DK - The American Civil War

Missouri and Kentucky

While Missouri remained in the Union, it was beset by the war’s worst violence on both sides. The more

strategically important state of Kentucky tried to maintain a neutral stance early on, but eventually fell

into the Union camp due to Confederate missteps and Lincoln’s political dexterity.

SECESSION TRIGGERS WAR 1861

M

issouri was no stranger to

sectional violence. The state’s

role in the problems of

“Bleeding Kansas” across the border

in the 1850s, where its pro-slavery

settlers battled Free-Soilers, had

become a prologue to the Civil War.

Nevertheless, Union sentiment in

the territory had great strength, and

nearly three-quarters of the white

Missourians who served as Civil War

soldiers fought for the Union.

Unfortunately for Missouri, a

complex tangle of personalities and

politics stirred up a hornet’s nest. The

BEFORE

While Missouri had helped inflame

sectional tensions before the war, the

state of Kentucky had been a source of

moderation and compromise.

CLAY THE COMPROMISER

Kentucky produced the greatest prewar

compromiser, Senator Henry Clay, while Senator

John J. Crittenden from the same state tried to

broker another compromise in 1861. If Clay had

won the presidency in 1844 he would have rejected

the annexation of Texas and probably prevented

the War with Mexico. Without the problem over

slavery in the new territories ❮❮ 22–23, the Civil

War might well have been averted.

MISSOURI AND “BLEEDING KANSAS”

Not only had Missouri been the center of the

controversy over slavery that led to the

Missouri Compromise of 1820, pro-slavery

settlers there had caused much sectional

violence in the 1850s across the border in

“Bleeding Kansas” ❮❮ 30–31, where they

clashed with Free-Soilers—some of whom had

emigrated from New

England. During the

Civil War, Free-Soil

Kansans served in

Missouri, and Missouri

guerrillas engaged in

cross-border raids.

state’s governor, Claiborne F.

Jackson, was a staunch

secessionist and did

everything in his power

to deliver the state

for the Confederacy.

Opposing him were

Francis P. Blair, Jr.,

of the politically

important Blair family,

and Captain Nathaniel

Lyon, U.S. Army, who

commanded the U.S.

arsenal at St. Louis. Lyon

was vigorous and aggressive,

warning Jackson, “Rather than

concede to the State of

Missouri ... the right to

dictate to my Government

... I would see ... every

man, woman, and child

in the State, dead and

buried.” Anti-immigrant

Crittenden of Kentucky

Senator John Crittenden expended

huge efforts in trying to avert war by

a compromise over the extension of

slave states—but he did help to prevent

his own state from seceding.

AID COMPANY SIGN FOR
NEW ENGLANDERS

Anger in St. Louis

Riots broke out in St. Louis after Captain Lyon took

the secessionist Fort Jackson. Southern sympathizers

targeted Lyon’s hurriedly recruited German militia

army for their anti-slavery sentiments.