Border Warfare & the Civil War

Civil War Sesquicentennial

[1]
Explore the Civil War Era
Interactive Timeline

April 2011 began the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Over the next four years, many events will take place around the nation and here in the Heartland. In anticipation of the sesquicentennial, many organizations have come together to pool resources in order to present a more comprehensive picture of the conflict in the Missouri Kansas area, commonly called the Border War.

The Kansas City Public Library, the lead institution in partnership with area archives, libraries, historical societies, and Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, received a planning grant in 2010 to catalog and digitize diverse collections of primary source documents and scholarly content from both sides of the state line related to the Civil War in northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas. The website, The Missouri-Kansas Conflict: Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865 [2], has been designed and is live with an interactive timeline. The site is in the beginning stage; content will continue to be added.

For similar websites in Missouri as well as other key Civil War sites see the guide "Civil War Resources on the Internet [3]."

Border Warfare & the Civil War in the Missouri Valley Room

[4]
William Clarke Quantrill

The Missouri Valley Special Collections has a large amount of materials related to border warfare and the Civil War as a whole and the trans-Mississippi areas of conflict. Included are numerous published official records for the Union and the Confederate armies and navies, regimental histories, as well as individuals' manuscripts, diaries, and other resources. Many materials assist in genealogy research. See the following links for resources and check the online catalog [5] for specific titles.

Bibliography of Books on Border Warfare [6]

Selected Resources [7] in the Missouri Valley Special Collections