Good point Keith. In irregular warfare there is always a dispute between both sides on just how many of each side were killed or non combatents vs combatents killed. The CW in Mo is not an exception . Per the ORs one could conclude that the Union forces were devestating the Confederate gurrillas but who really knows? Overall it appears that the Union forces won the irregular war in the sense that after Lee surendered there was vey little resistance to Union authority in Mo vs quite a bit in Ark and some other Southern states. One can also note that the techniques used by the Union forces in Mo during the CW against the Confederate guerrillas have been used more or less by other nations and the US in irregular warfare up to the present day.

Leonard