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Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state during the secession crisis that led to the Civil War. The admission came the same day that enough Southern slave state Senators had left Congress to join the Confederacy to allow it to pass (effective January 29, 1861). Partisan violence continued along the Kansas–Missouri border for most of the war, although Union control of Kansas was never seriously threatened. Bleeding Kansas demonstrated that armed conflict over slavery was unavoidable. Its severity made national headlines, which suggested to the American people that the sectional disputes were unlikely to be resolved without bloodshed and it acted as a preface to the American Civil War.[9] The episode is commemorated with numerous memorials and historic sites.