[WhiskeyPapa]

If you read Bruce Catton's "This Hallowed Ground", you'll see him noting that the Lincoln administration took the "first trick" in the war. By securing the border states of MO, KY and MD, the rebellion was pretty much done before the war even was well started.

I guess you have no comment on the rebel invasion of Kentucky.

Too, Lincoln didnt have to send his "army" to Missouri. Local federal authorities and loyal Union men there were able and active.

Walt

[GOPcapitalist]

Too, Lincoln didnt have to send his "army" to Missouri. Local federal authorities and loyal Union men there were able and active.

That's precisely the point, Walt. Missouri had already decided to stay in the union and had very few indications of doing anything else. They simply asked that their neutrality be respected and the war not be conducted on their soil. To ensure this, the Missouri government dispatched the state militia to stand guard at home as they are legally entitled to do. But that wasn't enough for Lincoln - staying in the union alone didn't satisfy him. He wanted war, so he marched the federal army into St. Louis, used it to arrest a nearby militia encampment, marched them as prisoners through the streets, and used that same army to fire upon civilians who protested that their state was being invaded and their lawfully assembled militia being taken hostage. The legislature, which had previously affirmed itself as unionist, heard of this and acted to halt the invasion with remaining militia forces as the army then turned upon the state government. The legislature and governor fled southward towards Arkansas as Lincoln's army advanced on them to, quite literally, overthrow their government. This how the Neosho secession ordinance came about, Walt. The previously-unionist legislature convened in Neosho while fleeing the federal army and voted, as a last resort, to secede. Lincoln had physically driven the state of Missouri out of the union.