No West Virginia remained loyal and so its people were recognized between their democratically elected convention and Congress admitted as a separate state by Congress Just as Congress has recognized Puerto Rico as a part of the US although you WP seceded it You are wrong on both PR and WV As you know I do not believe secession had any objective reason and I believe in the political process of Constitutional Amendment if one were to have the impulse to secede West Virginia were the counties counted loyal to the USG from which 20 000 served for the Union and 20 000 for the Confederacy My phrase war of brothers taken from scholarly sources was removed from this article s introduction Perhaps not enough to explain why one s family knowingly joins in opposing uniforms but I think that narrow perspective forfeits much understanding available in modern scholarship