His brother John Strother Hansbrough became the longest serving rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Orange, Virginia.
He was met with more hostility than he expected, for many in Taylor County favored Union, and after the Wheeling Convention, longtime Pruntytown resident Harmon Sinsel became their delegate and helped establish the new state (and its name "West Virginia" rather than "Kanawha").
[9] Lt. Col. Hansbrough was severely wounded and carried from the field leading his men during the Battle of Camp Allegheny in December 1861, as they defended what became their winter quarters overlooking the turnpike between Staunton and Parkersburg.
[10] In the spring of 1862, his decimated unit merged into the similarly undermanned 25th Virginia Infantry, only to be officially separated on November 4, 1862 (after a prisoner exchange on August 16, 1862).
However, by August 1862, because of his wounds and the dispersing of his battalion, he applied for a clerkship in the Confederate Treasury department under W.W. Crump, as well as requested permission to raise troops behind enemy lines after other West Virginians voted to secede from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Senator William Mahone to bring a railroad line through Salem, but nearby Big Lick was selected instead for the major junction, becoming Roanoke.
During his twelve year term (not renewed due to changing legislative politics), Hansbrough gathered and published what were later enumerated as volumes 76 through 90 of the Virginia Reports.