![]() Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War The state of Missouri witnessed the most widespread, prolonged, and destructive guerrilla fighting in American history. A horrific combination of robbery, arson, torture, murder, and swift and bloody raids on farms and settlements. |
Missouri Civil War Map of Battles![]() |
![]() The Civil War in Missouri, Day by Day, 1861 to 1865 Follow as events transpire across Missouri within those four long years. From raids and pursuit of the outlaws to the hunting down of Southern sympathizers and the Federal scouting parties across the state |
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Background: Slavery in Missouri
Slavery was not a "Southern" problem alone. Many northern states phased out slavery as late as the 1830s, and states such as Delaware and New Jersey still had slave-owning residents as late as 1860. On a local level, residents of Illinois owned slaves (under long-term indenture agreements of 40 years or longer) during the period of the Dred Scott trials, and a special provision in the Illinois constitution allowed slaves to work in the salt mines across the Mississippi from St. Louis as long as they were not held there for over one year at a stretch. Many people in southern Illinois supported slavery. No slaves in the St. Louis area picked cotton however, and few worked in farm fields. Most worked as stevedores and draymen on the riverfront, on riverboats, in the lead and salt mines, as handymen, janitors and porters (like Dred Scott), and as maids, nannies, and laundresses (like Harriet Scott). |
![]() The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America Go behind the scenes of the crucial Missouri Compromise, the most important sectional crisis before the Civil War, the high-level deal-making, diplomacy, and deception that defused the crisis. |
St Luis Court House |
![]() Civil War St. Louis Rough-and-tumble St. Louis played a key role as a strategic staging ground for the Union army. A citadel of free labor in a slave state, it also harbored deeply divided loyalties that mirrored those of its troubled nation |
![]() Bloody Bill Anderson: The Short, Savage Life of a Civil War Guerrilla For a brief but dramatic period, Bloody Bill played the leading role in the most violent arena of the entire war-and did so with a vicious abandon that spread fear throughout the land |
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![]() Guide to Missouri Confederate Units The origins and history of Missouri Confederate units that served during the Civil War. Deeply torn, some Missourians chose sides enthusiastically, others reluctantly. The several thousand that sided with the Confederacy earned reputations for hard fighting exceeded by few other states, North or South |
![]() Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border The western front was the scene of some of that conflict's bloodiest and most barbaric encounters as Union raiders and Confederate guerrillas pursued each other from farm to farm with equal disregard for civilian casualties |
![]() Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri I wanted to know more about Jesse James and what was going on in Missouri during the time of the war. This book gave me a good basic understanding. It was very easy reading and helpful |
![]() Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It In 1861, Americans were preoccupied by the question of which states would join the secession movement and which would remain loyal to the Union. In Missouri, it was largely settled at Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, in a contest that is rightly considered the second major battle of the Civil War |
![]() Three Years With Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout John McCorkle Quantrill is often maligned as a psychopathic killer and a despot. McCorkle refutes this common claim by the writers of the winner's history, shows that Quantrill was a compassionate and honorable man. He shows a side to the War of Northern Aggression that is rarely told |
![]() Charles W. Quantrell A True History Of His Guerilla Warfare On The Missouri And Kansas Border During The Civil War Of 1861-1865 This book was written just as Captain Harrison Trow told it to John P. Burch, giving accounts of fights that he participated in, narrow escapes experienced, dilemmas it seemed almost impossible to get out of, and also other battles |
![]() Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War This places James within a specific political context, showing why it was possible for this murderous bandit to emerge as a folk hero among Southern sympathizers following the Civil War in which he fought as a teenager |
![]() The Confederate Army 1861-65 Missouri, Kentucky & Maryland Each state's militia and the volunteer regiments that were pressed into Confederate service in the initial stages of the war. Early war military units, their uniforms and accoutrements. How the transition occurred from locally supplied clothing and equipment to state-issued regulation Confederate uniforms |
![]() Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union |
![]() Civil War Combat: America's Bloodiest Battles The violent mayhem of the hornet's nest at Shiloh, the valiant charge on the sunken road at Antietam, the carnage in the wheat field at Gettysburg, and the brutal fighting at Cold Harbor |
![]() Civil War Journal - The Conflict Begins These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war. |
![]() The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one |
![]() Ride With The Devil The bloody feud among neighbors in the border state of Missouri. In this war zone the destinies of several young Southern bushwhackers as they experience the violence and the seasons |
![]() Brother Against Brother: The American Civil War Fort Sumter, to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Features battle reconstructions and depictions of army life, eyewitness accounts, period photographs and engravings, plus commentary and analyses. |
![]() History Channel Presents The Civil War From Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, and First Bull Run to Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The most legendary Civil War battles in brilliant detail. A selection of the soldiers and legendary leaders. |
![]() The Blue and the Gray The Complete Miniseries The Civil War proved a backdrop for this 1982 miniseries. Complete and uncut three disc set. Two families divided by the War Between the States. A Southerner caught when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper. He finds himself where history's in the making from the Battle of Bull Run to Abraham Lincoln's assassination |
![]() Missouri State Flag |
Centered on red, white and blue fields is the Missouri state seal. It is encircled by a blue band with twenty-four stars representing the number of states in 1821. The stars in the inner circle have the same meaning. Two huge grizzly bears support the circular shield in the center which has three parts. |
Missouri State Seal![]()
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![]() 4th Missouri |
Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress
Federal Citizen.

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