Here’s a few fascinating facts about Missouri’s role in the American Civil War. The important thing to remember is that Missouri was heavily engaged in the American Civil War just as much, if not more, than most of the states east of the Mississippi River. Over 1,000 battles and skirmishes were fought in the state. Her story and legacy is worthy of preserving and promoting.  You can help in creating the Missouri Civil War Museum so future generations will never forget the sacrifices of our ancestors.  Please check out our “How You Can Help” page and look for one of the many ways you can make a difference and help preserve history by actually getting involved and helping make it. 
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  • Prior to the war, Missourians voted overwhelmingly against secession. The state legislature and the state convention, while being anti-secession, expressed their sympathy for the South by opposing Federal military action against the departing States. Many people believed that some southern states (original colonies) had the right to leave the Union but many of the same believed that Missouri did not have this right because it had been purchased with Federal funds as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Many people did conclude however, that if the Federal Government invaded these states in order to prevent their departure, Missouri could choose to side with her “sister slave states.”
  • During the 1860 presidential election, Missouri elected the pro-Union Democratic candidate, Stephen Douglas. Abraham Lincoln received less than 11% of the Missouri state vote. In fact over half of these (17,028) votes were from the city of St. Louis alone.
  • Missouri was in fact a slave state and a “Border State.” It had approximately 114,931 slaves as well as 3,572 free blacks residing in it at the outbreak of the Civil War. Missouri’s total population in 1860 was about 1,181,982.
  • As a result of a power struggle for the state’s military resources, a confrontation between State and Federal forces brought the first bloodshed to Missouri. What became known as the “Camp Jackson Massacre” in St. Louis occurred on May 10, 1861.
  • Missouri was the only state in history, when proclaiming to be part of the United States, where the U.S. Army declared a state of war existed between it and the Federal government. The initial war declaration occurred at the Planters House Hotel in St. Louis in May 1861 between Federal commander Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson.
  • The first military action of Missouri state forces occurred with the seizure of the Federal arsenal at Liberty, Mo. on April 20, 1861.
  • The first skirmish between Missouri State Guard and Federal forces occurred at the Battle of Boonville, June 17th, 1861. It was a Union victory.
  • Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson is the only elected functional governor in United States history to have commanded troops in combat. In this case, he led the Missouri State Guard troops against Federal forces.
  • St. Louis was frequently inundated by wounded soldiers arriving from the battlefields aboard hospital steamboats. Sometimes 800 wounded soldiers or more would arrive in a single day. The city’s streets were filled with walking sick and wounded from “the levee on Chestnut Street up to the Planters House [Hotel] on 4th Street.” Early in the war, the Confederate wounded POWs arriving on steamboat went to the Sisters of Charity Hospital and the Union wounded were sent to the City Hospital. A number of other hospitals were also used. In 1862, Jefferson Barracks was converted into a military hospital with more than 3,000 beds for Union soldiers. At times during the war, Jefferson Barracks cared for more wounded soldiers than any other hospital in both the North or the South.  This is what ultimately caused Jefferson Barrack to become a National Cemetery, due to the large amount of deaths that were occurring at the post’s hospitals. Where there was a large amount of death, there was an immediate need for a burial place. Benton Barracks located in north St. Louis provided a 1,000 bed convalescent hospital and actually opened a segregated black hospital in April of 1864 for colored soldiers and sick contraband slaves.
  • Missouri had two state governments during the Civil War, one seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy in 1861, and the other remained loyal to the Union.
  • Missouri supplied 110,000 troops for the Union and a minimum of 40,000 troops to the Confederacy (the actual number of Missouri Confederates is unknown as many Missourians joined non-Missouri units).
  • Samuel Clemons, alias Mark Twain, in St. Louis in 1861 escaped from being conscripted as a Missouri River pilot for Gen. Lyon’s forces heading for Jefferson City. Clemons then enlisted as a lieutenant in the pro-Southern Ralls County Rangers, but soldier life was so miserable he resigned his commission. Later in life, Twain reported that his nearest encounter with the Union Army was riding as a passenger on a steamboat down the Mississippi River. A shot was fired from Jefferson Barracks when the ship was attempting to run through a restricted area.
  • The last public auction of slaves in St. Louis took place on Jan.1 1861. A rowdy crowd of Republican “Wide Awakes” forced the sale to close. Slaves continued to be sold in the city discreetly with traders sending slaves to auctions in Kentucky. On March 1, 1864 General William Rosecrans ordered the sale practice stopped.
  • Approximately 31,000 German immigrants served in Missouri Union regiments. Most of these came from St. Louis. At least six regiments were entirely German.
  • Hamilton R. Gamble, the provisional Union Governor of Missouri, like Gov. Claiborne Jackson’s government, was adamantly opposed to the abolition of slavery.
  • On Aug. 30th 1861 Gen. John C. Fremont issued a proclamation that contained a provision to emancipate Missouri slaves owned by those that have taken up arms against the Federal government. Lincoln, shortly thereafter, had it rescinded. According to a policy recently approved by Congress, slaves could only be freed if they were actively being used for “insurrectionary purposes.”
  • St. Louis was put under martial law by Federal authorities on August 14, 1861. It was extended across the entire state of Missouri on Aug. 31st. and remained in force until the end of the war.
  • James B. Eads built the following ironclads and monitors for Federal service at Carondelet, Missouri (now part of the city of St. Louis): Ironclads:  U.S.S. St. Louis (later named theU.S.S. Baron De Kalb ,  U.S.S. Carondelet, U.S.S. Louisville, U.S.S. Pittsburgh., U.S.S. Fort Henry,  U.S.S. Essex,  U.S.S. Choctaw (ironclad ram). The following iron warships were built by Eads at Carondelet:  U.S.S. Neosho (river monitor); U.S.S. Osage (river monitor, identical twin of the Neosho),   U.S.S. Winnebago (double turreted river monitor),  U.S.S. Milwaukee(monitor), and the U.S.S. Chickasaw (river monitor).
  • Missouri is the state with the third largest number of engagements (1,162 battles and skirmishes) fought during the Civil War. (Only Virginia and Tennessee had more.)
  • Missouri became the 12th state admitted in the Confederate States of America.
  • Osceola, Missouri, the county seat of St. Clair County, was shelled and burned by Kansas troops under Union General James H. Lane. More than $1,000,000 worth of property, including that belonging to pro-Union citizens was destroyed.
  • Approximately 50 Missourians, including its pilot, James Brady, served aboard the Confederate ironclad, the C.S.S. Arkansas, which successfully fired its way through the Federal blockade of Vicksburg, Mississippi. This included a duel with the St. Louis built ironclad U.S.S. Carondelet, which avoided being sunk by the Arkansas by running aground in shallow water.
  • The city of St. Louis, with its large pro-Union German immigrant population, supplied more troops to the Union than any northern city west of the Mississippi. It also supplied more Union troops than most cities east of the Mississippi.
  • The city of St. Louis, traditionally a Southern city with a large pro-Confederate Irish minority, supplied more troops to the Confederacy than any city west of the Mississippi. It also supplied more Confederate troops than most cities east of the Mississippi. While it is impossible to ascertain the exact numbers, St. Louisans filled eight infantry companies, seven artillery batteries, and two companies of cavalry, in addition to hundreds of recruits filling non-Missouri units, i.e. Co. A, 13th Arkansas Infantry, which was known as a “St. Louis company”, etc.). Very few Southern cities, with the known exception of New Orleans, could have exceeded this enlistment.
  • Two iron Federal warships were built in St. Louis during the war. Both were monitor class ships with revolving turrets. They were the U.S.S. Etlah and U.S.S. Shiloh. They were built by McCord & Steel at their St. Louis National Iron-Works.
  • On Aug 25, 1863, in retaliation for the massacre and burning of Lawrence, Kansas by Confederate Missouri guerillas under William C. Quantrill, Gen. Thomas Ewing ordered the evacuation and burning of four Missouri counties (Cass, Jackson, Bates and portions of Vernon). Many residents were robbed or murdered by Kansas troops.
  • The former U.S. snagboat Benton, was converted into the ironclad warship, the U.S.S. Benton,by Morse & Daggett of the St. Louis Dry Dock Company, under supervision of James B. Eads.
  • Missouri witnessed the first engagement of colored soldiers in combat during the Civil War long before the Emancipation Proclamation was passed.
  • Missouri’s first black unit, 1st Regiment Missouri Colored Infantry, (later designated as the 62nd U.S. Colored Troops) was organized at Benton Barracks ( St. Louis) in December of 1863. This unit was composed of both freemen and former slaves. It saw service in the swamps of Louisiana, and eventually seeing combat at the last battle of the war, the Battle of Palmitto Ranch, Texas ((May 13, 1865). Although Union forces lost the battle, the 62nd Commander, Col. Theodore H. Barrett, stated the operation “demonstrated the fact that the Negro soldier can march; …keep order in the ranks and be depended upon under trying circumstances.” A total of 8,300 black Missourians enlisted in the Union Army by the end of the war.
  • On October 29, 1864 at Fort No. 4 (near present day Lafayette Square) in St. Louis, six Confederate POWs, innocent of war crimes, were picked at random and ordered executed by firing squad by Gen. William Rosecrans. This was done in retaliation for six Union soldiers executed by Confederates at nearby Union, Missouri.  These six soldiers were then taken to Jefferson Barracks where they are now interred side by side.
  • While Gen. William T. Sherman and Missouri Union forces were participating in the “march to the sea” in late 1864, Gen. Sterling Price was marching his forces on a “Missouri raid” that came to within the outskirts of St. Louis (Gen. Sherman’s hometown). The Price expedition covered 1,434 miles, included 43 battles/skirmishes; captured/paroled 3,000 Federal soldiers; captured 16 colors (flags); 18 pieces of artillery; and inflicted $10,000,000 worth of destruction. It was primarily a cavalry operation, considered by some to be the longest raid of the Civil War, although slower than a typical raid. Price’s forces met disaster at Westport and Newtonia, Missouri and Mine Creek, Kansas.
  • The largest battle west of the Mississippi occurred at Westport, Missouri. The battle, sometimes referred to as the “Gettysburg of the West,” took place on October 23, 1864.
  • Missouri Union forces lost 3,317 killed/mortally wounded; 9,243 died of disease; 225 died as POW’s; 487 deaths from accidents; 613 other non-battle deaths; total: 13,885 source: Dyer’s Compendium.
  • 27,000 total Missouri citizens (Confederate and Union loyalties) are estimated to having been killed in the Civil War.
  • Approximately one out of every 10 people in Missouri during the Civil War was a slave.
  • When Missouri slaves were emancipated in 1865 before the Civil War was over, it amounted to a $40,000,000 investment loss to Missouri slaveholders.
  • In the fall elections of 1864, the Republican Party won control of the Missouri state government. A new state constitution was drafted and a test oath administered. Those not taking the oath were to vacate all state offices, not allowed to vote, preach, or to teach school.  Missouri Supreme Court justices that objected to the unconstitutionality were evicted by force on May 1st, 1865. One of those barred from voting was Union Gen. Frank P. Blair, founder of the Missouri Republican party who refused to take the oath on grounds of principle.  In 1866, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the test oath was unconstitutional and by 1870 it was completely removed by voters of the state.

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