Turbulent partnership: Missouri and the Union, 1861-1865

the long version

Several years ago Allan Nevins pointed out that Missouri was "of critical importance to the salvation of the Union" in the Civil War. The richest and most heavily populated state of the trans-Mississippi West, Missouri was the key to political, economic, and, and military control of the western borderline. In the present work, the author makes a careful study of the fight among unconditional unionists, conditional unionist, and secessionists for control of Missouri.