Confederate government of West Virginia
[6] Benjamin Wilson, a delegate from Harrison County, was arrested at his home in Clarksburg in June and could not return, though he had previously signed the ordinance in April.
A number of delegates entered Confederate service; Samuel Woods, John Echols, Franklin P. Turner, Napoleon B. French, Johnson Orrick, Alpheus F. Haymond, Currence B. Conrad, and Benjamin W. Byrne, among others.
[10] Although the charges were not pursued his reputation among Unionists was ruined and he eventually closed his Morgantown newspaper, The Virginia Evening Star, the following January and ended his political career.
[12][13] George W. Summers, who resigned from the convention at the end of the first session in May, addressed the militia in Charleston on June 8, 1861, and urged that they unite as one "...to defend old Virginia until every invader is driven from her soil.
Secessionists were active in Jackson, Ritchie, Harrison, Wood, Wayne, Kanawha, Cabell, Taylor, Upshur, Marion, although these counties voted against the secession ordinance.
"[20][21]County courts in Jackson, Fayette, Hampshire, Monroe, Gilmer, Pocahontas, and Raleigh levied funds to arm militia for the defense of Virginia.
Other notable military figures were Christopher Q. Tompkins and George S. Patton of Charleston, who were instrumental in the organizing of volunteers in the Kanawha Valley in the summer of 1861.
Lt. Col. Vincent A. Witcher of Wayne County was a wide-ranging cavalry officer, moving from West Virginia through Tennessee and participating in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 and later at Lynchburg in 1864 during Union Brig-Gen. David Hunter's failed campaign.
[25] After the Richmond convention passed the secession ordinance on April 17, 1861, they appointed five delegates to the provisional congress of the Confederacy, which included Gideon D. Camden of Harrison County.
His position was filled by Samuel Augustine Miller of Kanawha County, who had been a major in the 22nd Virginia Infantry and won Jenkins' seat in a special election in 1863.
In Congress he worked on the committee controlling army pay and clothing, and supported Lee's efforts to gain more authority in directing the war.
Price was arrested by Col. George Crook (U.S.) in 1862 for refusing to take the oath of loyalty, but was rescued by Confederate forces when the Kanawha Valley was briefly recaptured.
He warned Jefferson Davis of the bitter feud between generals John Floyd and Henry Wise, which was hampering the defense of western Virginia.
[29] A list of West Virginia civilians imprisoned at Camp Chase in March 1862 named five men as rebel mail carriers from Randolph, Pendleton, Hampshire, and Tucker counties.
Many of the notes issued by Virginia during the war contained a portrait of Jonathan M. Bennett, the state auditor, and a native of Lewis County.
In 1863 Dr. Thomas B. Camden, of Weston, Lewis County, sold his horse for $140 in Confederate currency prior to being imprisoned at Camp Chase with his wife and children.
[34] Legal cases involving the use of Confederate money to pay off debts, buying land, slaves and other financial transactions occupied West Virginia courts for many years.
On March 29, 1862, the General Assembly passed an act allowing counties, as well as towns with a population of 2,000 or more, to issue scrip for transactions under five dollars.
On October 25, 1861, the auditor of Virginia, Jonathan M. Bennett, wrote to Judah P. Benjamin, the Confederate Secretary of War, to urge him to make efforts to have the prisoners released or exchanged.
Joseph Holt, the U.S. Judge-Advocate General, complained to the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, that Pierpont's extensive arrests were interfering with the prisoner exchange program.
Having voted against the secession ordinance, and living in contested counties in the west, "put a man at risk for military arrest by Confederate authorities.
McLellan left West Virginia and Gen. Rosecrans took command, and found that numerous claims for the destruction of private property were presented to him almost daily.
On March 29, 1862, Jefferson Davis placed the counties of Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Monroe, Mercer, Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, and Randolph under martial law, due to citizen complaints of marauding outlaws.
Gen. Robert H. Milroy ordered fines to be levied against civilians to compensate for rebel raids and horse stealing, with threats of fire and execution.
Gen. John Imboden informed Jefferson Davis, and protest was formally made to Maj. Gen. Halleck, who sent word that ..."Milroy had no authority to issue these orders, which are deemed in violation of the laws of war."
In 1863 the future governor of the new state, Arthur I. Boreman, said- "After you get a short distance below the Panhandle...it is not safe for a loyal man to go into the interior out of sight of the Ohio River.
Boreman asked Gen. David Hunter to exert his forces in the southwestern counties- "The counties between the Great Kanawha and Big Sandy Rivers, in the southern part of the State, have been infested with large bodies of guerrillas from the beginning of the rebellion..."[58]
After the capture of Union General Scammon and his men an Ohio newspaper was prompted to write on Feb, 18, 1864– "With the commanding General of the Department and his Quarter Master, in Libby prison, captured by rebels within 35 miles of Gallipolis- a government steamer burned at the same time, it might seem to an unpracticed eye, that the State of West Virginia was not so intensely loyal as some persons wish it to be considered.
District 14 consists of Kanawha, Logan, Boone, Wayne, Cabell, Putnam, Mason, Jackson, Roane, Clay, Nicholas, Braxton, Wirt and Wyoming.
District 15 consists of Lewis, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Ritchie, Doddridge, Upshur, Randolph, Webster, Tucker, Barbour, Harrison, Taylor, Gilmer and Calhoun.
