page_title: John Baker White (Virginia)
section_title: American Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: John Baker White (Virginia) / American Civil War
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of the Wirgman Building (previously known as the Valley Bank Building and the Bank of Romney Building) in Romney, Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. The Wirgman Building was built in 1825 and razed in 1965 for the construction of the current Bank of Romney building.
context_page_description: John Baker White was a 19th-century American military officer, lawyer, court clerk, and civil servant in the U.S. state of Virginia.
  During the War of 1812, White enlisted in the United States Army as a soldier and was promoted to the military rank of ensign. In 1815, White was qualified as Clerk of Court for both the county and circuit courts of Hampshire County, Virginia and he continued to hold these offices through successive appointments and elections for 46 years between 1815 and 1861. To date, White remains the longest-serving Clerk of Court for Hampshire County since the office's creation in 1757. As a prominent lawyer and court clerk, White taught jurisprudence. Many of White's law students later became eminent lawyers and public officials in their own right, including Henry Bedinger, United States House Representative and United States Ambassador to Denmark.
  During the American Civil War, White was concerned for the safety of the county's records and proceeded to load land registration records ledger books onto wagons and had them transported for safekeeping.
context_section_description: Prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, White was in support of preserving the United States. In the United States presidential election of 1860, White supported Constitutional Union Party presidential candidate John Bell and his running mate Edward Everett. The Constitutional Union Party was formed by former Whig Party members seeking to avoid secessionism over the issue of slavery. In 1861, White voted for Union candidates to serve as delegates from Hampshire County in the Virginia secession convention, one of which was his son-in-law Colonel E. M. Armstrong.
  White's national loyalties shifted following the Battle of Fort Sumter and other Union encroachments into the Confederate States of America, after which White supported the defense of Virginia's states' rights and of the United States Constitution. White's eldest three sons out of four joined the Confederate States Army, and White became active in enlisting and arousing support within Hampshire County for the Confederate States cause. Because of his Confederate sympathies, White was threatened by occupying Union Army forces to either vacate his residence in Romney or face arrest.
caption: Photographed in 1937, the Wirgman Building in Romney was built for and housed the Bank of the Valley of Virginia around 1825. The structure was razed in 1965 for the construction of the current Bank of Romney building.
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