Okay, so I've been researching the Centralia Massacre and Battle of Centralia for 20 years now. I won't say I have every eyewitness account of the Massacre, but I will say I have a lot. A. Lot. Eyewitness accounts from civilians ranging in ages from 10 to 70. Eyewitness accounts from three members of the train crew. Eyewitness accounts from train passengers. Eyewitness accounts from Confederates on the scene. Eyewitness accounts from Confederates on the periphery. Eyewitness accounts from Federals on the ground before, during and after. Eyewitness accounts from shopkeepers. Eyewitness accounts from residents. And eyewitness accounts from individuals just passing through.

And nowhere in all that have I come up with a first person account of any Federal soldier on the train who changed out of his uniform and into civilian clothes. Not saying no such accounts exist--I'm saying I've never came across one. I've come across plenty of 20th century secondary sources who talk about it, and praise situational awareness, and coolheadedness, and such, in analyzing this piece of historical dogma that some clever soldiers changed their clothes and survived. But nothing and nobody who was there actually saying it happened.

I've now identified three soldiers who were on the train in civilian clothes who survived. But they were wearing civilian clothes when they got on the train. Absent an eyewitness account, or even account contemporaneous to the event, I'm leaning towards thinking that that the changing of clothes 20th century accounts are a bit of mythology, and didn't happen. That they ran across accounts of civilian-clothed soldiers going undiscovered, and it was assumed the reason they were in civilian clothes is because they changed clothes when they saw danger close. And over decades this assumption became an article of faith repeated from one secondary source to another. I'll be more than happy if someone can come up with any primary source that would dispel my cynicism on this point.

I'll close this post out by making an observation, and follow up with details on the two other soldiers I have discovered who survived the massacre by wearing civilian clothing. Clothing they were wearing when they boarded the train, not that they put on when things fell apart.

The train crew eyewitness accounts provide insight as to why they got into such a fix that resulted in the uniformed soldiers on board being executed, the passengers robbed, and the train itself being destroyed -- The crew saw the Confederates as the train was approaching the station. And the crew stated the reason they didn't stop and reverse the hell out of there was because the Confederates were clothed in Federal uniforms. That the Confederates were clothed in Federal uniforms is well known and has never been in dispute. So according to the crew the train traveled right on into Centralia and stopped. Almost immediately the Confederates started firing into the train, and almost as quickly boarded it. Dozens of Confederates.

Now if the train crew, who had a clear line of sight at the Federal-clad Confederates up ahead, didn't think anything about being in danger, how would any of the passengers have known they were approaching danger, especially when they didn't have a clear line of sight up ahead? And with the Confederates overrunning and boarding the train almost immediately, how would anybody have had time to change their clothes? And if they had time to change their clothes, how could the Confederates have missed the fact that there were empty uniforms randomly laying around and not made a close search of who they might belong to?