Jim and Bryan,

We at the South Central Mo.-North Central Ar. Round Table have worked extensively on the border counties of Missouri and Arkansas, no man's land. As the ferryman in THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES stated, you had to whistle Dixie and Yankee Doodle equally well.Joe Smith came close to the mark with his historical fiction, Blessed Are The Peacemakers.
A man with a family did what was necessary to survive and bring his family through it.