Analyzing the Loyalty of Missouri, 1861-1865.

Monroe County is located within an area of Missouri called Little Dixie. it was made up of the counties of Calloway, Boone, Randolph, Chariton, Howard, Ralls and Saline. Two other Counties that are sometimes included are Lafayette and Clay, but these two are usually not included, by the UDC as the others are considered the heart of Little Dixie. These areas are very heavy in southern culture, as brought by the people who settled in this part of Missouri. This area was heavy in the production of Hemp and Tobacco.
Little Dixie varies by works or studies

The Heart of Little Dixie most agree on are Clay, Lafayette, Saline, Howard, Boone and Callaway Counties all had slave populations over 25% of the population

Some include some of or all of Platte, Jackson. Chariton, Randolph, Monroe, Ralls, Marion, Pike, Lincoln and Montgomery counties with all having slave populations of 15-24% of the population and adjoin the heart counties.

Some include Audrain which slave percent of the population was below 15%, but was surrounded by higher % counties to keep map tidy

Its always seemed ironic to me Monroe is included in more then my county of Marion, when the slave populations were virtually identical Monroe 3022, Marion 3017, and both were predominately settled by KY and TN, and the counties adjoin. Never quite figured what they are distinguishing on .
 
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In regards to Missouri's loyalty by basing it on troop numbers, I came across this the other day which I would say is somewhat telling..........

Monroe county I would assume a somewhat typical rural Missouri County, provided 210 troops to the CSA, and 608 to the Federal service, so 3-1 for the Union........ Its not clear if the CSA number includes MSG who returned home after MSG service, which would up the anti union number somewhat. However that's not exactly the whole story using the numbers to determine loyalty during the war IMO.

It doesn't give years for the CSA numbers, but the only real opportunity northern Missourians had to join southern cause was in 61 and 62 with first the formation of the MSG in 61 then the confederate recruiters Poindexter and Porter in 1862, so it would be safe to assume the vast majority if not all of the 210 who joined the CSA did so in the 1st two years.

However it does give some Union numbers by year, and during the 1st three years up to dec 31st 1863, Monroe County's contribution to the Federal cause was just 41 men to Federal service and 34 to the MSM.............so actually going by the troop numbers, the people supported the south more then the Federal cause up till 1864.......They only really started joining the Federal cause in 1864 when the outcome had became clear................and in fact many were being drafted in 64

History of Monroe and Shelby Counties as source

I would say Monroe was overwhelming Unionist at the start based on the convention, However after the Camp Jackson affair and the Planters House, it appear Lyons blunders had managed to turn a county that was originally overwhelming Unionist to at least 2-1 pro south for at least the next two and a half years.......

I looked at this source because I was concerned you were using a "strong" Little Dixie county to represent a "typical rural county' in Missouri. I see how you are getting your numbers but I can also see the errors in your calculation.

Your count for Federal troops comes from page 239 "Up to December 31, 1863, Monroe county had furnished 41 men for the regular United States service ; in the Missouri State Militia, 38.Under calls previous to December 19, 1864, Monroe county furnished 474, being 7 more than her quota. Under call of December 19,1864, the county furnished 134. There was no deficiency under the draft."

Then to get the count of Confederate troops, you count all the names listed on pages 237-239. There are two problems with the calculation. First, for those who have not studied the Holtzclaw family, more than two sons from this family served in the Confederate Army - one died in Corinth, 2 at Vicksburg, a 4th was seriously wounded at Vicksburg, and a 5th was wounded at Pea Ridge and then came home and started a guerilla outfit. But the list used to get this county count only shows two Holtzclaw's. This books lists 'some' Confederate veterans from the county - it is not meant to be an all inclusive list.

It would be better to use the information the same author concedes on page 227 when they say " Indeed, were it even possible to present the facts as they occurred,we doubt the propriety of doing so, as we would thereby reopen the wounds which have partially been healed by the flight of time and the hope of the future. It were better, perhaps, to let the passions and the deep asperities which were then engendered, and all that serves to remind us of that unhappy period, be forgotten. We have tried in vain to obtain the number and names of the men who entered the Confederate, army from Monroe county. No record of them has ever been preserved", either by the officers who commanded the men or by the Confederate government. It is supposed about 600 men went into the Southern army."

This county was 'conditional Unionist" based on their representation to the Convention, as were most Little Dixie counties, and a strong slave holding county.

The evidence, for the state, strongly supports the generally lead belief among historians that a large proportion of Missourians supported the Union. Anyone can cherry pick numbers to support "their side" all day long, whichever that may be, but in reality, one can read the plea and words from Sterling Price himself in December 1861 and see that neither he, nor Governor Jackson, were getting the response they thought they would. (Read his deeply impassioned speech here) under 'General Sterling Price's Proclamation To The People of Central and Northern Missouri'. Sorry gang - yes Lyon's actions after camp Jackson pushed some 'conditional Unionists' to favor secession, maybe even a lot depending on what scale we are using. But many regretted their knee jerk reaction and went home afterwards, while a lot stayed loyal to Price and fought for the Confederacy. The same history that shows us that, also shows a lot more 'conditional Unionists' and 'unconditional Unionists' decided to stay loyal to the North.

Someone might want to consider the vote count in the 1860 election and the 1864 election and remember you could only vote if you took the oath of allegiance in 64. Now you have already heard the howls of how unfair the election was, but if all the people who did not vote in 64 that did in 60 were secesh (obviously not) - you have a large majority that did take the oath.

But then again, there is that old saying "There are three kind of lies, lies, da--ed lies, and statistics."
 
I am looking at the Slave population, Randolph County had a very high number of slaves for a County located North of the Missouri River, Slave 2,619, Free blacks,11, 8,777 whites. The population total was 11,407 in 1860. The number of slaves for Monroe County 3,021, free blacks, 42, whites 11722, total 14, 785. I looked at the historical sources, from the 1860 census. It was always called Little Dixie when I lived there and is still called that. It was heavily southern from when it was first settled till today. Tobacco was the cash crop until WWII.
 
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I looked at this source because I was concerned you were using a "strong" Little Dixie county to represent a "typical rural county' in Missouri. I see how you are getting your numbers but I can also see the errors in your calculation.

Your count for Federal troops comes from page 239 "Up to December 31, 1863, Monroe county had furnished 41 men for the regular United States service ; in the Missouri State Militia, 38.Under calls previous to December 19, 1864, Monroe county furnished 474, being 7 more than her quota. Under call of December 19,1864, the county furnished 134. There was no deficiency under the draft."

Then to get the count of Confederate troops, you count all the names listed on pages 237-239. There are two problems with the calculation. First, for those who have not studied the Holtzclaw family, more than two sons from this family served in the Confederate Army - one died in Corinth, 2 at Vicksburg, a 4th was seriously wounded at Vicksburg, and a 5th was wounded at Pea Ridge and then came home and started a guerilla outfit. But the list used to get this county count only shows two Holtzclaw's. This books lists 'some' Confederate veterans from the county - it is not meant to be an all inclusive list.

It would be better to use the information the same author concedes on page 227 when they say " Indeed, were it even possible to present the facts as they occurred,we doubt the propriety of doing so, as we would thereby reopen the wounds which have partially been healed by the flight of time and the hope of the future. It were better, perhaps, to let the passions and the deep asperities which were then engendered, and all that serves to remind us of that unhappy period, be forgotten. We have tried in vain to obtain the number and names of the men who entered the Confederate, army from Monroe county. No record of them has ever been preserved", either by the officers who commanded the men or by the Confederate government. It is supposed about 600 men went into the Southern army."

This county was 'conditional Unionist" based on their representation to the Convention, as were most Little Dixie counties, and a strong slave holding county.

The evidence, for the state, strongly supports the generally lead belief among historians that a large proportion of Missourians supported the Union. Anyone can cherry pick numbers to support "their side" all day long, whichever that may be, but in reality, one can read the plea and words from Sterling Price himself in December 1861 and see that neither he, nor Governor Jackson, were getting the response they thought they would. (Read his deeply impassioned speech here) under 'General Sterling Price's Proclamation To The People of Central and Northern Missouri'. Sorry gang - yes Lyon's actions after camp Jackson pushed some 'conditional Unionists' to favor secession, maybe even a lot depending on what scale we are using. But many regretted their knee jerk reaction and went home afterwards, while a lot stayed loyal to Price and fought for the Confederacy. The same history that shows us that, also shows a lot more 'conditional Unionists' and 'unconditional Unionists' decided to stay loyal to the North.

Someone might want to consider the vote count in the 1860 election and the 1864 election and remember you could only vote if you took the oath of allegiance in 64. Now you have already heard the howls of how unfair the election was, but if all the people who did not vote in 64 that did in 60 were secesh (obviously not) - you have a large majority that did take the oath.

But then again, there is that old saying "There are three kind of lies, lies, da--ed lies, and statistics."
I looked at this source because I was concerned you were using a "strong" Little Dixie county to represent a "typical rural county' in Missouri. I see how you are getting your numbers but I can also see the errors in your calculation.

Your count for Federal troops comes from page 239 "Up to December 31, 1863, Monroe county had furnished 41 men for the regular United States service ; in the Missouri State Militia, 38.Under calls previous to December 19, 1864, Monroe county furnished 474, being 7 more than her quota. Under call of December 19,1864, the county furnished 134. There was no deficiency under the draft."

Then to get the count of Confederate troops, you count all the names listed on pages 237-239. There are two problems with the calculation. First, for those who have not studied the Holtzclaw family, more than two sons from this family served in the Confederate Army - one died in Corinth, 2 at Vicksburg, a 4th was seriously wounded at Vicksburg, and a 5th was wounded at Pea Ridge and then came home and started a guerilla outfit. But the list used to get this county count only shows two Holtzclaw's. This books lists 'some' Confederate veterans from the county - it is not meant to be an all inclusive list.

It would be better to use the information the same author concedes on page 227 when they say " Indeed, were it even possible to present the facts as they occurred,we doubt the propriety of doing so, as we would thereby reopen the wounds which have partially been healed by the flight of time and the hope of the future. It were better, perhaps, to let the passions and the deep asperities which were then engendered, and all that serves to remind us of that unhappy period, be forgotten. We have tried in vain to obtain the number and names of the men who entered the Confederate, army from Monroe county. No record of them has ever been preserved", either by the officers who commanded the men or by the Confederate government. It is supposed about 600 men went into the Southern army."

This county was 'conditional Unionist" based on their representation to the Convention, as were most Little Dixie counties, and a strong slave holding county.

The evidence, for the state, strongly supports the generally lead belief among historians that a large proportion of Missourians supported the Union. Anyone can cherry pick numbers to support "their side" all day long, whichever that may be, but in reality, one can read the plea and words from Sterling Price himself in December 1861 and see that neither he, nor Governor Jackson, were getting the response they thought they would. (Read his deeply impassioned speech here) under 'General Sterling Price's Proclamation To The People of Central and Northern Missouri'. Sorry gang - yes Lyon's actions after camp Jackson pushed some 'conditional Unionists' to favor secession, maybe even a lot depending on what scale we are using. But many regretted their knee jerk reaction and went home afterwards, while a lot stayed loyal to Price and fought for the Confederacy. The same history that shows us that, also shows a lot more 'conditional Unionists' and 'unconditional Unionists' decided to stay loyal to the North.

Someone might want to consider the vote count in the 1860 election and the 1864 election and remember you could only vote if you took the oath of allegiance in 64. Now you have already heard the howls of how unfair the election was, but if all the people who did not vote in 64 that did in 60 were secesh (obviously not) - you have a large majority that did take the oath.

But then again, there is that old saying "There are three kind of lies, lies, da--ed lies, and statistics."

I used "typical rural Missouri county" in regards to Monroe since it had little in the way of large urban centers. Its generally accepted the larger urban areas tended to be more Unionist, and in relation to that Monroe would be more a typical rural county. Also while not as familiar with the rest of state, most NE MO counties not included as "Little Dixie" such as Shelby, Lewis, Knox were also predominately settled from Ky and Tenn, so I tend to think the term Little Dixie correlates more to the black belt and slave population then in fact heritage.....And those counties north of Little Dixie with lower % of slave population seem to have the same degree of MSG and the Confederate recruiter support in 61-62.

I mainly mentioned it because of the number of times I have seen others use numbers of 116,000 federal troops+50-100,ooo Union Militia statewide to indicate some degree of loyality to the union compared to 50,000 for the CSA.

What I found interesting is the Monroe County numbers come very close to mirroring those numbers tilted to the Union that some use statewide. However remove the 1864-65 and the forced Union draft and the numbers tell far different story of volunteerism and would seem to indicate Missouri once war had been thrust upon it, was in fact not as overwhelming loyal as some seem to want to imply. And I do think it would be representative of a far larger number of rural counties

The numbers I found show a little over 2-1 edge pro south for 61-63 for Monroe, You may be right that would be even more heavily weighted pro south in reality, I myself originally pointed out it wasn't clear if those who had served in MSG then came come, were included in the CSA figure.

My point was even allowing for a degree of variance in other rural counties statewide, I think it would be safe to assume not counting drafted numbers, we were in fact at best, a very divided state once it began.
 
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I can't blow up the 1860 Map. They may have been rural counties, but they tended to be important to the state, despite a real lack of large cities. The North Missouri Rail Road also ran through Randolph County.
 
another map showing "Little Dixie," with a write up below.
form the website--> http://littledixie.net/
Missouri’s “slave belt,”
image001.gif
or “black belt,”

also historically “Little Dixie”

image003.gif





Missouri's “Little Dixie” is a section of the State where the local culture historically paralleled the Upper South. During the Antebellum period, massive waves of migrating Southern farmers and planters flooded the area and transplanted their slave dependent culture and economy. By 1860, Little Dixie had indeed become a microcosm of the South's plantation hierarchal society, a Southern enclave where distinctive cultural traits and attitudes matched those of the Antebellum South. Collectively, these Little Dixie counties shared many common Southern characteristics that influenced Missouri's political, agricultural, and social conditions prior to the Civil War, during the War, and for many decades after.

The borders of Little Dixie, for the most part, encompass 17 counties in the rich and fertile timbered river valleys and rolling upper prairies of central Missouri. The region embraces all of the counties along the Missouri River, commencing at present day Kansas City, running east into the central part of the State, and terminating at Callaway County. It is at Callaway County where the boundary then extends north and around St. Louis to Pike County on the Mississippi River. This cultural province includes parts, but not all, of the historic “Boonslick” and does not include those counties considered as the Missouri German Rhineland. Although, Little Dixie shares many cultural traditions with the historic inhabitants of the Ozarks, only Cooper County briefly extends into this once Appalachian oasis. The core zone, or "Heart" of Little Dixie, is considered by many scholars as Audrain, Boone, Callaway, Howard, Monroe, Pike, Ralls, and Randolph Counties, but other important Missouri slave and hemp and tobacco counties are Carroll, Chariton, Clay, Cooper, Jackson, Lafayette, Saline, Platte, and Ray. In some areas near its 17 county borders, Little Dixie briefly may extend into nearby less important slave and cash crop counties, such as Pettis and Cass.
 
Monroe County is located within an area of Missouri called Little Dixie. it was made up of the counties of Calloway, Boone, Randolph, Chariton, Howard, Ralls and Saline. Two other Counties that are sometimes included are Lafayette and Clay, but these two are usually not included, by the UDC as the others are considered the heart of Little Dixie. These areas are very heavy in southern culture, as brought by the people who settled in this part of Missouri. This area was heavy in the production of Hemp and Tobacco.
Prominent sites or ports in several of these Counties served as jumping off points for migrants traveling to northern and western Missouri shortly after the State was incorporated into the U.S. The River Counties early during Missouri history encompassed much larger areas and were later broken up into several smaller Counties. An example of this was Ray County. It originally administered a region stretching from north of the River westward to the boundary of Indian Territory, later to become the Platte Purchase addition to northwestern Missouri and northward to the Iowa border. After the early 30s it was broken up into about eight Counties.
 
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The map is now fixed, and it goes from 1830 to 1860. I listed the color percentages shown on the maps.
Thanks. I knew it was showing slave percentages as a part of the total population in the green counties, but I couldn't read the numbers earlier. It's much better now.
 
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