The Battle of Centralia

On September 27, 1864, Bloody Bill Anderson  and about 80 men took over the small railroad village of Centralia, looting stores and discovering a barrel of whiskey that they hauled out into the street. Wild enough when sober, they soon were roaring drunk. They robbed the passengers of a stagecoach and then stopped an express train on the North Missouri Railroad full of 125 passengers and 25 Union soldiers on furlough from Sherman’s army, which had recently taken Atlanta. The passengers were r