Beginning October 19th there is a free course available online for those wishing to learn more about Missouri in the Civil War.  I’ve always been fascinated by Missouri – a state torn in two which led to the population of the wildest figures in the Wild West, so I’ll be checking this out.  It is designed for Missouri State students but has been opened to the general public as well; a generous gift to us buffs!

According to Neely, the course will focus on Missouri and the state’s key role in the sectional disputes over slavery that date back to the Missouri Compromise in 1820. The Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but was also claimed as part of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

“Over and over again, Missourians were right there in the middle — both figuratively and geographically — of debates about the fate of slavery and freedom in the United States,” Neely said. “Many historians, unfortunately, have downplayed the importance of what happened in Missouri and much of the West during the Civil War. But, I argue that a border state like this gives us a revealing window through which we can study that larger struggle.”