West Virginia in the American Civil War The U . S . state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War ( see History of West Virginia ) . In the summer of 1861 , Union troops under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E . Lee . This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form their own government as a result of the Wheeling Convention . After Lee ' s departure , western Virginia continued to be a target of Confederate raids , even after the creation of the new state in 1863 . These actions focused both on supplying the Confederate Army with provisions as well as attacking the vital Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that linked the northeast with the midwest , as exemplified in the Jones - Imboden Raid . Guerrilla warfare also gripped the new state , especially in the Allegheny Mountain counties to the east , where loyalties were much more divided than in the Unionist northwest part of the state . History . Political events . On 17 April 1861 , the state convention in Richmond declared secession . Nearly all delegates from counties west of the Allegheny Mountains voted against secession , and most people and officials in that area refused any directions from the secessionist state government . On 15 May , western Virginia Unionists convened the first session of the Wheeling Convention . Many of the delegates were informally or self - appointed , so the Convention only denounced secession and called for formal election of delegates . The elected delegates met in the second session on 11 June . On 20 June the Convention declared that by acceding to secession , the officials of the state government in Richmond had forfeited their offices , which were now vacant . The Convention then elected replacements for these state offices , creating the Restored Government of Virginia . The " Restored " government was generally supported in where secession was opposed . Union troops also held the three three northernmost counties in the Shenandoah Valley , and despite the pro - secession views of most residents , these counties were also subjected to the " Restored " government . At the Wheeling Convention , some delegates proposed the immediate establishment of a separate state . However , other delegates pointed out that the creation of a new state would require the consent of Virginia , under Article IV of the Constitution . Thus it was necessary to establish the Restored Government of Virginia to give that consent , which was granted 20 August 1861 . A referendum in October 1861 approved statehood ; a constitutional convention met , and its work was approved by referendum in April 1862 . Congress approved statehood that December , with the condition that slavery must be abolished in the new state . This condition required a new constitutional convention and referendum . The revised constitution provided for the future abolition of slavery , which took effect on 3 February 1865 . On 20 June 1863 , the newly proclaimed state of West Virginia was admitted to the Union , including all the western counties and the lower ( northern ) Shenandoah " panhandle " . All the northern states had free public school systems before the war , but not the border states . West Virginia set up its system in 1863 . Over bitter opposition it established an almost - equal education for black children , most of whom were ex - slaves . When Union troops occupied parts of eastern Virginia such as Alexandria and Norfolk , these areas came under the jurisdiction of the Restored Government . They were not included in West Virginia . With West Virginia statehood , the Restored government relocated to Alexandria . Military events . In April 1861 , Virginia troops under Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson occupied Harpers Ferry and part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad leading into western Virginia . They seized many B & O locomotives and railcars on 23 May . In May and June 1861 , Confederate forces advanced into western Virginia to impose control by the Richmond government and the Confederacy . They got no further than Philippi , due to bad roads and no local support . Then Union troops under McClellan drove them back in July . There was additional campaigning further south , where Greenbrier County was pro - Confederate , enabling Confederate troops to enter Nicholas County to the west . In September 1861 , Union troops drove the Confederates out of Nicholas County and defeated their counterattack at Cheat Mountain . Thereafter all of the trans - Allegheny region was under firm Union control except for some of the easternmost counties . Greenbrier County was occupied in May 1862 . Pro - Confederate guerrilla s burned and plundered in some sections , and were not entirely suppressed until after the war was ended . There were two minor Confederate expeditions against the northeastern corner of the west later on : Jackson ' s Romney Expedition in January 1861 ; and the Jones - Imboden Raid in May – June 1863 . Union strategy for the region was to protect the vital B & O Railroad and also attack eastward into the Shenandoah Valley and southwestern Virginia . This latter goal proved impossible , due to the poor roads across mountainous terrain . The B & O passed across the lower ( northern ) end of the Shenandoah , east of the Alleghenies . This area was therefore occupied by Union troops for nearly all of the war , and was a scene of frequent combat . Harpers Ferry was the site of a major U . S . Army arsenal , and was taken by Confederates in the opening days of the war , and again during the Maryland Campaign of 1862 . During the Maryland Campaign it was a route of invasion and retreat for the Army of Northern Virginia ; the campaign concluded there with the Battle of Shepherdstown . Many soldiers from West Virginia served on both sides in the war . Those in Confederate service were in " Virginia " regiments . Those in Union service were in " West Virginia " regiments . ( Several Union " Virginia " regiments were redesignated at statehood . ) Among these were the 7th West Virginia Infantry , famed for actions at Antietam and Gettysburg , and the 3rd West Virginia Cavalry , which also fought at Gettysburg . On the Confederate side , Albert G . Jenkins , a former U . S . Representative , recruited a brigade of cavalry in western Virginia , which he led until his death in May 1864 . Other western Virginians served under Brig . Gen . John Imboden and in the Stonewall Brigade under Brig . Gen . James A . Walker . Guerrilla war . On May 28 , 1861 one of the first trials of the Civil War for sabotage took place in Parkersburg , Virginia . A group of men were found playing cards under a B & O railroad bridge and arrested by Federal authorities . The trial was conducted by Judge William Lowther Jackson ( later , Gen . W . L . Jackson , C . S . A . ) . The men were acquitted , since no actual crime had taken place , but Parkersburg was split over the verdict , and Judge Jackson left to join Col . Porterfield at Philippi . With the defeat of Confederate forces at the Battle of Philippi and the Battle of Cheat Mountain only occasionally would they occupy parts of western Virginia . Local supporters of Richmond were left to their own devices . Many guerrilla units originated in the pre - war militia , and these were designated Virginia State Rangers and starting in June , 1862 , these were incorporated into Virginia State Line regiments . By March , 1863 , however , many were enlisted in the regular Confederate army . There were others though who operated without sanction of the Richmond government , some fighting on behalf of the Confederacy , while others were nothing more than bandits who preyed on Union and Confederate alike . Early in the war captured guerrillas were sent to Camp Chase or Johnson Island in Ohio , Fort Delaware in Delaware and also the Atheneum in Wheeling . Some were paroled after taking an oath , but many returned to their guerrilla activities . The Union authorities began to organize their own guerrilla bands , the most famous of which was the " Snake Hunters " , headed by Capt . Baggs . They patrolled Wirt and Calhoun counties through the winter of 1861 - 62 and captured scores of Moccasin Rangers , which they sent as prisoners to Wheeling . The fight against the rebel guerrillas took a new turn under Gen . John C . Fremont and Col . George Crook , who had spent his pre - war career as an " Indian fighter " in the Pacific Northwest . Col . Crook took command of the 36th Ohio Infantry , centered around Summersville , Nicholas County . He trained them in guerrilla tactics and adopted a " no prisoners " policy . On January 1 , 1862 , Crook led his men on an expedition north to Sutton , Braxton County , where he believed Confederate forces were located . None were found , but his troops encountered heavy guerrilla resistance and responded by burning houses and towns along the line of march . But by August , 1862 , Unionist efforts were severely hampered with the withdrawal of troops to eastern Virginia . In this vacuum Gen . William W . Loring , C . S . A , recaptured the Kanawha valley , Gen . Albert Gallatin Jenkins , C . S . A . , moved his forces through central West Virginia , capturing many supplies and prisoners . Confederate recruitment increased , Gen . Loring opening recruitment offices as far north as Ripley . In response to rebel raids , Gen . Robert H . Milroy issued a command demanding reparations to be paid in cash and proceeded to assess fines against Tucker county citizens , guilty or not , and threatened them with the gallows or house - burning . Jefferson Davis and Confederate authorities lodged formal complaints with Gen . Henry Wager Halleck in Washington , who censured Gen . Milroy . However , Milroy argued in defense of his policy and was allowed to proceed . By early 1863 Union efforts in West Virginia were going badly . Unionists were losing confidence in the Wheeling government to protect them , and with the approaching dismemberment of Virginia into two states guerrilla activity increased in an effort to prevent organization of county governments . By 1864 some stability had been achieved in some central counties , but guerrilla activity was never effectively countered . Union forces that were needed elsewhere were tied down in what many soldiers considered a backwater of the war . But Federal forces could not afford to ignore any rebel territory , particularly one so close to the Ohio River . As late as January , 1865 , Gov . Arthur I . Boreman complained of large scale guerrilla activity as far north as Harrison and Marion counties . In one last , brazen act of the guerrilla war , McNeill ' s Rangers of Hardy County kidnapped Generals George Crook and Benjamin F . Kelley from behind Union lines and delivered them as prisoners of war to Richmond . The Confederate surrender at Appomattox finally brought an end to guerrilla war in West Virginia . Soldiery . On May 30 , 1861 , Brig . Gen . George B . McClellan in Cincinnati wrote to President Lincoln : " I am confidently assured that very considerable numbers of volunteers can be raised in Western Virginia . . . " . After nearly two months in the field in West Virginia he was less optimistic . He wrote to Gov . Francis Harrison Pierpont of the Restored Government of Virginia in Wheeling that he and his army were anxious to assist the new government , but that eventually they would be needed elsewhere , and that he urged that troops be raised " among the population " . " Before I left Grafton I made requisitions for arms clothing etc for 10 , 000 Virginia troops – I fear that my estimate was much too large . " On August 3 , 1861 , the Wellsburg " Herald " editorialized " A pretty condition Northwestern Virginia is in to establish herself as a separate state . . . after all the drumming and all the gas about a separate state she has actually organized in the field four not entire regiments of soldiers and one of these hails almost entirely from the Panhandle . " Similar difficulties were experienced by Confederate authorities at the beginning of the war . On May 14 , 1861 , Col . George A . Porterfield arrived in Grafton to secure volunteers , and reported slow enlistment . Col . Porterfield ' s difficulty ultimately , however , was lack of support by the Richmond government , which did not send enough guns , tents and other supplies . He eventually turned away hundreds of volunteers due to lack of equipment . Gen . Henry A . Wise also complained of recruitment in the Kanawha valley , though he eventually assembled 2 , 500 infantry , 700 cavalry , three battalions of artillery for a total of 4 , 000 men which became known as " Wise ' s Legion " . One regiment from the Wise legion , the 3rd Infantry ( later reorganized as the 60th Virginia Infantry ) was sent to South Carolina in 1862 , and it was from Maj . Thomas Broun of the 3rd Infantry that Gen . Robert E . Lee bought his famous horse Traveller . In April 1862 the Confederate government instituted a military draft , and nearly a year later the U . S . government did the same . The Confederate draft was not generally effective in West Virginia due to the breakdown of Virginia state government in the western counties and Union occupation of the northern counties , although conscription did occur in the southern counties . In the southern and eastern counties of West Virginia Confederate recruitment continued at least until the beginning of 1865 . The Wheeling government asked for an exemption to the Federal draft , saying that they had exceeded their quota under previous calls . An exemption was granted for 1864 , but in 1865 a new demand was made for troops , which Gov . Boreman struggled to fill . In some counties , ex - Confederates suddenly found themselves enrolled in the U . S . Army . The loyalty of some Federal troops had been questioned early in the war . The rapid conquest of northern West Virginia had caught a number of Southern sympathizers behind Union lines . A series of letters to Gen . Samuels and Gov . Pierpoint in the Dept . of Archives and History in Charleston , most dated 1862 , reveal the concern of Union officers . Col . Harris , 10th Company , March 27 , 1862 , to Gov . Pierpoint : " The election of officers in the Gilmer County Company was a farce . The men elected were rebels and bushwhackers . The election of these men was intended , no doubt , as a burlesque on the reorganization of the militia . " There has never been an official count of Confederate service in West Virginia . Early estimates were very low , in 1901 historians Fast & Maxwell placed the figure at about 7 , 000 . An exception to the low estimates is found in " Why The Solid South ? " , whose authors believed the Confederate numbers exceeded Union numbers . In subsequent histories the estimates rose , Otis K . Rice placed the number at 10 , 000 - 12 , 000 . Richard O . Curry in 1964 placed the figure at 15 , 000 . The first detailed study of Confederate soldiery estimates the number at 18 , 000 , which is close to the 18 , 642 figure stated by the Confederate Dept . of Western Virginia in 1864 . In 1989 a study by James Carter Linger estimated the number at nearly 22 , 000 . The official number of Union soldiers from West Virginia is 31 , 884 as stated by the Provost Marshal General of the United States . These numbers include , however , re - enlistment figures as well as out - of - state soldiers who enlisted in West Virginia regiments . In 1905 Charles H . Ambler estimated the number of native Union soldiers to be about 20 , 000 . Richard Current estimated native Union numbers at 29 , 000 . In his calculations , however , he only allowed for a deduction of 2 , 000 out - of - state soldiers in West Virginia regiments . Ohio contributed nearly 5 , 000 , and with the deduction of Pennsylvania and other state ' s volunteers that estimate is reduced considerably . The West Virginia Dept . of Archives and History believes that Confederate and Union numbers were about equal though they give no specific numbers . The George Tyler Moore Center in Shepherdstown estimates the Union numbers to be 22 , 000 - 25 , 000 . George Tyler Moore Center Nursing during the Civil War . The Sisters of St . Joseph , who operated Wheeling Hospital in that city , were nurses during the war . They treated soldiers brought to the hospital and prisoners at the Athenaeum in downtown Wheeling . In 1864 , the Union army took control of the hospital , and the sisters went on the federal payroll as matrons and nurses , beginning that summer . Several of them later received pensions in recognition of their service . Civil War battles in West Virginia . The Manassas Campaign : The Western Virginia Campaign : Later actions :