Battle of Centralia and the Silvers

Battle of Centralia

Since the Rev Edward Silver lived 1 ½ miles from the Battle of Centralia it is relevant to our stories. We can not always bring about heaven on earth. As President Lincoln and others before him suggested, the American Civil War was divine punishment for being unable to solve the problem of slavery in America without armed conflict. In Missouri and Kansas the war seems to have been more chaotic and savage. The Centralia Massacre and the Battle of Centralia have “No parallel in the annals of the civil war”. They were “the wildest and the most merciless, and in proportion to the number of the force vanquished, the most destructive of human of life” The author of The History of Boone County never shies away from hyperbole, but the brutality and the savagery of these events are remarkable. Among the Confederate forces in Missouri were loosely organized “rangers,” who had been instructed to “keep the Federal militia north of the [Missouri] river actively employed.” Through a series of reciprocally and increasingly savage encounters with Union troops across the state, the rangers became “bushwhackers” and then “guerillas”. Union savagery was covered by the uniform so it was not always called by its proper name.

On the evening of September 26, 1864 four groups of the rangers totaling about 300-350 had come together and were encamped on M. G. Singleton’s farm in the brush and trees along Young’s Creek. (#4 on map). One of the four leaders of this combined force was “Bloody Bill” Anderson. When the guerillas needed a meal farmers in the area were forced to prepare food for the unwanted guests.

The next morning about 80 men went into Centralia, harassed, abused and robbed the citizens while waiting for the North Missouri train to arrive. The arrival of stage from Hallsville provided more robbery victims. Ties stacked on the rails stopped the speeding train. The passengers were searched and robbed and 22 unarmed Union soldiers on furlough were brutally and savagely killed and mutilated. Before leaving town a few citizens were also killed. These 80 guerillas returned to their camp.

About 3pm Major Johnson arrived with 155 newly recruited Union troops riding mostly brood-mares, mules, and plow-horses, armed with muskets, muzzle-loading guns and bayonets. Believing the townspeople were exaggerating and feeling that refusing to engage in battle was not acceptable Major Johnson led these ragtag men into an ambush (#4 on map). Thinking that he was facing 80 gunmen he ordered his men to dismount and form ranks. Before many of the Union troops could fire a second shot, they were dead, shot by the revolvers of the guerillas suddenly emerging on horseback from the bushes on three sides. Eighty three men were killed, some mutilated and even scalped. Among the attackers was Frank James brother of Jesse James. Jesse was elsewhere recovering from wounds of an earlier battle.

The next morning residents began gathering the bodies and bringing them to Centralia where they were laid in a mass grave east of town. It is hard to imagine that the Silvers were not involved in these events; that they did not have uninvited guests, that they did not help clear away the bodies, and that they did not pray for the families of those killed and wounded, for the country and, perhaps, for the guerillas.