Kirby I suspect you have the list of survivors from Co H listed by Boone Co Historical Society, I unburied this archived comment fromm 2000 about a horse holder that made it to Sturgeon and survived.

(jcirwin at pacbell-net) made a comment on rootsweb.ancestry.com on 6 August 2000 pertaining to this battle:

“One of my ancestors was a survivor of the Centralia Massacre from Company H. His name was Edward Knox Irwin. I have confirmed that he was in Company H and according to the "Green City, MO Centennial History", he survived the massacre because he was left to watch some of the horses in Centralia due to his young age (though this story lists him as 16 while subsequent census records would put him at 19 years of age at the time). The story continues that the horses whinnied and gave away his hiding location but because the bushwackers were more interested in taking the horses, Edward was able to escape and ran to Sturgeon where he hid out with some other soldiers who had escaped. I have written for his service records from NARA but nothing has arrived yet. But, I do know he was in Co. H Missouri 39th and he did survive the war.”