Regulations on elections (such as closing saloons on election day) prevented fighting in future elections in 1856 and 1858. Militarily, the Civil War (1861–1865) barely touched St. Louis; the area saw only a few skirmishes in which Union forces prevailed. But the war shut down trade with the South, devastating the city's economy. Missouri was nominally a slave state, but its economy did not depend on slavery, and it never seceded from the Union. The areas of "Little Dixie" and the border with Kansas were a base for insurgency and guerrilla activity during the war. The state also had people who resisted slavery, as with the foundation of the militant Knights of Liberty in 1846. The arsenal at St. Louis was used during the war to construct ironclad ships for the Union.