 The area suffered greatly during the American Civil War, though Harrisonville was one of the few places exempted in Union General Thomas Ewing's General Order No.11 (1863), which ordered the depopulation of three entire Missouri counties and part of a fourth.In 1972, Harrisonville was the site of escalating tensions between a handful of mostly Vietnam veterans and town elders, which culminated in a brief rampage by 25-year-old Charlie "Ootney" Simpson.