PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — Men from Pike County Missouri played big roles at the beginning and end of the Civil War.
In February 1861, Aylett Hawes Buckner was part of a doomed effort to prevent bloodshed. The Bowling Green lawyer was among 130 men who organized the Peace Convention in Washington, D.C.
Seven states had already seceded when the group got together. Buckner took an active part in the convention, but Congress rejected its seven proposals. The Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter two months later.
In February 1865, Missouri became the eighth state to ratify the slavery-ending 13th Amendment. It was drafted and introduced the previous year by Louisiana attorney John Brooks Henderson.
The Missouri state senator who made the motion to approve the amendment was George Washington Anderson, another Louisiana resident. Both he and Henderson were one-time slave owners who were born in the South but fought for the Union.
Dozens of other men from Pike County – as well as several women – served on both sides during the war.