What was the significance of the Mississipi River on the Civil War and Westward Expansion?
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Don't forget the Jay treaty; differences in the relative value of trade and negotiation during the Articles of Confederation were one of the proximate causes of the US Constitutional Convention. One could make the case that these different perspectives on the role of the Mississippi were one of the causes of the Civil War. Modern Americans tend to forget just how pervasive and long lived the North South divide was in the formation of the Republic.
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I'll address the question's significance at two levels, the actual (North-South) Civil War, and the one that the Mississippi might have engendered between East and West,
Running north to south, the Mississippi was the vehicle by which the North was slowly, but surely winning the Civil War by 1863. The North didn't get an advantage over the South in Virginia until late 1864, but the North was already winning in the west by capturing Memphis, Tennesse and New Orleans, LA. in 1862. The capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi in July 1863 gave the Union control of the whole Missississippi River, and separated the three states west of the the river, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, plus Tennessee and Mississippi from the remaining six states of the Conferderacy. Sherman' "March to the Sea" (from Atlanta to Savannah, GA) chopped off the states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida from Virginia and the Carolinas, by the end of 1864. Hence the South had no choice but to surrender early in 1865.
The Mississippi could also have subdivided the U.S. East and West, possibly causing a Civil War that way. Some 60% of the U.S population today lives East of the river, and the remaining 40% to the West. With the notable exception of Texas, and the Pacific states, (Silicon Valley, CA, Boeing and Microsoft in Seattle, Washington), most of the industry is in the East, while the West is largely agricultural.
As President, Thomas Jefferson had the fear that his Louisiana Purchase states, and the ones just east of the Mississippi would form a separate country from the 13 colonies east of the Appalachians (now 16, counting the split up states of Vermont, Maine, and West Virginia, 17 if you include Florida.) In his time the West did not include Texas, California, the states between them, or the Pacific northwest.
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