Correct.
Missouri voted to not succeed. Then our governor tried armed neutrality and the Yankees occupied our Capitol and appointed Governor Gamble. But only the 13th Amendment freed our slaves, and Missouri was not crushed and beaten at war’s end. My ancestors all rode for Governor Gamble and Lincoln.
Why the fire eaters in the South prevailed over the peacemakers was they hoped starting a war would cause states in the Upper South to succeed and join the Confederacy, which they did, to their sorrow.
It’s easy to see how the South was motivated to fight to the end to preserve their way of life.
But Abraham Lincoln used Fort Sumter to motivate 350,000 men to die invading the South to keep them in the Union.
Remember Fort Sumter was the Northern rallying cry.
Not until Germany gave Austria a blank check in 1914 was there more folly.
If nobody had started a civil war slavery would have lasted at least another generation. Emancipation would have been gradual, perhaps compensated, and certainly not in 1865 in utter defeat and ruin.
Larson is a masterful story teller.
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