These companies had been formed by pro-Union citizens of these counties in April 1861, after the Commonwealth of Virginia voted to secede from the Union, in order to resist Confederate incursions.

Company A (from the Fourth Ward of Wheeling) had actually been organized, as the Rough and Ready Guards, on April 18, 1861, the day after the state convention voted for secession.

[5] Under the command of Colonel Benjamin Franklin Kelley and the 1st Virginia traveled from Wheeling by train on May 27 to near Mannington to secure a bridge on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which had been destroyed by the rebels.

After remaining there two days, the regiment advanced again, seizing the important railroad junction of Grafton on May 30 from a body of Virginia state militia under command of Confederate Col. George A. Porterfield.

Porterfield's troops retreated to Philippi where, on June 3, they were defeated by a Union force which included the 1st Virginia Infantry.

A detachment of five companies served with Major General George B. McClellan in the Rich Mountain campaign.