The Civil War's First Blood
Missouri, 1854-1861
By
James Denny & John Bradbury
Most Missourians have no clue how devastating the Civil War was to their state. Only Virginia and Tennessee had more battles and skirmishes than Missouri. Missouri supplied 110,000 troops to the Union and at least 40,000 to the Confederacy and 27,000 Missouri citizens lost their lives in the conflict.
Between the shelling of Ft. Sumter and First Manassas, generally considered the first battles of the Civil war;
- 28 people, mainly civilians, were killed and about 100 injured in the streets of St. Louis in the aftermath of the Camp Jackson Affair.
- The following day and additional 4 soldiers and 9 civilians died in St. Louis in a clash between Southern sympathizers and German soldiers.
- Secessionists seized the federal arsenal at Liberty Missouri.
- Pro and anti Union forces clashed at Booneville, Jackson, Farmington, Carthage, Dry Fork Creek, Neosho, Spring River, Monroe Station, Wentzville, Mexico, Parkersville, Fulton, Harrisonville and Martinsburg Missouri.
First Blood is a very readable and well illustrated account of events in Missouri and Kansas leading up to the war; Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott etc., and the very eventful year of 1861.
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Comments: 2
Most Missouri soldiers, Confederate and Federal stayed in the state and the majority were irregulars who either raided or tried to protect their communities from other raiders. By the end of the war, much of the state was a desert with no humans or livestock due to widespread butchery on both sides. Missouri was THE worst theater of the entire war and arguably harder hit by it than even Virginia.
Inside War by Micheal Fellman is probably the best book on this miserable state of war and while a depressing read, highlights the fact that in some places this war was not even remotely civil. Missouri was the dark side of the civil war in the United States.