Missouri Civil War Reader, Volume I - now available



The Crisis

by Winston Churchill, 1901

St. Louis native Winston Churchill was born in 1871, three years before that other fellow with the same name that the Brits are so proud of. The Crisis, based on his own family’s experiences in St. Louis during the war, is considered by some to be one of the greatest American novels ever written. Readers of Galusha Anderson’s “Border City” will recognize many of the incidents and situations that take place in this book, but as a novel The Crisis is free to focus more on the stresses and fractures of human relations during a very difficult time in the history of St. Louis.

other Churchill titles from ABEBOOKS





Guerrilla Season

by Pat Hughes

Review





Blessed Are the Peacemakers

by Joe W. Smith

Civil War in the Ozarks

Now available from Amazon.com

available from McCleery & Sons Publishing

Review



Burn, Missouri, Burn
by Randal L. Greenwood

by the same author:

Kansas, Bloody Kansas
&

Ride, Rebels, Ride

try ABEBOOKS for copies


Terror at the Door: A Story of the Missouri-Kansas Border Conflict, 1859-1861
by Byron Shutz


Other Missouri Authors

These are fiction authors from Missouri. Though they do not necessarily write about the Civil War in Missouri, the conflict's impact and influence can be seen in a number of their works

Robert A. Heinlein-science fiction author

Heinlein was born in Butler, Missouri in 1907. Butler is in Bates County, one of the Missouri counties forcibly depopulated by the infamous Order 11. The Civil War took place during his grandparent's generation and he would have been surrounded by the stories and the war's influence throughout his youth. Couple with this, Heinlein was a US Navy officer who, due to illness, spent some time in US military hospitals, very probably with some aging ex-Civil War soldiers.

In Heinlein's science fiction novels, the influence of Missouri's Civil War history can be seen. Slavery and its impact, the sense of being in an occupied nation, the secret societies and underground/guerrilla war... all are things mirrored in his stories. Heinlein novels:



Citizen of the Galaxy

Heinlein's strongest novel about slavery. The story of a young boy, Thorby, who is a slave on a distant planet. The novel is intended for juveniles but is an excellent read for all ages.

Revolt in 2100

The story of the 2nd American Revolution in the year 2100. This story will put you in mind of the secret war for Missouri with the secret societies and sense of being in an occupied country--occupied by fellow Americans--right in your own homeland. The accompanying novel included in this edition is Methuselah's Children, which introduces the character of Lazarus Long, a character born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. A very personal story of Butler, Missouri and Kansas City in the 1890s to World War I is told by Heinlein in To Sail Beyond the Sunset(warning: adult content).

More Books by Heinlein



Laura Ingalls Wilder - pioneer fiction author

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Wisconsin in 1867. Her roaming pioneer family lived in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota. She was a child in Kansas, at the edge of Indian Territory, when the notorious Bender family was murdering travelers who stopped at their tavern. Pa Ingalls was one of those who rode out with the vigilantes to deal with the Benders. In DeSmet, South Dakota (then Dakota Territory) their church's preacher was a cousin of abolitionist John Brown and, Laura said, looked a great deal like him. After her marriage in Dakota Territory, and hard years there, Laura and her husband Almanzo Wilder moved to Mansfield, Missouri in the Ozarks where they remained the rest of their lives. It was in Missouri that Laura wrote her series of children's books that have become perpetual favorites. Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, after roaming much of her life, also settled down in Missouri to write.

More on Laura Ingalls Wilder, with pictures of her Mansfield, Missouri home

Laura Ingalls Wilder novels: Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder



On the Way Home

This is Laura's diary account of their trip from DeSmet, South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri in a covered wagon and their early days finding and settling at Rocky Ridge farm.



The Rose Series-following Rose's life at the turn of the century, set in Mansfield, Missouri

Books by Rose Wilder Lane

Loula Grace Erdman - pioneer west fiction author

Loula Grace Erdman was born in Lafayette County, Missouri around the turn of the century. Her mother's maiden name was "Maddox," a familiar name to those acquainted with western Missouri Civil War history. Many of her books are set in Missouri. Loula Grace Erdman writes beautiful stories in a clear, simple style. Among her books that touch on the Civil War are "Many a Voyage" which tells the story of the wife of Edmund Ross. Ross was the Republican abolitionist who, after the war, cast the deciding vote in President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. Ross's wife and children were in Lawrence, Kansas during Quantrill's raid--Ross was away in Washington, DC. "Save Weeping for the Night" is the story of Bettie Shelby, the wife of Confederate General Jo Shelby. And "Another Spring" is about Order 11.

Unfortunately, almost all books by Loula Grace Erdman are out of print. Copies are available used from ABEBOOKS.

Some titles to look for:

Life Was Simpler Then (about life in a small Missouri town)

Many A Voyage (Civil War novel of the wife of Edmund Ross)

Save Weeping for the Night (Civil War novel of Bettie Shelby, wife of General Jo Shelby)

v Another Spring (Civil War novel about the Order 11 forced relocations in western Missouri)