From: jsanders@phys.ksu.edu (Justin M. Sanders)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Re: Slavery in the Old Northwest
Date: 26 Jan 1993 04:40:11 GMT
Organization: Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: bohr.phys.ksu.edu

In article <1993Jan26.010114.19377@leland.Stanford.EDU> 
whale@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stephen Schmidt) writes:

>In article <1993Jan25.161050.1@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu> 
>cowan@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu (P.L. Cowan) writes:
>>I remember something about the distribution of slaves in Missouri. There were
>>supposedly more slaves (and pro-slavery sentiment) in the northern part of the
>>state than in the south. This factoid seems to be in contratiction to the 
>>way the fighting developed in that state. Does anyone have confirmation?
>
The Missouri river, which crosses the state from St. Louis to Kansas City
was (along with the Mississippi, of course), the main determiner of
settlement patterns.  The highest populations were along the two rivers,
and the highest slave populations were in the counties along the Missouri
river where hemp cultivation was important.  After the War, the Missouri
river counties were called "Little Dixie".  The southern part of the
state was the least populous (except for Springfield), had very
few slaves, and little in the way of natural transportation.

>I can't confirm one way or the other, but I would note that the location
>of the fighting was determined mostly by supply bases. Confederate supplies
>had to come north from Arkansas, Union supplies came south from Saint Louis,
>so not suprisingly most of the battles took place along roads or rail heads
>leading south from St. Louis, except when the Confederates came north which
>happened once resulting in the battle of Lexington (if I'm remembering the
>name correctly :) in the northern part of the state.

You do remember the name correctly.  The development of the war in 
Missouri went like this:  there were strong Union forces in St. Louis
in the spring of 1861, pro-CSA forces were only authorized by the
legislature in May 1861.  The Missouri river provided the Union forces
with easy access to the river counties in the north, so the pro-CSA
forces (under Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price) withdrew to the Springfield
area to organize without too much pressure from the Union.  After
the Battle of Wilson's Creek, where Price's Missourians were aided by
McCulloch's CSA forces, Price reoccupied Springfield and the rump pro-CSA
legislature passed an Ordinance of Secession and applied for admission
to the CSA in late Oct, 1861.  At the same time, Price moved northward
and besieged Lexington (approx 50 mi east of Kansas City).  After a
siege of about a week, the Union forces surrendered, but with another
Union force steaming up-river, Price withdrew (BTW there is a State 
Park at the Lexington battlefield-- if you are ever in the Kansas City
area, you should try to stop by). 

In 1864, Price's Raid took place.  Price marched north out of Arkansas,
touched the Missouri river near Jefferson City, then headed west toward
Kansas City.  At Westport (now part of KC), he fought the last major
battle in Missouri and was soundly thrashed.  As Steve points out,
the fact that invasions of Missouri had to be staged from Arkansas
meant necessarily that organized military efforts would be limited
to the area south of the Mo. river.

>   Guerilla warfare and assorted terrorism wouldn't have to follow this
>pattern: I think most of it took place along the Kansas border without
>much regard to north/south location. Not sure of that.

The border was the worst area.  In August, 1863, Gen. Ewing issued
Order #11 which required the forced evacuation of 4 border counties (this
was prompted by Quantrill's Lawrence (KS) raid).  An excellent account
of guerilla war in Missouri, dealing with the sociological aspects
of it, and how it affected the post-war state as well, is

   Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri
     During the American Civil War (Oxford U. Pr, 1989).

--
Justin M. Sanders    "As the grandest mill in the world will not
Dept. of Physics      extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages
Kansas State Univ.    of formulae will not get a definite result
Manhattan, KS         from loose data."  -- T.H. Huxley
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa