<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> During the American Civil War, Missouri was a hotly contested border state populated by both Union and Confederate sympathizers . It sent armies, generals, and supplies to both sides, was represented with a star on both flags, maintained dual governments, and endured a bloody neighbor - against - neighbor intrastate war within the larger national war . </P> <P> A slave state since statehood in 1821, Missouri's geographic position in the center of the country and at the rural edge of the American frontier ensured that it remained a divisive battleground for competing Northern and Southern ideologies in the years preceding the war . When the war began in 1861, it became clear that control of the Mississippi River and the burgeoning economic hub of St. Louis would make Missouri a strategic territory in the Trans - Mississippi Theater . </P>

Who did missouri fight for in the civil war