"The presence of these families is the cause of the presence there of the guerrillas": the influence of Little Dixie households on the Civil War in Missouri

Abstract

This study explores the roles of all participants in the guerrilla war who favored the South in the Civil War in Missouri. The primary sources used to accurately assess these roles were primarily the statements and witness testimony found in the Union Provost Marshals' File of Papers Relating to Individual Citizens. Other key research materials were Federal Censuses for specific Missouri counties in the decades leading up to the war and The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Using these three sources presented very different perspectives and helped to paint a new picture of an old conflict. The major results of this study are related to the role of women and also the importance of a pre-war worldview on the way that men and women fought the war together. First, southern sympathizing women were not coerced into supporting the guerrillas but did so willingly and were capable of organizing their labor without a male overseer. Second, the labor of women created the necessary materials for the war. Third, the social connections formed between households provided the basis for an informal supply line that operated during the war. Lastly, the guerrillas' tactics and strategies were the byproduct of community construction and protection.