Sorry for the late reply I was on vacation hunting ducks with modest success. You have some good points.In history some believe in the great man theory or in the case of Sen. Lane the great bad man theory in which leader X influences people Y to do Z bad thing. In the case of Kan vs Mo I thing Fellmans theory makes a lot of sense in that many Kansans where thirsting for revenge after the bleeding Kansas conflict and now that they were in US uniform they decided to have some revenge. I agree that the Kan troops made a bad situation worse. Not all Kan troops were has undisciplined has Lanes and Jennisons my understanding is that the 9th Kan troops in Mo were more disciplined and still were effective against Confederate irregulars. Gen Halleck on page 642 of the Univ of Cornnel OR's has some interesting comments on Kan troops and also how other USV units commited outrages but he was unable to courtmartial those troops.

It has been said that in the CW that both sides had some of the worse soldiers but best fighters. The 7th Kan has a well documented history of outrages against civilians in Mo and Miss but that does not mean they werent good fighters. The Kan -Mo conflict was unique in that in no war that I know of did an army order its men to fire on its own soldiers of a given region if they entered another region.
Thanks
Leonard