About the Scholarly Essays
We are fortunate to have commissioned outstanding thematic essays from eight nationally recognized historians of the Civil War in Missouri and Kansas. Each essay provides contextual analysis of major themes surrounding the war, and these are linked to related historical documents and other site content. All of these essays have been reviewed and edited by Drs. Bryan Le Beau, Jason Roe, and John A. Horner.
Prelude to War
- Bleeding Kansas: From the Kansas-Nebraska Act to Harpers Ferry by Nicole Etcheson, Ball State University
Politics of War
- Kansas Territory, the Election of 1860, and the Coming of the Civil War: A National Perspective by Jonathan Earle, Louisiana State University
- Shadow War: Federal Military Authority and Loyalty Oaths in Civil War Missouri by Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati
Military Action & Guerrilla Warfare
- A Long and Bloody Conflict: Military Operations in Missouri and Kansas (Part I) by Terry Beckenbaugh, U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College
- A Long and Bloody Conflict: Military Operations in Missouri and Kansas (Part II) by Terry Beckenbaugh, U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College
- “A Most Cruel and Unjust War:" The Guerrilla Struggle along the Missouri-Kansas Border by Jeremy Neely, Missouri State University
Slavery
- Slavery on the Western Border: Missouri’s Slave System and its Collapse during the Civil War by Diane Mutti Burke, University of Missouri-Kansas City
- Seeking the Promised Land: African American Migrations to Kansas by Kim Warren, University of Kansas
Remembering the War
- The Border of Memory: The Divided Legacy of the Civil War by T.J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and historian
View the complete list of our Suggested Readings about the Civil War on the Western Border »