The Civil War in Missouri exhibition at the Missouri History Museum opened in 2011 and will remain open until 2013—but don’t be lulled into thinking “there’s plenty of time” and allowing it to get away, because it’s a fascinating show. The exhibit makes uses of paintings, artifacts of war and politics, video, audio and interactive displays. A particularly interesting interactive invites the visitor to judge the cases of real Missourians, determining whether they were rebel or loyal.
Our state saw few big battles, and none of them were as important and celebrated as Shiloh and Vicksburg, but there was plenty of bloodshed. As usual, Missouri was caught in the middle, sharing borders with Confederate and Union states, as well as “bleeding Kansas.” Long before Fort Sumter, the lines of conflict within Missouri were drawn. St. Louis was a northern-style city of industry and trade, but much of the rest of the state was agricultural and dependent on slave labor.
Once war broke out, Missouri had both union and rebel governments, and was officially part of the USA and CSA, a distinction shared with only one other state (Kentucky). Loyalists made sure to keep the strategically vital city of St. Louis in union hands throughout the war, but the western and southern parts of Missouri saw prolonged and bitter warfare with leaders who were more outlaws or war lords than generals. Guerilla warfare was sometimes savage. The U.S. Army had to take drastic measures to restore order. This repression seems more characteristic of the twentieth than the nineteenth century.
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Tickets are $10 for adults, but city and county residents can get in free on Tuesday. Details are at mohistory.org.