More battles or engagements were fought in Missouri during the Civil War than in any of the states except Virginia and Tennessee. Missouri's was the nation's principal battleground in 1861. It is where people of the Midwest go to experience the drama of those times, and to re-live the Civil War history of their own home places.

Central Missouri is full of attractions for the history-minded traveler. Click on the red bar at right to view the online version of Missouri's Gray Ghosts Trail™ map. Float your cursor over the gold symbols and click to see the full text of interpretive panels dotting central Missouri. Order a printed map, and travel literature from our Gray Ghosts communities, by clicking the blue bar above.

In 1958, Richard Brownlee of the State Historical Society of Missouri penned his classic Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861-1865, thus launching a new era of understanding of the unique war that Missouri endured.