
In the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
(1861–65), the border states or the Border South were four, later five,
slave states in the
Upper South
The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, ...
that primarily supported the
Union. They were
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
, and
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...
, and after 1863, the new state of
West Virginia
West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
. To their north they bordered free states of the Union, and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the
Confederacy to their south.
Of the 34
U.S. state
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 so ...
s 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
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
never declared for secession.
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
was largely prevented from seceding by local unionists and federal troops. Two others,
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
and
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...
, saw rival governments, though their territory mostly stayed in Union control after 1862. Four others did not declare for secession until after the
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter (also the Attack on Fort Sumter or the Fall 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 of the ...
and were briefly considered border states:
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. They are called the Upper South, in contrast to the
Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
. A new border state was created during the war,
West Virginia
West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
, which was formed from 50 counties of Virginia and became a new slave 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 .
Lincoln's 1863
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the eff ...
did not apply to the border states, because they were not in rebellion. 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 these border southern states of the Upper South having geographic, social, political, and economic connections to both the North and South, the border states were critical to the outcome of the war. They are still considered to delineate the cultural border between the North and South, with the Ohio River
The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
being an important boundary between them. President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...
were both born in the border southern state of Kentucky, with Lincoln residing in Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
and Davis residing in Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
on the eve of the Civil War.
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 in the same way to the border states because they never seceded. They did undergo their own process of being under Northern military occupation, 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
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
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, ou ...
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 south states whose plantation economy was based around tobacco and hemp, slavery was already dying out in certain urban areas and the regions without cotton, especially in cities that were rapidly industrializing, such as Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
and St. Louis. By 1860, more than half of the African Americans
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...
in Delaware were free, as were a high proportion in Maryland.
According to the 1860 United States census, slaves comprised less than a fifth of the population in all five border states, specifically Kentucky (19.5%), Maryland (12.7%), Missouri (9.7%), West Virginia (4.9%), and Delaware (1.6%).
Some slaveholders made a profit by selling surplus slaves to traders for transport to the markets of the Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
, 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 of the upland South 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 tobacco plantations, and 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 separatist 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 of the Border South, which had many areas with much stronger cultural, geographic, and economic ties to the South than the North, were deeply divided; Kentucky tried to maintain neutrality, but eventually became split between a Unionist and Confederate state governments and bitterly divided area of warfare, falling under Union occupation after 1862. 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 mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
(although it included many counties which had voted for secession).
The Border States, while geographically and economically tied to the South, experienced significant internal division regarding the issue of secession. In particular, Virginia and Tennessee, two key Upper South states, were home to both secessionist and Unionist factions, creating a complex and volatile political landscape.
Divided loyalties
Though every slave state except South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
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 southern 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 35,000–40,000 Kentuckians served as Confederate soldiers, while an estimated 80,000–125,000 Kentuckians served as Union soldiers, including over 20,000 freed or runaway Kentucky slaves and soldiers subject to Union drafts. By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and at least 30,000 in the Confederate Army
The Confederate States Army (CSA), 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), fi ...
. 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 primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
. 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 leaning 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.
Kentucky and Missouri had 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 government-in-exile, shadow government established for the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Kentucky by a self-constituted group of Confederate States of America, Confederate sympathizer ...
and Confederate government of Missouri), but the two states were never fully or officially under Confederate control, though at various points Confederate armies did enter those states and both states' Confederate governments controlled certain parts of them, with the Confederacy controlling more than half of Kentucky and the southern portion of Missouri early in the war.
Besides combat between regular armies, the border region saw large-scale guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...
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 of guerrilla warfare was the 1863 Lawrence Massacre in Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
, 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.
Though secession was widespread in the Deep South, several Upper South states, particularly Virginia and Tennessee, experienced fierce resistance to leaving the Union. These states saw significant internal divisions, with Unionist factions gaining momentum in regions such as western Virginia and East Tennessee.
* Virginia: The western counties of Virginia, with strong economic and political ties to the North, became a center of Unionist resistance. In 1861, the creation of the Restored Government of Virginia, led by Francis Pierpont, represented a pivotal moment in this resistance. By 1863, these counties formed the new state of West Virginia, separating from the Confederacy and aligning with the Union.
* Tennessee: In Tennessee, East Tennessee became a hotbed of Unionist sentiment, where over 30,000 men served in the Union Army. The East Tennessee Convention of 1861, held in Knoxville and Greeneville, condemned secession and called for the creation of a separate pro-Union state. Prominent Unionists such as William G. Brownlow and Andrew Johnson actively opposed Confederate control, with Johnson later appointed as military governor of Tennessee by President Lincoln.
*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War).
The five border states
Each of these five states shared a border with the free states and were aligned with the Union. All but Delaware also share borders with states that joined the Confederacy.
Delaware
By 1860, Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
was almost fully integrated into the Northern economy. Slavery was rare, except in the southern districts of the state; less than two percent of the state's population was enslaved. Both houses of the state General Assembly 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 entirely 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.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
If Maryland joined the Confederacy, Washington would have been surrounded. There was popular support for the Confederacy in Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
as well as in Southern Maryland 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 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 legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
'' and imprisoned without charges or trials, including one sitting U.S. congressman, as well as the mayor, police chief, and the entire Board of Police and city council of Baltimore. Chief Justice Roger Taney, acting only as a circuit judge, ruled on June 4, 1861, in '' Ex parte Merryman'' 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
Fort McHenry is a historical American Coastal defense and fortification, coastal bastion fort, pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, Baltimore, Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War ...
, 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" 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 narrowly adopted a new state constitution in 1864 that prohibited slavery, thus emancipating all remaining slaves in the state.
Kentucky
Kentucky was critical 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 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, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitut ...
and remain in the Union. When Lincoln requested 1,000,000 men to serve in the Union army, however, Magoffin, who was 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
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...
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.
Kentuckian neutrality was broken when Confederate General Leonidas Polk occupied Columbus, Kentucky, 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 the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...
and his Union troops stationed in Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah ( ) is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in the Upland South, and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. The most populous city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located in the Southeastern Unit ...
, 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 (CSA), 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), fi ...
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 government-in-exile, shadow government established for the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Kentucky by a self-constituted group of Confederate States of America, Confederate sympathizer ...
, which was recognized by the Confederate States as a member state. Kentucky was represented by the central star on the Confederate battle flag.
When Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston
General officer, General Albert Sidney Johnston (February 2, 1803 – April 6, 1862) was an American military officer who served as a general officer in three different armies: the Texian Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States ...
occupied Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green is a city in Warren County, Kentucky, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 72,294 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Kentucky, third-most populous city in the stat ...
, 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, a transitional government or provisional leadership, is a temporary government formed to manage a period of transition, often following state collapse, revoluti ...
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 as the Confederate state capital of Kentucky, along with half of Kentucky itself, was controlled and administered 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 a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater of the ...
, Richard Hawes was soon named Confederate governor of Kentucky. Shortly afterwards, and the Provisional Confederate States Congress
The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, fully the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a unicameral congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governin ...
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 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
The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the eff ...
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 in the United States, slavery and involuntary servitude, except Penal labor in the United States, as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed ...
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, 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 Arsenal, 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 in the Civil War, St. Loui ...
, and had been in secret correspondence with Confederate President Jefferson Davis
Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...
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 a United States Army officer who was the first Union Army, Union General officer, general to be killed in the American Civil War. He is noted for his actions in Missouri in 1861, at the beginn ...
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. Governor Jackson appointed Sterling Price
Sterling Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was an American politician and military officer who was a senior General officers in the Confederate States Army, officer of the Confederate States Army, fighting in both the Weste ...
, 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
Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...
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 Decision, Dred Scott case in 1852. Although his col ...
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 West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
and Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, under General Ben McCulloch. After a string of victories in Cole Camp, Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, 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 classic ...
, Wilson's Creek, Dry Wood Creek, Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
and going up as far north as Lexington (located in the Missouri River Valley 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
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...
. The guerrillas were primarily Southern partisans, including William Quantrill
William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate States of America, Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War.
Quantrill experienced a turbulent childhood, became a schoolteacher, and joined a group ...
, Frank and Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, Bank robbery, bank and Train robbery, train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie (Missouri), Little Dixie" area of M ...
, the Younger brothers, and William T. Anderson, 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 and also served as the fourteenth secretary of the treasury and the first secretary of the interior. ...
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
Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
. 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
Sterling Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was an American politician and military officer who was a senior General officers in the Confederate States Army, officer of the Confederate States Army, fighting in both the Weste ...
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 of Westport, was fought on October 23, 1864, in modern Kansas City, Missouri, during the American Civil War. Union Army, Union forces under Major General (United States), Major General Samuel R. Curtis decisively defeated an outnumber ...
. 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, 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.
Guerrilla warfare became a critical tactic for Unionists resisting Confederate rule in the Border States. In western Virginia and East Tennessee, Unionist guerrillas targeted Confederate supply lines and military outposts, while also providing vital intelligence to Union forces. A notable figure in East Tennessee resistance was Daniel Ellis, known as the 'Union guide.' Ellis helped hundreds of Unionists and escaped prisoners reach safety, often through dangerous routes to Union-controlled territories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War).
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 Appalachia
Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...
n areas were growing and were based on subsistence farms by yeomen; its residents held few slaves, as shown by the first map. 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 (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
. 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 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 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 oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...
. General George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...
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 History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...
. 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.
The creation of West Virginia in 1863 was a direct result of Unionist resistance in western Virginia. The Restored Government of Virginia, led by Francis Pierpont, played a crucial role in coordinating pro-Union sentiment in this region. The creation of West Virginia, as a separate state aligned with the Union, was one of the most significant outcomes of intra-state division during the Civil War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War).
Other border areas
Tennessee
Though Tennessee had officially seceded and West Tennessee
West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions 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 geography consists ...
and Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions 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 state's capital an ...
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 coun ...
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
The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the eff ...
. After the war, Tennessee was the first Confederate state to have its elected members readmitted to the US Congress.
In Missouri, Unionist resistance was marked by violent clashes, especially during the Camp Jackson Affair in St. Louis, where pro-Union German-American militias were attacked, resulting in deaths and riots. Similarly, Kentucky saw significant unrest as Unionists and Confederate sympathizers clashed over control of the state.Border.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War)">nowiki/>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War)
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 (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...
, 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
Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...
(present-day Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
), 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
Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
experienced a small-scale civil war known as "Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...
" from 1854 to 1859, and was admitted into the Union as a free state under the anti-slavery Wyandotte Constitution on January 29, 1861. Most people gave strong support to the Union cause. However, guerrilla warfare and raids from pro-slavery forces, mainly spilling over from neighboring 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. 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
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
and Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
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, who attempted to establish control there. They had plans to attack the Union state of California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and the 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 38th State of Colorado.
The territory was organized ...
(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 great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
, Fort Laramie, 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 Neva ...
, followed by an invasion of the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
, and Lower California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was kno ...
. Ultimately their defeat at the Battle of Glorieta Pass
The Battle of Glorieta Pass was fought March 26–28, 1862, in the northern New Mexico Territory, by Union Army, Union and Confederate States Army, Confederate forces during the American Civil War. While not the largest battle of the New Mexic ...
, in present-day Santa Fe County, New Mexico, prevented these plans from fruition and Sibley's Confederates fled back to East Texas
East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that consists of approximately 38 counties. It is roughly divided into Northeast Texas, Northeast, Southeast Texas, Sout ...
.
See also
* Constitutional Union Party (United States)
* Central Confederacy
*Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
*History of slavery in Kentucky
The history of slavery in Kentucky dates from the earliest permanent European settlements in the state, until the end of the American Civil War, Civil War. In 1830, Slavery in the United States, enslaved African Americans represented 24 percent ...
* History of slavery in Maryland
* History of slavery in Missouri
* History of slavery in New Mexico
* History of slavery in Oklahoma
*History of slavery in West Virginia
The western part of Virginia which became West Virginia was settled in two directions, north to south from Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey and from east to west from eastern Virginia and North Carolina. The earliest arrival of enslaved p ...
* Missouri Constitutional Convention (1861–63)
* Missouri secession
*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 prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave s ...
*Southern Unionist
In the United States, Southern Unionists were white Southerners living in the Confederate States of America and the Southern Border States opposed to secession. Many fought for the Union during the Civil War. These people are also referred t ...
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'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1989).
* Dew, Charles B. ''Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War'' (University of Virginia Press, 2017).
*
* Harris, William C. ''Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union'' (University Press of Kansas, 2011).
* Nevins, Allan. ''The War for the Union: The Improvised War 1861–1862'' (Scribner, 1959).
* Phillips, Christopher. ''The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border'' (Oxford University Press, 2016).
* Robinson, Michael D. ''A Union Indivisible: Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2017).
* Sutherland, Daniel E. ''A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2008).
External links
Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Border States
*Thomas, William G., III
“The Border South”
''Southern Spaces'', April 16, 2004.
{{Authority control
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