Financial fraud and guerrilla violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865
By: Mark W. Geiger.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 306
ISBN-13: 9780300151510
Subjects: Fraud -- Missouri -- History -- 19th century; Bank fraud -- Missouri -- History -- 19th century; Conspiracies -- Missouri -- History -- 19th century; Guerrillas -- Missouri -- History -- 19th century; Violence -- Missouri -- History -- 19th century; Regionalism -- Missouri -- History -- 19th century; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Finance; Missouri -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Finance; Missouri -- Economic conditions -- 19th century; Missouri -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
Description: "This highly original work explores the impact of a previously unknown financial conspiracy at the beginning of the American Civil War. In early 1861, pro-Confederate militia units formed throughout Missouri to defend the state's expected secession. To arm the volunteers, a group of senior state politicians and bankers secretly plotted to divert money from Missouri's banks and the state treasury. The scheme backfired and set off a chain of events that permanently altered the state's political economy. This episode contributes new data to several larger questions of Civil War history, including the causes of wartime guerrilla violence, postwar leadership persistence in the New South, changes to sectional boundaries, and how the hostile armies mobilized for war"--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Financial conspiracy; title: New banks; title: New bankers; title: Insider lending; title: The Unionists regain control; title: Guerrillas; title: The transformation of regional identity; title: War and the administrative state.