Missouri suffered severely in the war, but not through important campaigns or great battles.  Persistent secession conspiracy, the Kansas episodes of border strife, and secret orders of Confederate agents from Arkansas instigating unlawful warfare, made Missouri a hotbed of guerrilla uprisings and of relentless neighborhood feuds, in which armed partizan conflict often degenerated into shocking barbarity, and the pretense of war into the malicious execution of private vengeance.  President Lincoln drew a vivid picture of the chronic disorders in Missouri in reply to complaints demanding the removal of General Schofield from local military command: 

“We are in civil war.  In such cases there always is a main question; but in this case that question is a perplexing compound—­Union and slavery.  It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are against it.  Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not without, slavery—­those for it without, but not with—­those for it with or without, but prefer it with—­and those for it with or without, but prefer it without.  Among these again is a subdivision of those who are for gradual but not for immediate, and those who are for immediate, but not for gradual extinction of slavery.  It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men.  Yet, all being for the Union, by reason of these differences each will prefer a different way of sustaining the Union.  At once sincerity is questioned, and motives are assailed.  Actual war coming, blood grows hot, and blood is spilled.  Thought is forced from old channels into confusion.  Deception breeds and thrives.  Confidence dies and universal suspicion reigns.  Each man feels an impulse to kill his neighbor, lest he be first killed by him.  Revenge and retaliation follow.  And all this, as before said, may be among honest men only.  But this is not all.  Every foul bird comes abroad and every dirty reptile rises up.  These add crime to confusion.  Strong measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by maladministration.  Murders for old grudges, and murders for pelf, proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion.  These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general.  The newspaper files, those chroniclers of current events, will show that the evils now complained of were quite as prevalent under Fremont, Hunter, Halleck, and Curtis, as under Schofield....  I do not feel justified to enter upon the broad field you present in regard to the political differences between radicals and conservatives.  From time to time I have done and said what appeared to me proper to do and say.  The public knows it