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In the context of the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states were
slave state In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
s that did not secede from the
Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''U ...
. They were Delaware,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...
, Kentucky, and
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, and after 1863, the new state of
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
. To their north they bordered free states of the Union and to their south they bordered slave states of the Confederacy, with Delaware being an exception to the latter. Of the 34
U.S. states In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
in 1861, nineteen were free states and fifteen were slave including the four border states; each of the latter held a comparatively low percentage of slaves. Delaware never declared for secession.
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...
was largely prevented from seceding by local unionists and federal troops. Two others, Kentucky, and
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
saw rival governments, although their territory mostly stayed in Union control. Four others did not declare for secession until after the
Battle of Fort Sumter The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12–13, 1861) was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia. It ended with the surrender by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War. Follo ...
and were briefly considered to be border states:
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage la ...
,
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and S ...
,
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to t ...
, and
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
. They are referred to as the Upper South. A new border state was created during the war,
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
, which was formed from 50 counties of Virginia and became a new state in the Union in 1863 (with, initially, gradual abolition law).Daniel W. Crofts, ''Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis'' pp. 101-101 In civil war Kentucky, and
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, there were both pro-Confederate and pro-Union governments. West Virginia was formed in 1862–63 after Virginia Unionists from the northwestern counties of the state, then occupied by the Union Army consisting of many newly-formed West Virginia regiments, had set up a loyalist "restored" state government of Virginia. Lincoln recognized this government and allowed them to divide the state. Kentucky and Missouri had adopted secession ordinances by their pro-Confederate governments (see
Confederate government of Kentucky The Confederate government of Kentucky was a shadow government established for the Commonwealth of Kentucky by a self-constituted group of Confederate sympathizers during the American Civil War. The shadow government never replaced the elec ...
and Confederate government of Missouri), but they never fully were under official Confederate control, though at various points Confederate armies did enter those states and controlled certain parts of them. Besides formal combat between regular armies, the border region saw large-scale guerrilla warfare and numerous violent raids, feuds, and assassinations.Daniel E. Sutherland, ''A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War''; pp. 251–276 Violence was especially severe in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and western Missouri. The single bloodiest episode was the 1863 Lawrence Massacre in Kansas, in which at least 150 civilian men and boys were killed. It was launched in retaliation for an earlier, smaller raid into Missouri by Union men from Kansas. Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the border states. Of the states that were exempted from the proclamation, Maryland (1864), Missouri and Tennessee (January 1865), and West Virginia (February 1865) abolished slavery before the war ended. However, Delaware and Kentucky, while they saw a substantial reduction in slavery, did not see the abolition of slavery until December 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. With geographic, social, political, and economic connections to both the North and the South, the border states were critical to the outcome of the war. They are considered still to delineate the cultural border that separates the North from the South.
Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
, as directed by Congress, did not apply to the border states because they never seceded from the Union. They did undergo their own process of readjustment and political realignment after passage of amendments abolishing slavery and granting citizenship and the right to vote to freedmen. After 1880 most of these jurisdictions were dominated by white Democrats, who passed laws to impose the Jim Crow system of legal segregation and
second-class citizen A second-class citizen is a person who is systematically and actively discriminated against within a state or other political jurisdiction, despite their nominal status as a citizen or a legal resident there. While not necessarily slaves, ...
ship for blacks. However, in contrast to the Confederate States, where almost all blacks were disenfranchised during the first half to two-thirds of the twentieth century, for varying reasons blacks remained enfranchised in the border states despite movements for disfranchisement during the 1900s.


Background

In the border states, slavery was already dying out in urban areas and the regions without cotton, especially in cities that were rapidly industrializing, such as
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
,
Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...
, and St. Louis. By 1860, more than half of the
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
in Delaware were free, as were a high proportion in Maryland. Some slaveholders made a profit by selling surplus slaves to traders for transport to the markets of the Deep South, where the demand was still high for field hands on cotton plantations. In contrast to the near-unanimity of voters in the seven cotton states in the lower South, which held the highest number of slaves, the border slave states were bitterly divided about secession and were not eager to leave the Union. Border Unionists hoped that a compromise would be reached, and they assumed that Lincoln would not send troops to attack the South. Border secessionists paid less attention to the slavery issue in 1861, since their states' economies were based more on trade with the North than on cotton. Their main concern in 1861 was federal coercion; some residents viewed Lincoln's call to arms as a repudiation of the American traditions of states' rights, democracy, liberty, and a republican form of government. Secessionists insisted that Washington had usurped illegitimate powers in defiance of the Constitution, and thereby had lost its legitimacy. After Lincoln issued a call for troops, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina promptly seceded and joined the Confederacy. A secession movement began in western Virginia, where most farmers were yeomen and not slaveholders, to break away and remain in the Union.Allan Nevins, ''The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War, 1859–1861'' (1950), pp. 119–47 Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which had many areas with much stronger cultural and economic ties to the South than the North, were deeply divided; Kentucky tried to maintain neutrality. Union military forces were used to guarantee that these states remained in the Union. The western counties of Virginia rejected secession, set up a loyal government of Virginia (with representation in the U.S. Congress), and created the new state of
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
(although it included many counties which had voted for secession).


Divided loyalties

Though every slave state except
South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
contributed white battalions to both the Union and Confederate armies (South Carolina Unionists fought in units from other Union states), the split was most severe in these border states. Sometimes men from the same family fought on opposite sides. About 170,000 border state men (including African Americans) fought in the Union Army and 86,000 in the Confederate Army. Approximately 35,000 Kentuckians served as Confederate soldiers, while an estimated 125,000 Kentuckians served as Union soldiers. By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the
Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to the ...
and at least 30,000 in the
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
. Some 50,000 citizens of Maryland signed up for the military, with most joining the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
. Approximately a tenth as many enlisted to "go South" and fight for the Confederacy. It has been estimated that, of the state's 1860 population of 687,000, about 4,000 Marylanders traveled south to fight for the Confederacy. While the number of Marylanders in Confederate service is often reported as 20,000–25,000 based on an oral statement of General Cooper to General Trimble, other contemporary reports refute this number and offer more detailed estimates in the range of 3,500 (Livermore) to just under 4,700 (McKim). West Virginia was unique among the Union states in that it did not give most of its soldiers to the Union, they were about equally divided, and it was the only state to contain many counties that had formally voted to secede from the Union.


The five border states

Each of these five states shared a border with the free states and were aligned with the
Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''U ...
. All but Delaware also share borders with states that joined the Confederacy.


Delaware

By 1860 Delaware was integrated into the Northern economy, and slavery was rare except in the southern districts of the state; less than 2 percent of the population was enslaved. Both houses of the state
General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...
rejected secession overwhelmingly; the House of Representatives was unanimous. There was quiet sympathy for the Confederacy by some state leaders, but it was tempered by distance; Delaware was bordered by Union territory. Historian John Munroe concluded that the average citizen of Delaware opposed secession and was "strongly Unionist" but hoped for a peaceful solution even if it meant Confederate independence.


Maryland

Union troops had to go through Maryland to reach the national capital at
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
Had Maryland also joined the Confederacy, Washington would have been surrounded. There was popular support for the Confederacy in Baltimore as well as in
Southern Maryland Southern Maryland is a geographical, cultural and historic region in Maryland composed of the state's southernmost counties on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. According to the state of Maryland, the region includes all of Calvert, Ch ...
and the Eastern Shore, where there were numerous slaveholders and slaves. Baltimore was strongly tied to the cotton trade and related businesses of the South. The
Maryland Legislature The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamb ...
rejected secession in the spring of 1861, though it refused to reopen rail links with the North. It requested that Union troops be removed from Maryland. The state legislature did not want to secede, but it also did not want to aid in killing southern neighbors in order to force them back into the Union. Maryland's wish for neutrality within the Union was a major obstacle given Lincoln's desire to force the South back into the Union militarily. To protect the national capital, Lincoln suspended ''
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'' and imprisoned without charges or trials one sitting
U.S. congressman The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
as well as the mayor, police chief, entire Board of Police, and city council of
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
. Chief Justice
Roger Taney Roger Brooke Taney (; March 17, 1777 – October 12, 1864) was the fifth chief justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. Although an opponent of slavery, believing it to be an evil practice, Taney belie ...
, acting only as a circuit judge, ruled on June 4, 1861, in ''
Ex parte Merryman ''Ex parte Merryman'', 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861) (No. 9487), is a well-known and controversial U.S. federal court case that arose out of the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend ...
'' that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was unconstitutional, but the president ignored the ruling in order to meet a national emergency. On September 17, 1861, the day the legislature reconvened, federal troops arrested without charge 27 state legislators (one-third of the Maryland General Assembly). They were held temporarily at Fort McHenry, and later released when Maryland was secured for the Union. Because a large part of the legislature was now imprisoned, the session was canceled and representatives did not consider any additional anti-war measures. The song "
Maryland, My Maryland "Maryland, My Maryland" was the state song of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1939 until 2021. The song is set to the melody of "Lauriger Horatius" — the same tune "O Tannenbaum" was taken from. The lyrics are from a nine-stanza poem written by ...
" was written to attack Lincoln's action in blocking pro-Confederate elements. Maryland contributed troops to both the Union (60,000) and the Confederate (25,000) armies. During the war, Maryland adopted a new state constitution in 1864 that prohibited slavery, thus emancipating all remaining slaves in the state.


Kentucky

Kentucky was strategic to Union victory in the Civil War. Lincoln once said:
I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol ashington, which was surrounded by slave states: Confederate Virginia and Union-controlled Maryland
Lincoln reportedly also declared, "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." Kentucky Governor
Beriah Magoffin Beriah Magoffin (April 18, 1815 – February 28, 1885) was the 21st Governor of Kentucky, serving during the early part of the Civil War. Personally, Magoffin adhered to a states' rights position, including the right of a state to secede from t ...
proposed that slave states such as Kentucky should conform to the
US Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nationa ...
and remain in the Union. When Lincoln requested 1,000,000 men to serve in the Union army, however, Magoffin, a Southern sympathizer, countered, "Kentucky had no troops to furnish for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." The Kentucky legislature did not vote on any bill to secede but passed two resolutions of neutrality, issuing a neutrality proclamation May 20, 1861, asking both sides to keep out of the state. In elections on June 20 and August 5, 1861, Unionists won enough additional seats in the legislature to overcome any veto by the governor. After the elections, the strongest supporters of neutrality were the Southern sympathizers. While both sides had already been openly enlisting troops from the state, after the elections the Union army established recruitment camps within Kentucky. Neutrality was broken when Confederate General Leonidas Polk occupied
Columbus, Kentucky Columbus is a home rule-class city in Hickman County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 170 at the 2010 census, a decline from 229 in 2000. The city lies at the western end of the state, less than a mile from the Mississippi Ri ...
, in the summer of 1861. In response, the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution on September 7 that directed the governor to demand the evacuation of the Confederate forces from Kentucky soil. Magoffin vetoed the proclamation, but the legislature overrode his veto, and Magoffin issued the proclamation. The legislature decided to back General
Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...
and his Union troops stationed in
Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missou ...
, on the grounds that the Confederacy voided the original pledge by entering Kentucky first. The General Assembly soon ordered for the Union flag be raised over the state capitol in Frankfort and declared its allegiance with the Union. Southern sympathizers were outraged at the legislature's decisions and stated that Polk's troops in Kentucky had been en route to counter Grant's forces. Later legislative resolutions passed by Unionists, such as inviting Union General Robert Anderson to enroll volunteers to expel the Confederate forces, requesting the governor to call out the militia, and appointing Union General Thomas L. Crittenden in command of Kentucky forces, incensed the Southerners. Magoffin vetoed the resolutions but was overridden each time. In 1862, the legislature passed an act to disenfranchise citizens who enlisted in the
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
and so Kentucky's neutral status evolved into backing the Union. Most of those who had originally sought neutrality turned to the Union cause. During the war, a faction known as the Russellville Convention formed a
Confederate government of Kentucky The Confederate government of Kentucky was a shadow government established for the Commonwealth of Kentucky by a self-constituted group of Confederate sympathizers during the American Civil War. The shadow government never replaced the elec ...
, which was recognized by the Confederate States as a member state. Kentucky was represented by the central star on the
Confederate battle flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...
. When Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston occupied
Bowling Green, Kentucky Bowling Green is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Warren County, Kentucky, United States. Founded by pioneers in 1798, Bowling Green was the provisional capital of Confederate Kentucky during the American Civil War. As of the ...
, in the summer of 1861, the pro-Confederates in western and central Kentucky moved to establish a Confederate state government in that area. The Russellville Convention met in Logan County on November 18, 1861. The 116 delegates from 68 counties elected to depose the current government and create a
provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...
loyal to Kentucky's new unofficial Confederate governor, George W. Johnson. On December 10, 1861, Kentucky became the 13th state admitted to the Confederacy. Kentucky, along with Missouri, was a state with representatives in both Congresses and had regiments in both the Union and the Confederate Armies. Magoffin, still functioning as official governor in Frankfort, would not recognize the Kentucky Confederates or their attempts to establish a government in his state. He continued to declare Kentucky's official status in the war as a neutral state even though the legislature backed the Union. Fed up with the party divisions within the population and legislature, Magoffin announced a special session of the legislature and resigned his office in 1862. Bowling Green was occupied by the Confederates until February 1862, when General Grant moved from Missouri through Kentucky along the Tennessee line. Confederate Governor Johnson fled Bowling Green with the Confederate state records, headed south, and joined Confederate forces in Tennessee. After Johnson was killed fighting in the
Battle of Shiloh The Battle of Shiloh (also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing) was fought on April 6–7, 1862, in the American Civil War. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield ...
, Richard Hawes was soon named Confederate governor of Kentucky. Shortly afterwards, and the
Provisional Confederate States Congress The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body ...
was adjourned on February 17, 1862, on the eve of inauguration of a permanent Congress. However, as Union occupation dominated the state after the failure of the
Confederate Heartland Offensive The Confederate Heartland Offensive (August 14 – October 10, 1862), also known as the Kentucky Campaign, was an American Civil War campaign conducted by the Confederate States Army in Tennessee and Kentucky where Generals Braxton Bragg and ...
to take Kentucky firmly from August to October 1862, the Kentucky Confederate government, as of 1863, existed only on paper. Its representation in the permanent Confederate Congress was minimal. It was dissolved when the Civil War ended in the spring of 1865. By the end of the war more than 70% of the pre-war slaves in Kentucky had been freed by Union military measures or escape to Union lines. After the Emancipation Proclamation made the enrollment and freeing of slaves Union Army policy, commanders extended freedom to the Army recruit's entire family and granted liberty passes to freed slaves. When the
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representative ...
was sent to the states for ratification in February 1865, Kentucky's governor in presenting it to the legislature admitted that the continuation of slavery in the state was hopeless. While notices of slave sales continued, prices fell dramatically. But the legislature refused to ratify, leaving the last approximately 65,000 slaves out of a pre-war total 225,483 slaves to await freedom when the amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution in December 1865, without Kentucky's support.


Missouri

After the secession of Southern states began, the newly elected governor of Missouri,
Claiborne F. Jackson Claiborne Fox Jackson (April 4, 1806 – December 6, 1862) was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was for ...
, called upon the legislature to authorize a state constitutional convention on secession. A special election approved of the convention, and delegates to it. This Missouri Constitutional Convention voted to remain within the Union, but rejected coercion of the Southern states by the United States. Jackson, who was pro-Confederate, was disappointed with the outcome. He called up the state militia to their districts for annual training. Jackson had designs on the
St. Louis Arsenal The St. Louis Arsenal is a large complex of federal military weapons and ammunition storage buildings operated by the United States Air Force in St. Louis, Missouri. During the American Civil War, the St. Louis arsenal's contents were transferred ...
, and had been in secret correspondence with Confederate President Jefferson Davis to obtain artillery for the militia in St. Louis. Aware of these developments, Union Captain
Nathaniel Lyon Nathaniel Lyon (July 14, 1818 – August 10, 1861) was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War. He is noted for his actions in Missouri in 1861, at the beginning of the conflict, to forestall secret secessionist plans of the ...
struck first, encircling the camp and forcing the state militia to surrender. While his troops were marching the prisoners to the arsenal, a deadly riot erupted (the Camp Jackson Affair). These events resulted in greater Confederate support within the state among some factions. The already pro-Southern Missouri State Legislature passed the governor's military bill creating the
Missouri State Guard The Missouri State Guard (MSG) was a military force established by the Missouri General Assembly on May 11, 1861. While not a formation of the Confederate States Army, the Missouri State Guard fought alongside Confederate troops and, at variou ...
. Governor Jackson appointed
Sterling Price Major-General Sterling "Old Pap" Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. Prior t ...
, who had been president of the convention, as major general of this reformed militia. Price, and Union district commander Harney, came to an agreement known as the Price–Harney Truce, which calmed tensions in the state for several weeks. After Harney was removed, and Lyon placed in charge, a meeting was held in St. Louis at the Planters' House among Lyon, his political ally Francis P. Blair Jr., Price, and Jackson. The negotiations went nowhere. After a few fruitless hours, Lyon declared, "this means war!" Price and Jackson rapidly departed for the capital. Jackson, Price, and the pro-Confederate portions of the state legislature were forced to flee the state capital of Jefferson City on June 14, 1861, in the face of Lyon's rapid advance against the state government. In the absence of most of the now exiled state government, the Missouri Constitutional Convention reconvened in late July. On July 30, the convention declared the state offices vacant, and appointed a new provisional government with
Hamilton Gamble Hamilton Rowan Gamble (November 29, 1798 – January 31, 1864) was an American jurist and politician who served as the Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court at the time of the Dred Scott case in 1852. Although his colleagues voted to ove ...
as governor. President Lincoln's administration immediately recognized the legitimacy of Gamble's government, which provided both pro-Union militia forces for service within the state, and volunteer regiments for the Union Army. Fighting ensued between Union forces and a combined army of General Price's Missouri State Guard and Confederate troops from
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage la ...
and
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...
, under General
Ben McCulloch Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch (November 11, 1811 – March 7, 1862) was a soldier in the Texas Revolution, a Texas Ranger, a major-general in the Texas militia and thereafter a major in the United States Army (United States Volunteers) ...
. After a string of victories in Cole Camp,
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
, Wilson's Creek, Dry Wood Creek,
Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
and going up as far north as
Lexington Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...
(located in the
Missouri River Valley The Missouri River Valley outlines the journey of the Missouri River from its headwaters where the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers flow together in Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River in the State of Missouri. At long t ...
region of western Missouri), the secessionist forces retreated to southwestern Missouri, as they were under pressure from Union reinforcements. On October 30, 1861, in the town of Neosho, Jackson called the supporting parts of the exiled state legislature into session, where they enacted a secession ordinance. It was recognized by the Confederate Congress, and Missouri was admitted into the Confederacy on November 28. The exiled state government was forced to withdraw into Arkansas. For the rest of the war, it consisted of several wagonloads of civilian politicians attached to various Confederate armies. In 1865, it vanished. Missouri abolished slavery during the war in January 1865.


Guerrilla warfare

Regular Confederate troops staged several large-scale raids into Missouri, but most of the fighting in the state for the next three years consisted of guerrilla warfare. The guerrillas were primarily Southern partisans, including
William Quantrill William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. Having endured a tempestuous childhood before later becoming a schoolteacher, Quantrill joined a group of bandits who ...
, Frank and Jesse James, the Younger brothers, and
William T. Anderson William T. Anderson (c. 1840October 26, 1864), known by the nickname "Bloody Bill" Anderson, was a soldier who was one of the deadliest and most notorious Confederate guerrilla leaders in the American Civil War. Anderson led a band of vol ...
, and many personal feuds were played out in the violence. Small-unit tactics pioneered by the Missouri Partisan Rangers were used in occupied portions of the Confederacy during the Civil War.Michael Fellman, ''Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War'', p. 83 The James' brothers outlawry after the war has been seen as a continuation of guerrilla warfare. Stiles (2002) argues that Jesse James was an intensely political postwar neo-Confederate terrorist, rather than a social bandit or a plain bank robber with a hair-trigger temper. The Union response was to suppress the guerrillas. It achieved that in western Missouri, as Brigadier General
Thomas Ewing Thomas Ewing Sr. (December 28, 1789October 26, 1871) was a National Republican and Whig politician from Ohio. He served in the U.S. Senate as well as serving as the secretary of the treasury and the first secretary of the interior. He is al ...
issued General Order No. 11 on 25 August 1863 in response to Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas. The order forced the total evacuation of four counties that fall within the area of modern-day Kansas City, Missouri. These had been centers of local support for the guerrillas. Lincoln approved Ewing's plan beforehand. About 20,000 civilians (chiefly women, children, and old men) had to leave their homes. Many never returned, and the counties were economically devastated for years. According to Glatthaar (2001), Union forces established "free-fire zones". Union cavalry units would identify and track down scattered Confederate remnants, who had no places to hide and no secret supply bases. To gain recruits, and to threaten St. Louis, Confederate General
Sterling Price Major-General Sterling "Old Pap" Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. Prior t ...
raided Missouri with 12,000 men in September/October 1864. Price coordinated his moves with the guerrillas, but was nearly trapped, escaping to Arkansas with only half his force after a decisive Union victory at the Battle of Westport. The battle, which took place in the modern-day Westport neighborhood of Kansas City, is identified as the "Gettysburg of the West"; it marked a definitive end to organized Confederate incursions inside Missouri's borders. The Republicans made major gains in the fall 1864 elections on the basis of Union victories and Confederate ineptness.
Quantrill's Raiders Quantrill's Raiders were the best-known of the pro- Confederate partisan guerrillas (also known as "bushwhackers") who fought in the American Civil War. Their leader was William Quantrill and they included Jesse James and his brother Frank. ...
, after raiding Kansas in the Lawrence Massacre on August 21, 1863, killing 150 civilians, broke up in confusion. Quantrill and a handful of followers moved on to Kentucky, where he was ambushed and killed.


West Virginia

The serious divisions between the western and eastern sections of Virginia had been simmering for decades, related to class and social differences. The western areas were growing and were based on subsistence farms by yeomen; its residents held few slaves. The planters of the eastern section were wealthy slaveholders who dominated state government. By December 1860 secession was being publicly debated throughout Virginia. Leading eastern spokesmen called for secession, while westerners warned they would not be legislated into
treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
. A statewide convention first met on February 13; after the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call to arms, it voted for secession on April 17, 1861. The decision was dependent on ratification by a statewide referendum. Western leaders held mass rallies and prepared to separate, so that this area could remain in the Union. Unionists met at the
Wheeling Convention The 1861 Wheeling Convention was an assembly of Virginia Southern Unionist delegates from the northwestern counties of Virginia, aimed at repealing the Ordinance of Secession, which had been approved by referendum, subject to a vote. The first ...
with four hundred delegates from twenty-seven counties. The statewide vote in favor of secession was 132,201 to 37,451. An estimated vote on Virginia's ordinance of secession for the 50 counties that became West Virginia is 34,677 to 19,121 against secession, with 24 of the 50 counties favoring secession and 26 favoring the Union. The Second Wheeling Convention opened on June 11 with more than 100 delegates from 32 western counties; they represented nearly one-third of Virginia's total voting population. It announced that state offices were vacant and chose
Francis H. Pierpont Francis Harrison Pierpont (January 25, 1814March 24, 1899), called the "Father of West Virginia," was an American lawyer and politician who achieved prominence during the American Civil War. During the conflict's first two years, Pierpont served ...
as governor of Virginia (not West Virginia) on June 20. Pierpont headed the
Restored Government of Virginia The Restored (or Reorganized) Government of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and join ...
, which granted permission for the formation of a new state on August 20, 1861. The new West Virginia state constitution was passed by the Unionist counties in the spring of 1862, and this was approved by the restored Virginia government in May 1862. The statehood bill for West Virginia was passed by the United States Congress in December and signed by President Lincoln on December 31, 1862.Curry "A Reappraisal of Statehood Politics in West Virginia" p. 407 The ultimate decision about West Virginia was made by the armies in the field. The Confederates were defeated, the Union was triumphant, so West Virginia was born. In late spring 1861 Union troops from Ohio moved into western Virginia with the primary strategic goal of protecting the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
. General George B. McClellan destroyed Confederate defenses in western Virginia. Raids and recruitment by the Confederacy took place throughout the war. Current estimates of soldiers from West Virginia are 20,000-22,000 men each to the Union and the Confederacy. West Virginia was required as part of its admission as a state in 1863 to have a gradual emancipation clause in the new state's constitution. Children were born free or as they came of age, and no new slaves could be brought into the state. About 6,000 would remain enslaved. West Virginia later completely abolished slavery in February 1865, before the end of the war. The unique conditions attendant to the creation of the state led the Federal government to sometimes regard West Virginia as differing from the other border states in the post-war and
Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the blood ...
. The terms of surrender granted to the Confederate army at Appomattox applied to the soldiers of the 11 Confederate states and West Virginia only. Returning Confederate soldiers from the other border states were required to obtain special permits from the War Department. Similarly, the Southern Claims Commission was originally designed to apply only to the 11 Confederate states and West Virginia, though claims from other states were sometimes honored.


Other border areas


Tennessee

Though Tennessee had officially seceded and
West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its ...
and
Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the ...
had voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Confederacy,
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
in contrast was strongly pro-Union and had mostly voted against secession. The state even went as far as sending delegates for the East Tennessee Convention attempting to secede from the Confederacy and join the Union; however, the Confederate legislature of Tennessee rejected the convention and blocked its secession attempt. Jefferson Davis arrested over 3,000 men suspected of being loyal to the Union and held them without trial. Tennessee came under control of Union forces in 1862 and was occupied to the end of the war. It abolished slavery in January 1865 before the war ended. For this reason, it was omitted from the Emancipation Proclamation. After the war, Tennessee was the first Confederate state to have its elected members readmitted to the US Congress.


Restored Virginia

With the creation of West Virginia in 1863, the Union supporting
Restored Government of Virginia The Restored (or Reorganized) Government of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and join ...
took up residence in
Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. Th ...
, while much of its claimed territory was still held by the Confederacy. It called a state constitutional convention to make reforms in the state's pre-war constitution. In 1864, it adopted a new state constitution abolishing slavery, which in 1865 came to cover the entire state as the war ended.


Indian Territory

In the Indian Territory (present-day
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...
), most Indian tribes owned black slaves and sided with the Confederacy, which had promised them an Indian state after it won the war. However, some tribes and bands sided with the Union. A bloody civil war resulted in the territory, with severe hardships for all residents.


Kansas

After years of small-scale civil war, Kansas was admitted into the Union as a free state under the "
Wyandotte Constitution The Wyandotte Constitution is the constitution of the U.S. state of Kansas. Background The Kansas Territory was created in 1854. The largest issue by far in territorial Kansas was whether slavery was to be permitted or prohibited; aside from the m ...
" on January 29, 1861. Most people gave strong support to the Union cause. However, guerrilla warfare and raids from pro-slavery forces, many spilling over from Missouri, occurred during the Civil War. Although only one battle of official forces occurred in Kansas, there were 29 Confederate raids into the state during the war and numerous deaths caused by the guerrillas. Lawrence came under attack on August 21, 1863, by guerrillas led by
William Clarke Quantrill William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. Having endured a tempestuous childhood before later becoming a schoolteacher, Quantrill joined a group of bandits who ...
. He was retaliating for " Jayhawker" raids against pro-Confederate settlements in Missouri.Donald Gilmore, "Revenge in Kansas, 1863", ''History Today'', March 1993, Vol. 43 Issue 3, pp 47-53 His forces left more than 150 people dead in Lawrence.


New Mexico/Arizona Territory

At the time the Civil War broke out, the present-day states of
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...
and Arizona did not yet exist. There were various proposals, however, to create a new territory within the southern half of the New Mexico Territory prior to the war. The southern half of the territory was pro-Confederate while the northern half was pro-Union. The southern half was also a target of Confederate Texan forces under Charles L. Pyron and
Henry Hopkins Sibley Henry Hopkins Sibley (May 25, 1816 – August 23, 1886) was a career officer in the United States Army, who commanded a Confederate cavalry brigade in the Civil War. In 1862, he attempted to forge a supply route from California, in defiance ...
, who attempted to establish control there. They had plans to attack the Union states of California and
Colorado Territory The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado. The territory was organized in the ...
(both of which also had Southern sympathizers) as well as the eastern side of the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
,
Fort Laramie Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...
, and
Nevada Territory The Territory of Nevada (N.T.) was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada. Prior to the creation of the Nevada ...
, followed by an invasion of the Mexican states of
Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to: Places * Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mu ...
,
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...
, and Lower California. Ultimately their defeat at the Battle of Glorieta Pass prevented these plans from fruition and Sibley's Confederates fled back to East Texas.


See also

*
Constitutional Union Party (United States) The Constitutional Union Party was a United States third party active during the 1860 elections. It consisted of conservative former Whigs, largely from the Southern United States, who wanted to avoid secession over the slavery issue and refu ...
* Central Confederacy * Deep South * History of slavery in Kentucky * History of slavery in Maryland * History of slavery in Missouri * History of slavery in West Virginia * Missouri Constitutional Convention (1861–63) *
Missouri secession During the American Civil War, the secession of Missouri from the Union was controversial because of the state's disputed status. Missouri was claimed by both the Union and the Confederacy, had two rival state governments, and sent representative ...
*
Old South Geographically, the U.S. states known as the Old South are those in the Southern United States that were among the original Thirteen Colonies. The region term is differentiated from the Deep South and Upper South. From a cultural and social s ...
*
Slave and free states In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
*
Southern Unionist In the United States, Southern Unionists were white Southerners living in the Confederate States of America opposed to secession. Many fought for the Union during the Civil War. These people are also referred to as Southern Loyalists, Union Lo ...


References


Further reading

* Brownlee, Richard S. ''Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861–1865'' (1958
online
* Crofts, Daniel W. ''Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis.'' (1989). * Dew, Charles B. ''Apostles of disunion: Southern secession commissioners and the causes of the Civil War'' (U of Virginia Press, 2017). * * Harris, William C. ''Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union'' (University Press of Kansas; 2011) 416 pages * Nevins, Allan. ''The War for the Union: The Improvised War 1861–1862.'' (1959). * Phillips, Christopher. ''The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border'' (Oxford UP, 2016). * Robinson, Michael D. ''A Union Indivisible: Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South'' (2017) * Sutherland, Daniel E. ''A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War'' (U. of North Carolina Press, 2008) 456 pp


External links


Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Border States
*Thomas, William G., III
“The Border South”
''Southern Spaces'', April 16, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Border States (American Civil War) American Civil War by location Former regions and territories of the United States Regions of the Southern United States Politics of the American Civil War