Timeline of Missouri History: 1860-1869
| 1860 | The short-lived Pony Express started its first run from St. Joseph to Sacramento, California (Apr. 3) | |
| 1861 | The Battle of Wilson’s Creek resulted in a Union retreat and southwestern Missouri was left in Confederate hands until the Battle of Pea Ridge (Aug. 10) | |
| 1861 | President Abraham Lincoln revoked John Fremont’s emancipation proclamation for Missouri (Sept. 11) |  Lincoln University, c1900 |
| 1861 | Missouri’s "Rebel Legislature" adopted an Act of Secession (Oct. 28) | |
| 1862 | In a three-day battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, the Union Army forced the Confederates, excluding the state guard from Missouri, to retreat; this battle effectively ended the threat of Confederate military control in Missouri (Mar. 6-8) | |
| 1863 | William Clarke Quantrill and his band of pro-Southern guerillas raided the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing nearly 150 men and boys. This attack served to avenge the imprisonment of their wives, mothers, and sisters in Kansas City (Aug. 21) | |
| 1863 | Brigadier General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11, requiring all people living in Jackson, Cass, Bates, and northern Vernon counties to vacate the area unless their loyalty to the Union could be proven (Aug. 25) | |
| 1864 | George Washington Carver born near Diamond, Missouri | |
| 1865 | Slavery was abolished in Missouri by an ordinance of immediate emancipation, making Missouri the first slave state to emancipate its slaves before the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution (Jan. 11) | |
| 1865 | Missouri’s second Constitution (Drake Constitution) was adopted. A group of politicians, known as "Radicals," favored emancipation of slaves and disfranchisement of persons who were sympathetic to the Confederacy during the Civil War. The Radicals included an "Ironclad Oath" in the new constitution to exclude former Confederate sympathizers from the vote and certain occupations, severely limiting their civil rights (Apr. 10) | |
| 1866 | Lincoln Institute (later Lincoln University) was incorporated as an institution for black students in Missouri (Apr. 6) | |
| 1866 | The Missouri Historical Society was organized in St. Louis (Aug. 11) | |
| 1867 | The Missouri Woman’s Suffrage Club was organized in St. Louis; the sole purpose of this organization was the political enfranchisement of women, the first such organization in the United States (May 8) | |