History of West Virginia
West Virginia was admitted as the 35th state in 1863.
West Virginia was part of Virginia until the area refused to endorse the
ordinance of secession in 1861. Charleston is the capital and the largest
city. Population: 1,820,000.
West Virginia Joins Union
West Virginia was formed into a State during the earlier years of the Civil war, and was composed of the northern and western counties of Virginia. The people of this district, separated by a range of mountains from the fertile plains of the Old Dominion, and holding but few slaves, had little in common with the wealthy planters and large slave owners of the east and south. Many of them, too, were of Northern descent, especially those residing along the Ohio River, and when the struggle began they took sides with the Union.
On April 22, 1861, a meeting was held at Clarksburg, at which the passage of the ordinance of secession by the Richmond convention was denounced, and a call issued for a convention to be held in Wheeling, May 13. This body, representing twenty-five counties, met, and rejected the ordinance, and an election of delegates having been held, representatives of forty counties met June 11, repudiated the action of the State authorities, and on June 20 elected Francis H. Peirpoint governor, and also chose an executive council and other officials. This government had its headquarters at Wheeling until 1863, when it was transferred to Alexandria, and exercised authority over so much of Virginia as was under the control of the Federal government - a constantly varying territory. At first it was proposed to create the "State of Kanawha," but the name was changed in December, 1861, and in May, 1862, a State constitution was ratified by the people and the legislature. Congress gave consent, on Dec. 31, 1862, to the admission of the new State at the end of the year, conditioned upon the ratification of the then pending amendment to the constitution permitting persons of African descent to reside within the State. The amendment was ratified March 26, 1863, and on June 20 the new government was inaugurated, Wheeling being made the capital.
From 1870 to 1875 the seat of government was at Charleston, but in the last named year it was again transferred to Wheeling, where it remained until 1884, when it was a second time removed to Charleston.
During 1861 there were a number of minor engagements between the Federal and Confederate troops in West Virginia, mostly on the Maryland and Virginia frontiers. The State raised, in all, 32,068 troops for the Federal army, and after 1861 the theatre of military operations was changed to Virginia proper. An amended constitution was adopted in 1872, and six new counties have been added to the original forty-eight, making fifty-four at this time.