Commonwealth of Compromise: Civil War Commemoration in Missouri

by Amy Laurel Fluker

Overview

In this important new contribution to the historical literature, Amy Fluker offers a history of Civil War commemoration in Missouri, shifting focus away from the guerrilla war and devoting equal attention to Union, African American, and Confederate commemoration. She provides the most complete look yet at the construction of Civil War memory in Missouri, illuminating the particular challenges that shaped Civil War commemoration. As a slaveholding Union state on the Western frontier, Missouri found itself at odds with the popular narratives of Civil War memory developing in the North and the South. At the same time, the state’s deeply divided population clashed with one another as they tried to find meaning in their complicated and divisive history. As Missouri’s Civil War generation constructed and competed to control Civil War memory, they undertook a series of collaborative efforts that paved the way for reconciliation to a degree unmatched by other states.

Acts of Civil War commemoration have long been controversial and were never undertaken for objective purposes, but instead served to transmit particular values to future generations. Understanding this process lends informative context to contemporary debates about Civil War memory.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826222084
Publisher:	University of Missouri Press
Publication date:	06/29/2020
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	996,964
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Amy Laurel Fluker is an Assistant Professor of U.S. history at Youngstown State University. She lives in Niles, Ohio.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

List of Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 3

1 "Cradled in a Compromise" Missouri in the Civil War Era 15

2 "Poor Old Missouri" Redeeming Missouri's Union Cause 45

3 "No Longer Cowed" African American Missourians and the Emancipation Cause 71

4 "Glory Enough for Us All" Missouri's Lost Cause 99

5 "The Recuperative Powers of Missouri" Reconciliation in a Border State 125

6 "Tender of Both Uniforms" Missouri's Homes for Civil War Veterans 159

Epilogue 193

Notes 203

Bibliography 239

Index 257

Editorial Reviews

Dr. Fluker’s important new work makes welcome contributions to Missouri history, the history of the American West, and the developing scholarship of Civil War memory.” —Jeremy Neely, Missouri State University, author of The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line
 

“Amy Fluker’s extensive research on the tenor of reconciliation in Missouri emphasizes the complexities of community healing in a state where various regional identities—Western, Southern, and Northern—collided. She illuminates the conservative, yet pragmatic approaches of her subjects, explaining how there was no single narrative dictating how Missourians understood this conflict. Commonwealth of Compromise is a must read for anyone interested in the Civil War’s legacies.”—Kristen Epps, University of Central Arkansas, author of Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras

“Fluker complicates our understanding of Civil War memory by examining a place, Missouri, that did not conform to simple categories of Lost Cause, Unionist, or emancipationist memories of the war. Instead Missourians fashioned a memory that allowed disparate groups to preserve elements of their unique memories in a larger reconciliationist framework.”—Nicole Etcheson, Ball State University, author of A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community

"An extraordinarily timely contribution to our current national dialogue over Confederacy celebrating statues, Confederate general named military bases, and the removal of the last Confedrate 'Stars & Bars' from the Mississippi state flag, Commonwealth of Compromise: Civil War Commemoration in Missouri is a work of original and meticulous scholarship that deserves being a part of every community, college, and university library, U.S. Civil War History in general, and 19th century Missouri History supplemental curriculum reading lists in particular."—Midwest Book Review

"Fluker’s writing is strong and clear; her grasp of the debates is exceptional; and she skillfully applies an impressive array of primary source materials."—Missouri Historical Review

From the Publisher