Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865

The first phase of the Civil War was fought west of the Mississippi River at least six years before the attack on Fort Sumter. Starting with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Jay Monaghan traces the development of the conflict between the pro-slavery elements from Missouri and the New England abolitionists who migrated to Kansas. "Bleeding Kansas" provided a preview of the greater national struggle to come. The author allows a new look at Quantrill's sacking of Lawrence, organized bushwhackery, and border battles that cost thousands of lives. Not the least valuable are chapters on the American Indians' part in the conflict. The record becomes devastatingly clear: the fighting in the West was the cruelest and most useless of the whole affair, and if men of vision had been in Washington in the 1850s it might have been avoided.

Author: Jay Monaghan
Publisher: Bison
Published: 12/01/1984
Pages: 454
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 7.95h x 5.34w x 1.06d
ISBN13: 9780803281264
ISBN10: 0803281269
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | Civil War Period (1850-1877)