Announcer: A production
of WV Public Broadcasting.
Support for West Virginia: The
Road to Statehood is provided by
Narrator: It began at home.
In 1861, irreconcilable
differences, over slavery,
states' rights and
southern interests,
drove the United States of
America into what would be
a long and bloody Civil War.
As tensions flared, Albert
Gallatin Jenkins
resigned from the U.S. Congress.
He returned home to
Cabell County, Virginia,
where as many as 80 slaves
labored
at his family's 4,000-acre plantation.
Jenkins then led his two older
brothers to form a cavalry
unit of 100 men loyal to the
Confederate States of America.
Karen Nance: He was very
charismatic and a very good
speaker and probably could
convince a lot of people of a
lot of things without
a whole lot of effort,
because he was that talented.
Narrator: Riding northward,
Jenkins and his Border Rangers
rounded up citizens
disloyal to Virginia.
He would wreak havoc
in the Old Dominion,
one of the nation's
most conflicted states.
Mark Snell: We know for
a fact that about 20,000
Union soldiers came
from West Virginia.
And we know for a
fact that about 20,000
Confederates came from what we now know as West Virginia.
Earlier estimates said there
was anywhere from 6-8,000,
but recent scholarship has updated that number
to about 20,000. So, if you look at it that way,
it is got to be the most
divided state in the nation.
Narrator: Just as Virginia
differed from states north and
south of its borders,
in its culture, economy,
history and geography, there
was much to divide the
Commonwealth's own people, east and west
of the Allegheny Mountains.
As a state scarred by generations
of sectional strife, the Commonwealth of Virginia
would painfully give birth to the state of
West Virginia,
a child of rebellion.
Francis Pierpont grew up on a farm, in what is now
Marion County, worked his way through college
and became a lawyer.
In the spring of 1861,
he was sitting in his study at his Fairmont home.
While Albert Gallatin Jenkins
was defending the Confederacy,
Pierpont was carefully
examining the U.S. Constitution,
trying to think of a way the western counties of Virginia
could remain
loyal to the Union.
That's when his wife Julia,
an ardent abolitionist,
suddenly heard her
husband shout
"Eureka! I have it! I have it!"
What he had would change
the face of Virginia.
It would also change the lives
of Julia and Francis Pierpont.
Travis Henline: It's not
somethin' that he wanted.
He was not a politically
ambitious person.
He was a person put in a set
of circumstances to which he reacted.
Narrator: Like many others
in northwestern Virginia,
Pierpont ascribed to the
Unionist philosophy that the
United States offered, "the
best government in the world,
formed by our fathers and
cemented with their blood".
At dawn, he left his study
with a carefully worked-out
plan, which would unavoidably
place him at the center of a
drama that would unfold during
the next two years and result
in the creation
of the 35th state.
♪ (music ♪
Jack Dickinson: West
Virginia's road to statehood
was definitely filled
with potholes and bumps.
It was not a smooth trip.
And more than anything else,
it caused a lot of emotional
response all over the area,
the area being Old Virginia
and the new counties that
formed West Virginia.
Joe Geiger: Well, it is one of
the most fascinating stories
that there is, the
creation of West Virginia.
It takes a lot of twist and
turns and I firmly believe that
without the Civil War that West Virginia would not exist today.
Narrator: One of the principle
issues leading nation into the
Civil War, in
1861, was slavery.
While slaveholding was
practiced throughout the
Commonwealth of Virginia, the
nature of slavery in the west
differed from
that of the east.
In 1860, nearly 4,000 white
slaveholders, in the region,
held title to between
18 and 19,000 blacks.
They were often put to work as farmers,
craftsman and domestic servants.
Many worked on large
plantations in what is now the
eastern panhandle
of West Virginia.
Unlike the 450,000 slaves,
east of the Alleghenies,
western slaves were not considered as vital to
the region's economy.
Because whites and their
slaves frequently worked
together, Western blacks
sometimes enjoyed a more
amicable relationship
with their owners.
As a result, slaves were
sometimes rewarded,
for their performance and loyalty,
with a measure of autonomy.
Cicero Fain: It shows that black people were able to exploit
their opportunities, but it also shows just how encapsulating
slavery was, that I can still entrust you to go off
on your own, because I know that you'll be coming back!
Narrator: Regardless
of their situation,
Western Virginia slaves
were legal property.
They could be bought, sold,
leased and insured to protect
owners' investments.
This was true in
the Kanawha Valley,
where significant numbers
of slaves mined coal and
supported the salt works.1860
proved a crucial turning
point, regarding slavery, with the most conflicted Presidential
election in the Nation's relatively brief history.
Southern leaders were
convinced the likely election
of the Republican Party's Abraham Lincoln, would no doubt,
lead to unacceptable changethat would spark civil war.
Geiger: Essentially, the way
we had been able to avert
civil war, up and
to this point,
is that we had
arranged compromises.
This state will come
in as a free state.
This state will come
in as a slave state.
And that was very important.
Now you have a party that said, "We are not going to have
any more slave states brought into the Union."
And the South recognized that
this would be the political
death knell for slavery that, eventually, they could legislate
it out of existence and I think this was the great fear.
Narrator: On Election
Day, November 6, 1860,
most of the western Virginia
men going to the polls
intended to keep
the status quo.
They split their votes evenly between Constitutional Union
candidate John Bell and Southern Democrat John Breckinridge.
Bell remained neutral
regarding slavery,
while determined to
keep the Union intact.
Breckinridge also wanted
to preserve the Union,
but recognized states'
rights to secede.
Each received
about 22,000 votes,
in what is now West Virginia.
John Williams: They had
different positions about the
nature of government, and
particularly the central
government, but neither of
the parties they voted for,
Bell and Breckenridge, would
interfere with slavery.
Narrator: Stephen Douglas
believed in allowing the
people of a territory to
decide whether to permit
slavery in their communities.
The Northern Democrat
claimed 5,000 votes.
Ultimately, Republican Abraham
Lincoln won the presidency,
but claimed less than 2,000
votes, in all of Virginia,
mostly in the
northern panhandle.
In response to Lincoln's election, South Carolina
became the first of 11 southern states to secede from the Union
and form the Confederate States of America.
Virginia, however, was slow
to sever ties to the Union,
largely because of its
historic location and
prominent role in American history. The state that had done
so much to found the country was reluctant to leave it.
But then, on April 12, 1861,
Confederate forces bombarded
Fort Sumter in Charleston,
South Carolina.
The Civil War had begun.
3 days later, President Lincoln called for 75,000 Union troops,
including men from Virginia, to quell the rebellion.
Throughout Virginia,
passions flared.
To grant the President's request would mean
going to war against
a sister state.
On April 17th,
under these conditions,
Virginia conventioneers, in Richmond, passed
an Ordinance of Secession,
88 to 55.
However, the Ordinance could
not become official until
ratified by Virginia
voters 6 weeks later.
From what is now
West Virginia,
9 delegates
supported secession,
while 29 voted to
remain with the Union.
Henline: There were delegates
from northwestern Virginia,
like John Jay Jackson,
like John Carlile,
and Waitman Willey, who voted
against secession from the
Union and because
of those sentiments,
they were pretty
much run out of town.
Some of them had to
leave rather quickly.
Narrator: After seeing a crowd
outside his boardinghouse,
brandishing a rope and
threatening to hang him,
Carlile headed home
to Harrison County.
There, he met with nearly
1,200 Union loyalists, issuing
the so-called Clarksburg Resolutions from the courthouse.
Carlile called for
northwestern representatives
to convene, 3 weeks later,
for a convention in Wheeling,
in the northern panhandle
county of Ohio.
There, they would plot a future political course for the region,
in the event Virginia voters ratified
the Ordinance of Secession.
4 days later, April 26th,
former Virginia Governor
Joseph Johnston chaired a
secessionist convention,
at the very same
courthouse in Clarksburg.
Johnston called upon "the
Southern Rights Men of
Harrison County" to defend
"those who know their rights
and dare to maintain them".
The next day,
Colonel Thomas J. Jackson,
a Clarksburg native,
received orders from Virginia Governor John Letcher.
Jackson was to take command at
Harper's Ferry and organize
what would become the
renowned Stonewall Brigade.
Then on May 13, 1861, western
Virginians gathered for what
became known as the First
Wheeling Convention.
More than 400 people packed
into Wheeling's Washington Hall.
Many claimed to represent
24 counties
in northwestern Virginia.
With no precedent
to show the way,
they acted largely on what
they perceived their fellow
western Virginians were thinking.
Bob Bastress: They were not elected in representative
fashion. Many of them were not elected in democratic fashion.
Many of the counties included
within the potential
definition of the new state
weren't represented at all.
Narrator: After addressing the issue of representation,
delegates focused on
the likely split
of Virginia from the Union.
Williams: Well, their goal
was to figure out what to do.
They knew they didn't want to go along with secession,
but what did that mean?
Geiger: All the fireworks
really start on the second
day, on May 14th, when John
Carlile stands up and calls
for the creation of a new state, to be called New Virginia.
Narrator: Presenting a flag reading "New Virginia,
Now or Never", Carlile invoked
the memory of American
Revolutionary Patrick Henry.
Actor: "It is useless to cry
peace when there is no peace;
and I for one will repeat what
was said by one of
Virginia's noblest sons and greatest statesmen,
'Give me liberty or
give me death!'"
Geiger: The crowd, and you had a large crowd in attendance,
stands up and calls for 3 cheers for New Virginia
and 3 cheers
for John Carlile.
And you can tell what the
sentiment of the people,
who are in attendance,
was at that time.
Narrator: Carlile saw the
mountains as an historic
divider and a sufficient
reason for a new state.
Bastress: The Allegheny Mountains are such a formidable
barrier that we don't have anything to do with those folks.
We're different culturally,
geographically,
economically and politically
and it makes sense.
Narrator: Over the years,
tension regarding taxation,
representation, education,
transportation and other
internal improvements had
driven a wedge between
Virginians, east and
west of the Alleghenies.
And while changes to the
Virginia Constitution,
in 1851, addressed
most grievances,
many northwesterners still
felt disenfranchised.
Geiger: Relations between
eastern and western Virginia
in that, 10 years
preceding the Civil War,
were better than
they had ever been.
The Civil war comes and ruins
that decade of reconciliation
and it ruins those better
relations between East and West.
Narrator: While Francis
Pierpont had joined John
Carlile and others, urging
western Virginians to remain
loyal to the Union, the
Fairmont attorney considered
Carlyle's early call for
a new state premature.
Henline: Pierpont urged caution. He was a conservative,
when it came to the new statehood movement.
He wanted to wait and see how
things were going to
transpire with the referendum, whereas folks like Carlile
wanted immediate statehood.
Narrator: While Waitman T.
Willey would eventually
support separation,
the Monongalia County attorney
considered Carlyle's statehood
proposal "altogether unwise".
Dickinson: He coined a new
term called "triple treason".
He said, "This is a conflict
against the State of Virginia,
against the United States and against the Confederacy, all 3."
Geiger: What they end up doing
is pass resolutions that call
for the delegates to go back
to their homes and to urge
people to Vote against the
Ordinance of Secession.
However, if it does pass,
then they will
gather back in Wheeling.
They'll hold another
convention, again,
to determine what their
next step will be.
Narrator: Meanwhile, across
the Ohio River from western
Virginia, Union General George
McClellan readied troops,
should Virginia
vote to secede.
Returning from a
fact-finding mission,
Lieutenant Orlando Poe
reported to McClellan "The
western Virginians from the
Kentucky line to Parkersburg
are rotten, but loyal
above the latter point."
On May 23, 1861, amid claims
that western Virginia ballots
were lost on their
way to Richmond,
the Ordinance to secede officially won Voters' approval.
An estimated 35,000 western
Virginians voted against the
measure to secede, while
approximately 19,000 voted it.
Geiger: Possibly half of the
counties voted in favor of
this Ordinance of Secession. It's just that the other half
of the counties had
a lot more population.
Narrator: 3 days after
the secession vote,
McClellan led federal troops
into western Virginia,
with soldiers landing in
Parkersburg and Wheeling.
Meanwhile, Governor Letcher
ordered officers loyal to
Virginia to recruit
Confederate soldiers in Taylor
County, an important
transportation hub.
At the same time, Francis
Pierpont received a letter
from his wife, Julia, in
Fairmont, urging him,
Carlile and fellow
conventioneer John Burdett,
of Taylor County,
to stay in Wheeling.
Actor: "Dear Frank, I hoped
you would bring Sammie a hat,
but now I think you had
better stay where you are.
I don't want you to come home.
There is a reward offered for Carlisle, Burdette, & yourself,
of $500 for your heads,
even in Wheeling.
See to it you do
not expose yourself.
They say there are 900 men, secession soldiers, in Grafton.
The Union men here are
becoming very anxious."
- Julia Pierpont
Narrator: On June 3, 1861, within 2 weeks of the election,
nearly 4,000 Union soldiers under Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley
easily defeated a Confederate force of 775 men,
under Colonel George A. Porterfield.
Commonly known as "the Philippi Races", the battle in and
around Philippi, southeast of Wheeling, in Barbour County,
is considered the first land
action of the Civil War.
Such victories, while small in
scope and with few casualties,
helped secure northwestern
Virginia for the Union.
Snell: Most of your loyalists
were in the northwest part,
up in the northern panhandle,
where Wheeling is today.
And in order to preserve
that part for the Union,
it was important for Union troops to come in
and secure victories there.
Henline: There was
definitely tension,
apprehension and
anxiety in Wheeling,
even though we're here in the
comfy confines of this strip
of land between Ohio
and Pennsylvania.
Geiger: They are committing treason against
the state of Virginia!
And if it weren't for those
military troops creating that
buffer zone for these
statehood makers, they might
have been hanging from lampposts throughout Wheeling.
Narrator: Emotions
raged, for instance,
when a supporter of the
Confederacy's president
disrupted an address
by John Carlile.
Henline: A gentleman rides by
on a horse and he yells out
his support for
Jefferson Davis.
Now some folks in the
crowd chase him down.
They take him off his horse
and they bring him back to the
Custom House and a chant begins to stir in the crowd of
"Hang him, hang him"
and were it not for
the intervention of the local sheriff this guy may have been
strung up there on the spot.
Narrator: On June 11th,
delegates gathered for the
Second Wheeling Convention,
which moved to the U.S.
District courtroom in the
more spacious Custom House.
Attorney Arthur Boreman, of Wood County, presided over
88 newly vetted delegates, representing 32 counties.
Boreman declared, "We come
here to carry out and execute,
and it may be, to institute
a government for ourselves".
The remark set the stage for
Francis Pierpont's plan to
reorganize the
government of Virginia.
Taking the floor, John
Carlile introduced the plan,
a step-by-step, legal
approach to dismemberment,
a plan that could win the
support of Washington.
Geiger: According to the U.S. Constitution, in order for
a new state to be created from an existing state,
the existing state has to give its permission.
Do we hop in a stagecoach and
take a road trip to Richmond,
through the Confederate lines
and try to get John Letcher to
sign off on this thing? No!
Narrator: Instead, the body
unveiled, on June 14th,
the Declaration of the Rights
of the People of Virginia,
considered West Virginia's
Declaration of Independence.
Henline: And in
that declaration,
the delegates call for
a reorganization of the
government of the
Commonwealth, which of course,
gives us the
restored government.
Among other things,
they declare that those
officeholders in Virginia, who
have joined the Confederacy,
have vacated their positions.
And these gentlemen have seen
fit to restore that government
and fill those positions.
So, that's a very important
document that came as part of
that Second Wheeling
Convention, in June 1861.
Bastress: You could argue
whether this fictionalized
government could actually
consent or whether the consent
was a fiction in itself.
The government was never voted on by the voters, even of the
western counties; let alone the entire state of Virginia.
Its only authority was what
this rump group
decided to give it in Wheeling.
Narrator: Nevertheless,
for the next 2 years,
this group would act autonomously, without
the consent of the Commonwealth government in Richmond.
On June 19th, the Wheeling
Conventioneers favored
unanimously to establish what
is known as the Restored,
or Reorganized,
Government of Virginia.
Its legislative body included
men chosen in Virginia's
recent election, who
remained loyal to the Union.
On June 20th, conventioneers
unanimously elected
Francis Pierpont to serve as governor.
For all intents and purposes, Virginians were now subject
to one of 2 governments, depending on which Army
controlled a given area.
One government,
the Old Dominion,
had aligned itself
with the Confederacy.
The other, the Restored
Government of Virginia,
remained loyal to the Union.
Divided loyalties among
friends and families,
fueled the bloody, vicious
guerilla warfare immediately
confronting Governor
Francis Pierpont.
Snell: We're talkin', not just
pullin' people out of bed at
nighttime and shootin' them
in the back of the head;
we're talkin' about hackin' people to bits
with their swords, cuttin' off heads, terrorizing in the middle
of the night. It was horrible.
Narrator: Pierpont himself was
forced to periodically send
his wife and children
out of harm's way,
amid threats of
kidnapping and worse.
President Lincoln pledged
"full protection" in western
Virginia, upon receiving an appeal from Governor Pierpont.
In it, he wrote, "The policy
of the rebels is to exert their
greatest force before frost, and it must be met by
a corresponding vigor, and crushed out - Francis Pierpont.
Henline: Folks look at that as Lincoln's implicit
recognition of the restored Government of Virginia
as the legitimate
government of Virginia.
And indeed, Lincoln
does provide that aid.
Narrator: Pierpont also
requested a strong military
leader to put a stop to
attacks by Confederate Colonel
Albert Gallatin Jenkins
and his Border Rangers.
On his 31st birthday, Jenkins
attacked a Union recruitment
post in the Cabell County
community of Guyandotte with a
force of more than 700 cavalrymen. 98 recruits and
civilians were captured in the name of Old Virginia.
Nance: Her tactic in
this area, early on,
was to disrupt
federal activities,
tear up the railroad, raid
these little recruitment camps
that are tryin' to recruit
soldiers into the federal army.
Narrator: Jenkins received
a message in which the
commanding officer of Wayne
County's Unionist home guards
requested the return
of seized property.
Jenkins replied that he loathed such seizures. However....
Actor: "We have been compelled to pursue a different course at
times as the only means of securing us against the
aggressions upon private rights and private property, which has
marked the conduct of many of your military commanders."
- Albert Gallatin Jenkins
Narrator: Brigadier General
William Rosecrans now
commanded Union forces
in western Virginia.
The arrival of federal troops
and establishment of a
training camp and military
prison transformed Wheeling
into a military town.
A dozen soldiers stood
guard at the Custom House,
where Federal District Judge
John Jay Jackson, Junior,
and Governor Pierpont each
dealt with treason, murder,
espionage and
prisoners of war.
Among the POWs were
so-called "she rebels",
teenage girls, who slashed telegraph lines
and passed weapons and Confederate messages.
Henline: Daily, this man has
stack of things on his desk to
deal with about raising
troops, supplying troops,
about rebel movements
in Western Virginia.
He has to keep abreast
of all these things.
I don't know how the man
slept, I really don't.
Narrator: Meanwhile, Governor
Pierpont's wife, Julia,
did her part for
the war effort.
Connie Rice: As far as welcoming soldiers into West Virginia,
as far as trying to make shirts and food packages for soldiers,
she was very patriotic and out there on the trenches working.
Narrator: Julia Pierpont
faced the realities of life,
death and war,
confronting women,
throughout western Virginia,
regardless of their loyalties.
Rice: She's one of those women, who experienced all
the aspects of war.
Her husband was gone.
She had to do things herself. She couldn't see him very much,
because it was dangerous
for him to come back.
And then she had
a child in 1860
and during the war in 1864,
that child died.
Narrator: Meanwhile, delegates
gathered for the Second
Wheeling Convention,
on August 6, 1861,
to debate the establishment
of a new state.
Calling for immediate action,
John Carlile declared,
"Cut the knot now.
Apply the knife."
After 2 weeks of wrangling, delegates voted
for dismemberment from Virginia. The new state would be
called Kanawha and consist
of 39 counties.
Among these were several
southern counties,
considered economically advantageous for the new state.
Williams: They wanted a larger
amount of southern West
Virginia territory than
the Union then held,
but the Union did hold,
at least formally,
most of the territory included in the dismemberment ordinance.
Narrator: 7 counties
were to be added,
subject to voters' approval.
Henline: Our eastern panhandle counties, the reason we have
that thumb that sticks out toward Washington, DC, was to
protect the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad during the Civil War.
The B&O Railroad was the main artery east to west
and folks realized, very early, if they could not control and
protect the B&O Railroad,
they were gonna have
a hard time of it in the war.
Narrator: With the
additional counties,
the proposed state would
extend well into Confederate
territory, beyond the
safety of what John Carlile
originally envisioned.
Geiger: If we had stuck to
that outline of New Virginia
as he proposed it, I don't
think there'd be anybody
questioning West
Virginia statehood,
because he stuck to just those
very northwestern counties
that were most Union supporting of any in this area.
Narrator: In late October,
only a third of eligible,
white male voters,
representing the counties
forming the proposed state of
Kanawha, went to the polls,
where they cast
their voice votes.
Williams: This was the
Virginia tradition.
It was considered unmanly
to keep your Vote secret.
Geiger: You walked into a room. You'd have election officials
there, overseeing the election. They probably would have some
piece of paper to do all the accounting and you would go up
and you would verbally state your preference in front of
soldiers in the midst
of a civil war.
Snell: The referendum vote
was a fraud.
It wasn't truly a fair vote.
If it would have been, it would have been a lot closer.
It would've been
right down the middle.
Narrator: Officially,
more than 18,000
voted in favor
of the new state,
while less than 800
opposed the ordinance.
This was due, in part, to the
fact that many against the
measure were away fighting
for the Confederacy.
Then, on November 26th,
61 western Virginians,
who remained loyal to the Union, gathered in Wheeling
to draft a constitution for the new state of Kanawha.
Despite the fact voters had
approved the name Kanawha,
delegates spent several days
debating the state's name.
They ultimately settled
on "West Virginia".
They addressed education,
taxation and the court system,
issues that had divided eastern and western Virginians.
Delegates also debated
whether to add
as many as 32 counties
to the original 39.
After 10 days of debate,
delegates voted to include 44
counties and let 6 others
decide their own fate.
Debate over
slavery was heated.
According to the 1860 census, more than 18,000 blacks
remained in
bondage in western Virginia.
Along the bottomlands
of the Ohio River,
all but Jackson
and Wirt Counties,
boasted significant
numbers of slaves.
Slaves accounted for more than
5% of the population
of 10 counties and
10% in 6 counties.
In each of 27 counties there
were more than 100 slaves.
Many slaves remained with their families and communities.
Some fought to defend the
property of their masters
against raiders
and bushwhackers.
Many other slaves managed
to escape to freedom.
Fain: What we see during the
Civil War Era is massive
out-migration. Kanawha County, Jefferson County,
Greenbrier County: All these
counties that had possessed more
than 10% African-American population. They lose 22%, 18%.
Narrator: At the same
time, many slaveholders,
loyal to the Union,
as in Cabell County,
were reconsidering the
role of slavery in society.
Nance: A lot of people here
did believe in the Union and
strongly believed
in the Union.
We would think,
by the fact they
actually emancipated slaves, that maybe that they were
you know they weren't abolitionists
but maybe they had decided that
slavery was not the right thing to do.
Narrator: Many attending the
constitutional convention,
including Waitman T. Willey,
had owned slaves.
Delegates to the constitutional convention, considered the
potential impact of West Virginia becoming a free state.
They faced the same concerns
that confronted the
framers of the U.S. Constitution.
Fain: Are we going to adhere
to property rights or are we
going to adhere to human
rights and free the slaves,
involve them in
the body politic?
And then the question
is property rights. If we do
free the slaves, isn't our obligation to pay the owners?
Geiger: What we end up
with, in our constitutional
convention, rather than
a clause about gradual
emancipation, is a clause that
essentially says that no more
African Americans,
whether free or slave,
will be permitted
into West Virginia!
Narrator: Finally,
on February 18, 1862,
delegates unanimously agreed
upon the new constitution.
6 weeks later, the electorate
ratified the measure.
Nearly 19,000 reportedly
approved the constitution
with 500 opposing it.
In May, a bill to admit
West Virginia to the Union,
based on the new
state constitution,
went before the U.S. Senate. There, Senators John Carlile and
Waitman T. Willey represented the Restored Government
of Virginia, as well as the Unionist Party.
It soon became obvious that
the Republican-controlled
Senate would not pass a West
Virginia statehood bill
without language guaranteeing emancipation. As a result,
Willey offered an amendment to assure gradual emancipation.
Bastress: The original,
proposed constitution included
the provision, which just
would've barred slaves and
free blacks from
coming into the state,
so they had to substitute the
Willey Amendment for that
provision and they
had to vote on that.
Narrator: The Willey amendment
would free any person born of
slaves after July 4, 1863.
Bastress: And if you were
under the age of 10,
at that time, you became free
upon reaching 21 and if you
were between 10 and 21, you
became free when you reached 25.
Geiger: And this will be enough to get the support of the
U.S. Senate and it will pass the U.S. Senate by a vote of 23-17.
Narrator: As for John Carlile,
the man who raised the flag
that read "New Virginia, Now or Never, " he cut short his
political career, when he unexpectedly opposed admission
of West Virginia into the Union. He did so after the Senate
insisted on language to emancipate slaves.
Carlile argued that the
federal government had no
authority to dictate the terms
of a new state constitution,
once it was approved
by the electorate.
5 months later, the U.S. House of Representatives,
following contentious debate, approved the statehood bill,
96 to 55. 5 days later, it arrived at the White House. In a
letter Governor Pierpont lobbied for presidential approval.
Actor: "President Lincoln: I
am in great hope you will sign
the bill to make West
Virginia a new State.
The loyal troops from Virginia have their hearts set on it; the
loyal people in the bounds of the new State have their hearts
set on it; and if the bill fails God only know the result."
Geiger: Abraham Lincoln was not pleased to have the statehood
bill on his desk. I think he was greatly distressed in fact.
Narrator: While the president
supported the Restored
Government of Virginia, he
feared conflicts over the
constitutionality of
a West Virginia.
He also feared the combined
political fallout that it and
his pending Emancipation
Proclamation might bring.
Edward Bates, Lincoln's highly
respected attorney general,
earnestly argued against
West Virginia statehood.
Dickinson: There's no question whether the President
or Congress can admit a state already established
to the Union.
That's not the question.
But what it has to be is that
state already has to exist.
The Congress has no
ability to create a state,
which is what
you're trying to do.
You're trying to create the state and admit it to the Union
and that's not how it works and this is not constitutional.
Narrator: President Lincoln
ultimately took the position
that Union loyalists behind
the Restored Government of
Virginia represented
the Commonwealth.
They therefore held
the right to birth
the new state of West Virginia.
On New Year's Eve, 1862,
Lincoln met with
representatives of
the Restored Government.
Among them was U.S. Congressman Jacob Blair, of Wood County.
He assured the President that
the Willey Amendment would be
incorporated into the West
Virginia constitution.
This would ensure an eventual
end to slavery in the new state.
Blair left the White House
with the president's assurance
that he'd have a gift for the
Congressman the next day.
Geiger: Well, apparently,
Jacob Blair goes to the
White House before
the doors are opened.
So, he goes in through a window. Can you imagine
doing that today, goin' into the White House through a window?
And then, Lincoln comes down
to meet him and shows
him the statehood bill
with it signed.
Narrator: The President said
special wartime circumstances
motivated him to
sign the bill,
an act that would never
occur in peacetime.
Geiger: Let's remember the
war could end at anytime.
What happens to these people
from western Virginia if the
war ends tomorrow, Virginia
comes back into the Union,
how do you think they're gonna
be viewed by the soon to be
true government of Virginia?
Narrator: Brigadier General and former Virginia Governor
Henry A. Wise found the actions of the men behind
the statehood movement contemptible.
Dickinson: He said, "This new
state is the bastard child
offspring of a
political rape".
And that's how he and several
other people felt about this.
Narrator: In the January 8,
1863 edition of the
Richmond Daily Dispatch, an
editorialist declared that
western Virginia was
well worth the fighting.
Dickinson: He says, "Virginia is to be in the future as
Virginia was in the past.
She is to be as she has
been, the Old Dominion,
full and perfect
in all respects.
It is better that this war should continue for an
indefinite period of time
than that Virginia
shall be even partially dismembered."
Narrator: On April 20th, President Lincoln proclaimed
that, in 60 days,
West Virginia would become
the Union's 35th state.
♪ (music) ♪
The next day, 5,000 Confederates, mostly from
western Virginia, launched a massive, two-pronged raid into
the region. Generals William Jones and John Imboden were
ordered to destroy B&O Railroad bridges
and collect much-needed cattle and horses.
Ambitious from the start, the
generals also hoped to occupy
western Virginia long enough to cripple the statehood movement.
Imboden drove Union troops from the towns
of Beverly and Buchannon.
Jones attacked Rowlesburg and
sent 400 cavalrymen
north to Kingwood and Morgantown.
At home at the time,
Senator Waitman T. Willey
joined thousands
of fleeing loyalists.
The news caused a
frenzy in Wheeling.
Citizens formed a home guard,
banks moved their gold to
safety and federal troops
prepared to destroy supplies.
Instead of marching
north to Wheeling,
the rebels went
south to Fairmont.
They arrived just a few days
after Francis and Julia
Pierpont hastily
departed for Wheeling.
[cannon & gun fire]
Soldier yells "God Almighty"
A large battle took place
downtown as more than 1,000
rebels attacked
from the east,
forcing 300 Union troops and
home guards to surrender.
The Confederates also burned
books from the Pierponts'
library outside their home,
including the family Bible.
Jones' soldiers then
blew up Fairmont's
600-foot-long B&O Bridge.
At this point, Jones and
Imboden decided they didn't
have enough troops to attack
the massing
Union forces in Clarksburg.
They bypassed that town
and rested in Weston.
There, secessionist ladies
mended soldiers' clothes,
presented them with a flag and a parade was held in their honor.
The raiders retreated
east of the Alleghenies.
They had destroyed
26 B&O bridges,
but within 2 weeks the
trains were running again.
Jones and Imboden also failed
to stop progress along the
road to West
Virginia statehood.
The next time any of
these men returned home,
they would find a different
state than the one they had
left - one officially,
if not properly,
ratified by the electorate,
May 26th, 1863.
One officer, stationed with
Union troops in one of the
interior counties, reported efforts to ensure ratification.
Dickinson: And he wrote a
letter that was published in
the National Intelligencer
newspaper in late 1863 that he
had been ordered to prevent
people from coming to the
polls and voting against
the new state constitution.
Narrator: Intimidation played
an important role in counties
that had supplied the
Confederacy entire companies.
Dickinson: I can't see that
every single family in that
county that sent, let's say,
200 boys off to the war 2
years earlier would all of a
sudden vote against staying with
Old Virginia and forming what was gonna become a Union state.
Narrator: Regardless, the
amended constitution was
reportedly approved
overwhelmingly, 28,000 to 572.
Citizens returned to the
polls, 2 days later,
and elected the Constitution
Union Party's Arthur I.
Boreman to serve as the first
governor of West Virginia.
The same day, citizens of
Jefferson and Berkeley
Counties voted to become
part of West Virginia,
which officially joined the
Union as its 35th state
on June 20th.
Henline: Early on the
day of June 20, 1863,
all the officers of the
Restored Government and those
of the newly elected West
Virginia government met at the
McClure Hotel for breakfast.
There is a 35-gun salute
by the Union troops,
35 young girls sing "The
Star-Spangled Banner",
the churches throughout Wheeling rang their bells
for about 10 minutes.
[sounds of many church bells]
It's important to note that
when West Virginia
becomes a new state, in the
union of free states, there were
still people in bondage in the state of West Virginia.
So, essentially, when West
Virginia becomes a new state
in the Union, it is
admitted as a slave state."
Narrator: Because President
Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation only
applied to rebel states,
West Virginia slaves remained in bondage until February 1865.
West Virginia's joining the
Union also failed to stop
Confederate forces from
skirmishing and wreaking havoc
within the new
state's borders.
In October 1863, for instance,
rebels attacked a Union fort
at Bulltown, in Braxton County, in an unsuccessful attempt
to control strategic transportation routes.
In November, federal
soldiers decisively defeated
Confederates at
Droop Mountain,
in Pocahontas County, in one
of the largest battles fought
on West Virginia
soil, during the war.
After this and other
Union victories,
federal forces regained
control of the Greenbrier
Valley, known for its
southern sympathy.
Never again would the Confederacy mount a major raid
into West Virginia.
Skirmishes and rebel attacks continued, however,
as Confederates forced federal
troops to abandon
Harpers Ferry, on July 4, 1864.
After 3 days of
fighting, however,
Union soldiers reclaimed
Harpers Ferry and held on to
it for the remainder
of the war.
As governor, Arthur Boreman
came to consider
Confederate-sympathizing bushwhackers to be
West Virginia's most
serious threat.
McNeill's Rangers,
for instance,
seized Union supplies on the
B&O Railroad and wreaked havoc
in the Eastern
Panhandle and beyond,
even kidnapping high-ranking
Union officers.
After Boreman assumed his role
as Governor of West Virginia,
Francis Pierpont, in turn,
as chief executive of the
Restored Government
of Virginia,
relinquished authority over
the counties comprising the
new state and relocated to Alexandria. There, he governed
Virginia counties controlled by the Union Army. When the war
ended in 1865, the Pierponts moved to Richmond, where Francis
served as Provisional Governor of Virginia.
The state legislature, meanwhile, endeavored to repeal
all laws previously passed under his administration.
A military governor
replaced Pierpont in 1868.
Julia bravely maintained the
graves of Union soldiers
in Richmond's Hollywood cemetery.
When she started putting flowers on the memorials,
former Confederate women started decorating southern graves.
These events are believed by
some historians
to be the beginning
of Memorial Day.
After returning home to Fairmont, Francis was elected
to the West Virginia House of Delegates.
Pierpont, today, is considered
the Father of West Virginia.
He's the only Virginia
governor whose portrait
is not found in the
statehouse in Richmond.
He's also the only West Virginian represented in
Statuary Hall at
the U.S. Capitol.
One of Francis Pierpont's
opponents during the war,
Confederate Brigadier General
Albert Jenkins was wounded
and captured in battle
on May 9,1864.
The former U.S. Congressman died 12 days later.
After the war, his brother
Thomas' widow struggled to
maintain the
family's plantation.
Susan Holderby Jenkins faced
multiple lawsuits demanding
payment for damage the Jenkins
men had inflicted
upon Union homes and property.
The bitter and violent
divisions between West
Virginians didn't end
with the Civil War.
Former Confederate soldiers
lost the right to vote.
State officials were attacked
in southern counties
and Union troops were deployed.
Finally, in 1871, a new
constitution was drafted and
voting rights were granted to African Americans and ex-rebels.
The process of healing
had finally begun.
In the first Governor's
Inaugural Address in the
history of West Virginia,
Arthur Boreman commemorated
the birth of the 35th
state, June 20, 1863.
His words reflected the tragic
division that Virginians,
east and west of
the Alleghenies,
had experienced all along
the road to statehood.
Actor: "Now, after many long
and weary years of insult and
injustice, culminating
on the part of the East,
in an attempt to
destroy the Government,
we have the profound
satisfaction of proclaiming to
those around us that we are a
separate state in the Union.
Our State is the child
of the rebellion."
♪ (music) ♪
Support for West Virginia: The
Road to Statehood is provided by
A production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.