Online resource features Missouri's Civil War history

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Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt recently announced a new online database that provides history buffs with access to information about Missouri's Civil War history. |ret||ret||tab|

The database, found at www.sos.state.mo.us, is an ongoing project directed by the Missouri State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State's office. |ret||ret||tab|

Blunt said the database includes correspondence and legal documents, involving Missouri citizens and provost marshals, which will shed new light on Missouri's pivotal role in the Civil War. The Union Army created the position of provost marshal to oversee the investigation of charges or acts of treason, and arresting deserters, spies and persons deemed disloyal.|ret||ret||tab|

"There continues to be enormous interest in the Civil War and the impact it has had on our state and nation," Blunt said. "This online index makes our state's Civil War history both accessible and meaningful to scholars and students." |ret||ret||tab|

Blunt said the provost papers are much more than just a resource for military research, because they "provide information about the role of women during the war, its effect on Missouri's slavery as an institution and the difficulties experienced by war refugees."|ret||ret||tab|

The database project is aimed at creating a locating aid for the Missouri portion of the National Archives' collection of provost marshal records. |ret||ret||tab|

Historians estimate that more than 40,000 documents related to Missouri exist within the national collection and detail the experience of war in the trans-Mississippi West. |ret||ret||tab|

The microfilm collection available a the Missouri State Archives contains thousands of pages that describe how the provost marshal affected the lives of Missouri citizens who came into contact with the Union Army, offering a unique look at a state divided in loyalty.|ret||ret||tab|

The database was created by volunteers and student interns who entered information from a review of thousands of pages of microfilm. The result is an online index to a manuscript collection that has been virtually untouched by researchers.|ret||ret||tab|

"I commend the hard work of the volunteers and students who created this database. It is an extraordinary resource that captures bits of untold history, giving human faces and emotion to a period of extreme turmoil in our state's history," Blunt said. |ret||ret||tab|

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