I know we have a few members here that call the "Show me state" home. Would they be classified as yanks or rebels these days ?
Are you looking to pick a fight or do you want the history? The best reading is that Missouri was about evenly divided at the outset of the War Between the States. Lincoln and the other Black Republicans made some moves that were heavy-handed, such as calling for troops from the slave state, of which most people were of southern descent, to quell the "rebellion". Missouri had many economic ties to the north and as such, initially had voted against secession, although their Governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, was strongly secesh. Lincoln's man in Missouri was abolitionist General Nathaniel Lyon who, instead of negotiating with Jackson and General of the state militia, former Governor Sterling Price, ran them out of St. Louis and then lead the Federal Army into Jefferson City. Most of the legislature fled and the Union installed an illegal puppet government. The Missouri legislature then re-convened in Neosho and voted for secession. They are the twelfth star on the Confederate Battle Flag. The Union didn't recognize this as legal since they didn't have a quorum. The Missouri state capitol was moved to Marshall, Texas, where it stayed for the remainder of the war.
As for sentiments, all of this worked against the Union and a return to the Bleeding Kansas days resulted, with Union militias of Jayhawkers and Redlegs preying upon defenseless Missouri civilians after Price's army was order across the Mississippi in 1862. This gave rise to Confederate Partisan bands such as Colonel William Clark Quantrill's who were acting in self defense and defending the home folks. Unfortunately, like most guerrilla bands, despite some great successes, they did not have the ability to hold ground and thus the Yankees held all the big population centers whilst the guerrillas ruled the countryside.
Eventually the Union subdued the east enough that it could turn its attentions to Missouri and the guerrillas were defeated. Most eventually went home or moved away and lead productive and respectable lives, some under aliases to prevent retaliation from the Yankees.
One of the Generals during the war, charged with subjugating Missouri for Lincoln, had remarked that due to the actions of renegade Union forces under notables such as Charles Jennison and Senator James Lane, Missouri, initially a "Conditional Union" state, had turned "more secesh than Northern Virginia,". So it is safe to say that Missouri was more southern than northern. This mirrors the fate of the Kansas Territory before the war.
