During the American Civil War, Missouri was a hotly contested southern border state populated by both Union and Confederate sympathizers. It sent armies, generals, and supplies to both sides, maintained dual governments, and endured a bloody neighbor-against-neighbor intrastate war within the larger national war.
A slave state since statehood in 1821, Missouri's geographic position in the central region of the country and at the rural edge of the American frontier ensured that it remained a divisive battleground for competing Northern and Southern ideologies in the years preceding the war. When the war began in 1861, it became clear that control of the Mississippi River and the burgeoning economic hub of St. Louis would make Missouri a strategic territory in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and at least 40,000 in the Confederate Army; many had also fought with bands of pro–Confederate partisans known as "bushwhackers".Piston, William Barrett. The Battle of Wilson's Creek and The Struggle of Missouri. American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved January 30, 2021.Missouri Secretary of State, "Abstract of Wars & Military Engagements: War of 1812 through World War I"Missouri Civil War Museum The war in Missouri was continuous between 1861 and 1865, with battles and skirmishes in all areas of the state, from the Iowa and Illinois borders in the northeast to the Arkansas border in the southeast and southwest. Counting minor actions and skirmishes, Missouri saw more than 1,200 distinct engagements within its boundaries; only Virginia and Tennessee exceeded this total.
The first major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River took place on August 10, 1861, at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, while the largest battle west of the Mississippi River was the Battle of Westport in Kansas City in 1864.
Origins
Missouri Compromise
Missouri was initially settled predominantly by Southerners, who traveled up the Mississippi River. Many brought slaves with them. Missouri entered the Union in 1821 as a slave state following the Missouri Compromise of 1820, in which Congress agreed that slavery would be illegal in all territory north of 36°30' latitude, except Missouri. The compromise was that Maine would enter the Union as a free state to balance Missouri. The compromise was proposed by Henry Clay.
Bleeding Kansas The Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses through which runaway slaves could find protection and refuge while heading north, was already established in the state, and slave owners were worried about the possibility of Missouri's entire western border becoming a conduit for the Underground Railroad if adjacent territories were made free states.
In 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act nullified the policy set by the Missouri Compromise by permitting the Kansas and Nebraska Territories to vote on whether they would join the Union as free or slave states. The result was a de facto war between pro-slavery residents of Missouri, called "Border Ruffians", and anti-slavery "Free-Staters" of Kansas, each of which sought to influence how Kansas entered the Union. The conflict involved attacks and murders of supporters on both sides, with the Sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces and the Pottawatomie massacre led by abolitionist John Brown the most notable. Kansas initially approved a pro-slavery constitution called the Lecompton Constitution, but after the U.S. Congress rejected it, the state approved the anti-slavery Wyandotte Constitution and was admitted to the Union in January 1861. The violence along the Kansas–Missouri border foreshadowed the national violence to come, and indeed continued throughout the Civil War.
Dred Scott decision
Against the background of Bleeding Kansas, the case of Dred Scott, a slave who in 1846 had sued for his family's freedom in St. Louis, reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1857, the Supreme Court handed down its decision, ruling not only that slaves were not automatically made free simply by entering a free state, but more controversially that no one of African ancestry was considered a U.S. citizen and therefore that African-Americans could not initiate legal action in any court, even when they clearly had what would otherwise be a valid claim. The decision calmed the skirmishes between Missouri and Kansas partisans, but its publicity enraged abolitionists nationwide and contributed to the vitriolic rhetoric that led to the Civil War. The judge present was Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
Armed neutrality By 1860, Missouri's initial southern settlers had been supplanted with a more diversified non-slave-holding population, including northerners and immigrants from Europe, particularly Germans and Irish. With war seeming inevitable, Missouri hoped to stay out of the conflict by remaining a part of the Union but militarily neutral – not sending men or supplies to either side and pledging to fight troops from either side who entered the state. The policy was first put forth in 1860 by outgoing Governor Robert Marcellus Stewart, who had Northern leanings. It was reaffirmed by incoming Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, who had Southern leanings. Jackson, however, stated in his inaugural address that in case of federal "coercion" of southern states, Missouri should support and defend her "sister southern states". A Constitutional Convention to discuss secession was convened with Sterling Price presiding. The delegates voted to stay in the Union and supported the neutrality position.
In the United States presidential election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln received only 10 percent of Missouri's votes, while 71 percent favored either John Bell or Stephen A. Douglas, both of whom wanted to maintain the status quo. Douglas won the Missouri vote over Bell, making it the only state Douglas carried outright (he also won the popular vote in New Jersey, but split that state's electoral votes with Lincoln), with the remaining 19 percent siding with Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge.
At the time of the 1860 U.S. census, Missouri's total population was 1,182,012, of which 114,931 (9.7%) were slaves. Most of the slaves lived in rural areas rather than cities. Of the 299,701 responses to "Occupation", 124,989 people listed "Farmers" and 39,396 listed "Farm Laborers". The next highest categories were "Laborers" (30,668), "Blacksmiths" (4,349), and "Merchants" (4,245).
Less than half the state's population was listed as native-born (475,246, or 40%). Those who had migrated from other states were predominantly from Kentucky (99,814), Tennessee (73,504), Virginia (53,937), Ohio (35,380), Indiana (30,463), and Illinois (30,138), with fewer numbers from other states. 906,540 people (77%) were listed as born in the United States. Of the 160,541 foreign-born residents of Missouri, most came from the German states (88,487), Ireland (43,481), England (10,009), France (5,283), and Switzerland (4,585). + Most populous cities Population City 160,773 St. Louis 9,485 District No. 18 in Callaway County 8,932 St. Joseph 6,503 Hannibal 5,848 Central St. Louis County 4,789 St. Ferdinand in St. Louis County 4,474 Blue in Jackson County 4,418 Kansas City 4,122 Lexington
+ Most populous counties Population County 190,524 St. Louis County 23,861 Buchanan County 22,896 Jackson County 20,038 Lafayette County 19,486 Boone County 18,838 Marion County 18,417 Pike County 18,350 Platte County
+ Counties with the most slaves Slaves County 6,374 Lafayette County 5,886 Howard County 5,034 Boone County 4,876 Saline County 4,523 Callaway County 4,346 St. Louis County 4,055 Pike County 3,944 Jackson County 3,313 Platte County 3,021 Monroe County 3,017 Marion County
Commencement of hostilities
In the election of 1860, Missouri's newly elected governor was Claiborne Fox Jackson, a career politician and an ardent supporter of the South. Jackson campaigned as a Douglas Democrat, favoring a conciliatory program on issues that divided the country. After Jackson's election, however, he immediately began working behind the scenes to promote Missouri's secession. In addition to planning to seize the federal arsenal at St. Louis, Jackson conspired with senior Missouri bankers to illegally divert money from the banks to arm state troops, a measure that the Missouri General Assembly had so far refused to take.
The capture of Camp Jackson
Missouri's nominal neutrality was tested early on in a conflict over the St. Louis Arsenal. The Federal Government reinforced the Arsenal's tiny garrison with several detachments, most notably Company B of the US 2nd Infantry under Captain Nathaniel Lyon. The other federal arsenal in Missouri, Liberty Arsenal, had been captured on April 20, by secessionist militias. Concerned by widespread reports that Governor Jackson intended to use the Missouri Volunteer Militia to attack the St. Louis Arsenal and capture its stock of 39,000 small arms, Secretary of War Simon Cameron ordered Lyon (by that time a brevet general in acting command) to evacuate the majority of the munitions out of the state. 21,000 guns were secretly evacuated to Alton, Illinois, on the evening of April 29.
Lyon also organized a pro-Union "Home Guard", mainly composed of German immigrants. Many of these were "Forty-eighters" (radical political refugees).
Meanwhile, Governor Jackson called up the State Militia under Brigadier General Daniel M. Frost for maneuvers at Camp Jackson in suburban St. Louis. These maneuvers were recognized by Lyon as preparation to seize the Arsenal. Lyon learned that Confederate artillery had been secretly delivered to Camp Jackson on May 9. The next day, Lyon led the Home Guard to surprise Camp Jackson and capture the Militia. While the Militia were marching under guard to the Arsenal, a riot erupted. Lyon's troops opened fire on the attacking crowd, killing 28 people and injuring 100.
The next day, the Missouri General Assembly authorized the formation of a Missouri State Guard with Major General Sterling Price as its commander, supposedly to resist invasions from either side. However, Governor Claiborne and Price had both sent envoys requesting Confederate troops come to Missouri and aid in driving out the Union forces. William S. Harney, federal commander of the Department of the West, moved to quiet the situation by agreeing to Missouri neutrality in the Price-Harney Truce. This led to Confederate sympathizers taking over most of Missouri, with pro-Unionists being harassed and forced to leave. President Lincoln overruled the truce agreement and relieved Harney of command, replacing him with Lyon.