I just received this document from the guy in Wellsville trying to identify the nine unknown soldiers buried in Wellsville. The article was written by the president of the Montgomery County Historical Society. It sheds some light on the disposition of the remains of those killed in the Centralia Massacre itself and the later battle. The article proposes that only two of the 1st Missouri Engineers were originally buried in the Mexico Cemetery, the remaining nine are unaccounted for. Interesting reading. Tom

Here is the article Walter sent. I sent him the URL of this message board and invited him to join. Perhaps he can find an answer here.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Nine unknown soldiers. So reads the inscription on each of two modest stones marking Lot 1, Row 14, Section A of the Wellsville City Cemetery. (The lot is the first one East of the building and South of the drive). The older of the two stones refers to the Unknowns as "U.S. soldiers", the other to "Civil War soldiers". The Montgomery County Historical Society, engaged in the Society's Civil War sesquicentennial project of identifying graves in Montgomery County of veterans of that war has turned its attention to this little noticed cemetery plot.
Local lore has it that the grave is that of soldiers killed in a train wreck in 1862. No record of such event has been found in history books, old newspapers and on-line resources. This has led the researchers to look at other incidents of multiple deaths that might have given rise to burial in the Wellsville Cemetery such as the Centralia massacre.
On September 27, 1864, the morning North Missouri Railway Co. train pulled into Centralia with 23 unarmed, furloughed or discharged Union soldiers aboard. It was met by a unit of Anderson's raiders. After dispossessing the soldiers of personal items and ordering them to strip to their underwear, Anderson's forces shot 22 of the soldiers and a "german from St Louis" dressed in a blue blouse and old dingy cap. Sgt Thomas M. Goodman of the 1st Missouri Engineers was saved to use in bargaining for release of one of Anderson's sergeants held as a prisoner of war in Columbia.
The afternoon of the 27th Major Andrew Vern E.Johnston led men of the 39th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment (mounted) into Centralia in search of Anderson's forces. In a woods a few miles outside Centralia Anderson had prepared an ambush that Johnston and his men fell into. It all but wiped out Johnston's forces. The massacre at the train depot and the disastrous battle (to the Union) outside of town were two separate events in the war and are, properly, referred to as such.
Probably the best narrative description of the massacre, battle and their aftermath can be found in The History of Boone County, Missouri published in 1882 by Western Historical Co., St Louis. It recounts that 79 of the dead 39th Missouri soldiers were brought to Centralia after the battle and buried in a trench grave; and that Col. D. P. Dyer of the 48th (actually he was in the 49th) Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment came from Mexico and took away the soldiers killed in the massacre. At Page 491 of the Official Reports of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. LII, Part III is a copy of a communication dated September 29, 1864, from Capt. Frank D. Evans, Assistant Adjutant General at Mexico to General Fisk, commanding the Department of Missouri, reporting that Lt Col Draper (Daniel M. Draper of the 9th MSM Cavalry) was at Centralia with 250 men. They collected 87 dead at Centralia, 17 at Sturgeon and 34 at "this place".
The train had carried 7 enlisted men of the 1st Iowa Cavalry Regiment; 12 men of the 1st Missouri Engineers; a 23rd Iowa Infantryman; and a 17th Illinois Cavalryman. The presence of these soldiers is verified in official war records of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. 2 others are identified only by Mexico burial records (W.R.Brown and James W Harvey). However, these two names are strikingly similar to the 23rd Iowa Infantryman (W. R. Barnum) and 17th Illinois cavalryman (John S. Harvey). Only the seven 1st Iowa men, two of the 1st Missouri Engineers and the two unit-less soldiers were listed among those first buried in the Old Village Cemetery at Mexico and transferred June 18, 1867, to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.
Online records of the Jefferson City National Cemetery list 123 burials of soldiers who died September 27, 1864. Two of these are not found in the Missouri Digital Heritage list of Civil War Veterans or the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors list of the National Park Service. This is not unusual. Major Johnston is included on the list of Jefferson City burials, but his burial place is listed by the Veterans Administration as at both Jefferson City and Monroe City, Missouri.
It can be concluded that as many as 146 were killed in the battle and massacre. Lt. Col. Draper gathered up 138 bodies. It is yet undetermined how many of the Centralia bodies were interred at Mexico. 51 or 52 were removed from there and re-interred at Jefferson Barracks on June 18, 1867. 79 of the 39th Missouri soldiers were buried in a trench grave at Centralia in the days following the battle. These were moved to Jefferson City National Cemetery in December, 1873. It is not known when the others of the 39th Mo Infantry, if there, were interred. The online information shows both interment and death of all 123 on July 27, 1864. The whereabouts of the bodies of nine 1st Missouri Engineers, the 23rd Iowa infantryman, the 17th Illinois cavalryman If they are not the same as W. R. Brown and James Harvey) and the german from St Louis are unknown.
History is recorded facts. What is needed is some record of what happened with the bodies not among those of the 39th Mo. Inf. not re- buried at Jefferson City and not identified in Mexico or Jefferson Barracks Cemetery records. There are people one hundred fifty years later seeking the final resting place of their Civil War veteran family member. Anyone with any knowledge or suspicion of or rumor about the Wellsville burials would be welcome in the long ignored, but now active, effort to identify the nine unknown soldiers.

Montgomery County Historical Society, Douglas E. Dowling, President January, 2013
------------------------------------------------------------------