1st Missouri Engineers

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James enlisted from the state of Illinois, in Macoupin county, in Company B of the 1st Regiment, Missouri Engineers, when this regiment consolidated with the 25th Missouri infantry they became the 1st Missouri Engineers of the West, he was in Company C He served 3 years and participated in Island #10. Where his unit cut and sawed a path so Union shallow bottom gun boats could get past the Comfederate fort on the south end of the island. When the regiment was brand new, they were camped out at a place called Lamine Bridge in Missouri. late at night they had thier pickets out on duty, when it was deathly quiet, one of the pickets heard a noise in the distance like something russling through the brush, then he thought he heard the cocking of a musket...well this alarmed the soldier so he shouted out 'Who Goes There'......there was no reply ......then he heard the noise again....... so he alarmed the captain of the guards, who shouted out 'TURN OUT THE GUARD...TURN OUT THE GUARD'...Soon the camp was awake and scrambling for thier guns, getting ready for a surprise attack, and when they got out to where the noises were coming from, they found thier culprit,.........who turned out to be a lone wondering cow with a busted cow bell, that sounded like the cocking of a musket. The men all had a good laugh and the incident became known to them as 'The Battle of the Cow Bells'

Richard Layne was my Great-Great Grandfather,he and his brother Samuel joined the 1st in Southern Illinois in 1862.And served until the end.

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Cpl. Mobley was my great-great grandfather on my mother's side of my family. He was born in Indiana in 1833. He was a Corporal in the Union Army--1st Reg. (or 25th?)Company G, Missouri Engineers-- returning home, probably to Clarinda, IA, on furlough (after two years of service) when his train, the westbound North Missouri train from St. Charles, was stopped at Centralia, MO, by Bill Anderson's raiders ('bushwhackers,' according to the family story). All but one of the 25 unarmed Union soldiers were shot and, according to the family's story, the dead men's heads were cut off and stuck onto fence posts. Anderson and his men had been terrorizing MO towns and sabotaging railroads there for months. The raiders were not Confederate regular troops, but they sympathized with the South and hated the 'federals.' The leader had formerly ridden with Quantrill's raiders (probably with them when they burned Lawrence, KS, for its Abolitionist sympathies), along with Frank and Jesse James. Most of the details in the family oral history of the Centralia event can be verified in the book entitled 'Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy.' However, the story handed down in the family (through S.D. Elliott--Toad--and Ollie Clark, two of J.C. Mobley's grandchildren) was that Anderson asked if there were any DOCTORS among the Union soldiers and one stood up expecting to be shot, while J.C. Mobley remained sitting although he was a doctor. Instead, the man who stood was the only survivor, and all the others were killed and decapitated with their heads displayed to further terrorize the Centralia residents. However, Brownlee's report is that Anderson asked if there were any OFFICERS on board, and only one man stood up, a sergeant in the MO Engineers named Thomas Goodman. He was taken as captive to their camp, tortured, and later released for his bravery, the only Union survivor from the train. There doesn't seem to be any documentation of J.C. Mobley's being a doctor, so maybe the oral version was changed as it was handed down two to three generations. As of January, 2004, James's burial place has not been documented. Anderson's raid and the death of the Union soldiers can be documented with James C. Mobley's US govt. military veterans' records (General Services Administration) and in 'Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861-1865' by Richard S. Brownlee, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, pp. 216-218. Brownlee cites the following newspapers for details of the Centralia massacre: St. Louis Democrat, September 28, 30, 1864; Statesman, September 30, 1864; Columbia, Missouri Herald, September 24, 1897. Cpl. Mobley left a wife and four children who later emigrated from Iowa to southeast Kansas after his widow Cyrena (nee Harris)married a William Robbins.

Sgt. Edward M. Pace was an Artificer, Co. G, 1st Regiment. Missouri Engineers, Union Army. He was discharged on September 20, 1864, by reason of completion of his service. He was on his way home to New Market, Iowa, with twenty-three other Union Soldiers. 125 passengers were aboard the train that day. Bill Anderson and a band of bushwhackers attacked the train at Centralia Missouri. Only one soldier survived the attack. Later that day, US Army Major Andrew V. E. Johnston led 146 men of the newly formed 39th Missouri Infantry Regiment (Mounted) in pursuit of Anderson and his men. Major Johnston and his men were ambushed and massacred. The Union Soldiers were placed in a mass grave at Centralia. The bodies of the soldiers that were killed in the Centralia Massacre (taken from the train and killed) were first buried at Mexico, MO. They were relocated after the war to St Louis at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. -Craig Asbury Sgt. Edward M. Pace is (most likely) buried in the Unknown Soldiers Section.

Jefferson Waller is my 3rd great grand uncle

B.Mar 18 1832.Mississippi. D. Aug 8 1911 Kentwood Tangipahoa LA. Enlisted Paris Edgar Co. ILL. Sep 15 1861 Missouri Volunteers 1st State Militia . {wife -Mary Elizabeth Tate 1835-1876 married 1852 ST.Helena}

Charles was with the 25th Missouri Infantry when their unit was merged with the First Engineers of the West to form the ist Missouri Engineers. In 1864 they were assigned to General Shermans Army of the Tennesee and participated in Battles from Chatanooga, Atlanta and the Carolinas. They were present at the last Battle, The Battle of Bentonville, NC. When Confederate General Johnston surrened on 26 April 1865 it effectively ended all the War. The 1st Missouri Engineers marched to Washington, DC to participate in the Grand Review Parade in May 1865 and then were transported to Louisville, Ky.