for some time off. Civilians were also passengers on the train heading to Centralia. Anderson’s sisters had just been killed in a jail collapse at Liberty. He was angry and crazier than usual, history recounted. Some say the attack at Centralia was out of retaliation in what he felt like was the government and Union force’s fault. Anderson first raided and looted the town, with the 100 or so townsfolk hiding and generally getting out of his bunch’s way.

He then planned an ambush in the middle of town in Centralia. Anderson, along with a young Jesse James, ordered railroad ties stacked high to stop the train. His guerilla army pulled union soldiers off of the train, and systematically massacred them in the most brutal ways imaginable. Everyone was scalped. The brutality got a lot worse, and Anderson made sure that when Major A.V.E. Johnston, a former school teacher, and 155 troops arrived in Centralia later

“Bloody Bill” Anderson Re-enactment of the Centralia Battlefield where a horrific incident occurred that began with “Bloody Bill” Anderson.

Photos provided

that day, they found the 22 federal soldiers that Bloody Bill and his band of raiders had killed and mutilated in the most vicious ways imaginable. Anderson high tailed it to the woods outside of Centralia, about 3½ mile southeast to a creek area that surrounded what would become a very bloody battlefield.

When Major Johnston came to respond, his slaughtered soldiers were left on the tracks for him to find. The slaughter at the train tracks was on the morning of Sept. 27, 1864. The Civil War had been raging for three devastating years already. Anderson’s army had taken one Union prisoner with them in hopes to be able to trade him for one of their men who the federals were holding.

Bloody Bill and Jesse made sure that the responding major would bring troops to retaliate, so they took their band of 80 guerrilas out to what is now known by the Centralia Historic Society as the Centralia Battlefield. It’s located a bit outside of town, along a creek in the woods on North Range Line Road. It feels like a hallowed site now, a bit of a cemetery feel, if you will. It’s very quiet out there, and as you climb up the neatly mowed path from the bottom Confederate Monument, to the top Union Monument, a solemn stillness falls on the place. Your imagination sees that the brush weed is a dark maroon color here, where 130 men fell in 3 minutes under Anderson’s army’s revolver fire.

On September 27, 1864 Captain William “Bloody Bill” Anderson and about eighty men rode into Centralia, Missouri in search of the whereabouts of Federal troops. The search soon turned to looting and robbing fueled by liquor. A train arriving from the east was robbed and twenty-three Federal soldiers were taken off and all but one was shot.

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Anderson drew those troops to the open field surrounded by creek and trees, where they ambushed the Union army from all sides. Union soldiers were ordered off of horseback with their black powder rifles by their major. Guerilla soldiers had five to six revolvers each. They remained on horses, and attacked the Union troops for three minutes until most were dead, only 30 out of 155 surviving.

The Battlefield has a lovely park on the backside of a cattle pasture. There is a walking bridge over the creek leading to the sacred battlegrounds. It’s not your typical tourist sight. But it’s a good place to have a quiet walk and some reflection time.

The battlefield is located about an hour and 45 minutes from Lake Ozark, north of Columbia.