I've read a bit on St. Louis and its political problems during the Civil War, and I wondered what effect that may have had on aspirations for moving west. There's a lot of information about Westward expansions before the Civil War and a lot more about it afterward, but how common was it during the war? What were commonly used trails or methods of transportation?
You might want to consider reading Mark Twain's Roughing It (1872). When Lincoln appointed his older brother, Orion Clemens, to become the secretary/treasurer of the new Nevada Territory in 1861, Samuel Clemens decided it was a great opportunity to leave Missouri and the Civil War. Finding little appetite for fighting in an army of the South, and not wanting to be drafted as a river boat pilot working for the Union, Clemens relished the idea of traveling West. The two brothers made the journey by stagecoach.
Many people who wanted to avoid the war - and/or the draft - found the West a land of opportunity, not only for economic success but also for survival.