That's right--Col. Dyer of the 49th Missouri Infantry arrived in Centralia that evening with two companies. He had even fewer men than Johnston had had, and his men were no better armed than Johnston's had been, and were as just as raw and newly-recruited as Johnston's had been. Dyer was feeling pretty antsy about being there and didn't want to stick around. He quickly rounded up the dead from the town, loaded them onto the train and took them to the Old Cemetery in Mexico Mo. where he buried them. They were later reinterred elsewhere. E.D.--my research on this aspect is very weak on the issue--do you have a source handy regarding the dead (or some of them) from the Massacre ending up in the Jefferson Barracks Cemetery?

Note that Dyer said he gathered up the remains of 34 men in the town for burial in Mexico. The Battle out in the countryside had spilled back over into town, thus, apparently, accounting for the numbers in excess of the victims of the Massacre that occurred earlier in the day.

Lt. Col. Draper of the 9th Missouri State Militia Cavalry showed up in Centralia after Dyer departed. Being better armed and having a lot more men, men who were veteran guerrilla fighters, Draper stuck around and saw to it that a mass grave was dug there. Draper had the locals gather up the remains of the dead from the Battle out in the countryside, and buried them locally. Those men were subsequently re-interred in the National Cemetery in Jeff City.

E.D., as I am typing this a possible avenue for research occurs to me. There is a monument at the grave site in Jeff City that provides a list of names of the Centralia dead. Certainly it includes the names of the men from the 39th Missouri Infantry, but maybe it includes the names of the others. I was there a few years back, but never thought to study it thoroughly. Also, I wonder if some sort of monument was ever erected at the Old Cemetery in Mexico, and if it might not still be there and have names on it....