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The northernmost Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi River took place in Athens.
The Battle of Athens State Historic Site interprets the battle, town history, and contains buildings that were part of the once-thriving town. The Thome-Benning House features cannonball holes made during the battle.
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In Kirksville, forces under Union Col. John McNeil inflicted a major defeat on Col. Joseph Porter’s Confederate troops in the Battle of Kirksville, fought throughout the town on Aug. 6,1862. The battle brought an end to Porter’s famous 1862 raid into northeast Missouri. Two monuments to the battle’s Southern dead are located at Forrest-Llewelyn Cemetery.
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The Palmyra Massacre Monument in Palmyra commemorates the “Palmyra Massacre” on Oct.18, 1862, where ten confederate prisoners were shot in retaliation for the presumed murder of a local Union man. Union Gen. John McNeil became known as the “Butcher of Palmyra” and was denounced in newspapers around the world.
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Mark Twain State Park includes the ruins of most of the town of Florida, Mark Twain’s birthplace. Within the park are the ruins of the Baker/Goodier House, where Ulysses S. Grant maintained his headquarters in July 1861.
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In Mexico you will find the Ross House, an antebellum home said to have been visited by Grant while he was commanding Union forces in July 1861. The site is now home to the Audrain County Historical Society and its Graceland Museum.
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St. Louis was the stronghold of Union sentiment in Missouri. In spite of its position as the western headquarters of the Union Army, the only military action within its boundaries took place on May 10, 1861, at Camp Jackson.
Union forces captured more than 600 Confederate-sympathizing Missouri militia as they plotted to attack the well-stocked federal arsenal at Camp Jackson in what is now St. Louis University. Riots broke out as the militiamen were taken into custody, and four Union soldiers and 27 Confederates were killed.
The Camp Jackson incident was the first military action in the Civil War involving organized infantry on both sides.
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St. Louis’ Bellefontaine Cemetery is home to 87,000 graves of Civil War figures - Union and Confederate - including such notables as John Pope, Sterling Price, Don Carlos Buell and Alexander P. Stewart.
St. Louis’ historic Catholic cemetery, Calvary Cemetery, is the resting place of William T. Sherman and Dred and Harriet Scott.
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South of St. Louis, Jefferson Barracks was a U.S. Army military post from 1826-1946 and for many years was the most important station on the frontier. As a result, more officers who would become generals of both armies served here before the Civil War than at any other place. The museum buildings date back to the 1850s and the site is now a park operated by St.Louis County and offers a Visitors Center.
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The nearby Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery surrounds the Old Post Cemetery of Jefferson Barracks, which predated the Civil War. The Barracks was a major medical facility during the war. Among those who served at Jefferson Barracks was Ulysses S. Grant.
The property Grant considered his family home for four decades, White Haven, at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, commemorates the life, military career and presidency of Grant, as well as his wife, Julia Dent Grant. The 9.65-acre site contains six structures including the main house and a visitor center.
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St. Louis’ Old Courthouse, now part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, was the site of the first two trials of the Dred Scott case, in 1847 and 1850, which led to the Supreme Court decision that helped ignite the Civil War. The east steps facing the Gateway Arch were the scenes of slave auctions before the war and where, in 1859, Grant freed his only slave.
Information about these incidents and the Civil War in Missouri can be found at the Museum of Westward Expansion beneath the Gateway Arch and the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.
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