Rebels on the Border offers a remarkably compelling and significant study of the Civil War South's highly contested and bloodiest border states: Kentucky and Missouri. By far the most complex examination to date, the book sharply focuses on the "borderland" between the free North and the Confederate South. As a result, Rebels on the Border deepens and enhances our understanding of the sectional conflict, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

Aaron Astor is assistant professor of history at Maryville College.