Seceding from Secession

Seceding from Secession PDF Author: Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611215072
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A “thoroughly researched [and] historically enlightening” account of how the Commonwealth of Virginia split in two in the midst of war (Civil War News). “West Virginia was the child of the storm.” —Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran Maj. Theodore F. Lang As the Civil War raged, the northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union’s 35th state. Seceding from Secession chronicles those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of West Virginia. President Abraham Lincoln, an astute lawyer in his own right, played a critical role in birthing the new state. The constitutionality of the mechanism by which the new state would be created concerned the president, and he polled every member of his cabinet before signing the bill. Seceding from Secession includes a detailed discussion of the 1871 U.S. Supreme Court decision Virginia v. West Virginia, in which former Lincoln cabinet member Salmon Chase presided as chief justice over the court that decided the constitutionality of the momentous event. Grounded in a wide variety of sources and including a foreword by Frank J. Williams, former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and Chairman Emeritus of the Lincoln Forum, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in American history.

Seceding from Secession

Seceding from Secession PDF Author: Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611215072
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
A “thoroughly researched [and] historically enlightening” account of how the Commonwealth of Virginia split in two in the midst of war (Civil War News). “West Virginia was the child of the storm.” —Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran Maj. Theodore F. Lang As the Civil War raged, the northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union’s 35th state. Seceding from Secession chronicles those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of West Virginia. President Abraham Lincoln, an astute lawyer in his own right, played a critical role in birthing the new state. The constitutionality of the mechanism by which the new state would be created concerned the president, and he polled every member of his cabinet before signing the bill. Seceding from Secession includes a detailed discussion of the 1871 U.S. Supreme Court decision Virginia v. West Virginia, in which former Lincoln cabinet member Salmon Chase presided as chief justice over the court that decided the constitutionality of the momentous event. Grounded in a wide variety of sources and including a foreword by Frank J. Williams, former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and Chairman Emeritus of the Lincoln Forum, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in American history.

West Virginia and the Civil War

West Virginia and the Civil War PDF Author: Mark A. Snell
Publisher: Civil War
ISBN: 9781596298880
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The only state born as a result of the Civil War, West Virginia was the most divided state in the nation. About forty thousand of its residents served in the combatant forces about twenty thousand on each side. The Mountain State also saw its fair share of battles, skirmishes, raids and guerrilla warfare, with places like Harpers Ferry, Philippi and Rich Mountain becoming household names in 1861. When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861, leaders primarily from the northwestern region of the state began the political process that eventually led to the creation of West Virginia on June 20, 1863. Renowned Civil War historian Mark A. Snell has written the first thorough history of these West Virginians and their civil war in more than fifty years.

Touring Virginia's and West Virginia's Civil War Sites

Touring Virginia's and West Virginia's Civil War Sites PDF Author: Clint Johnson
Publisher: John F. Blair, Publisher
ISBN: 9780895871848
Category : Battlefields
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
To most history travelers, Virginia is the Civil War. It is the state where the Battles of Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, the Wilderness, and Manassas took place. The city of Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. Appomattox saw the surrender of Lee to Grant. The campaigns that were fought here were led by some of the war's most visible leaders -- Lee, Jackson, Grant, Meade, Sheridan, Stuart, Mosby.This guide also includes West Virginia, which was created from a section of Virginia early in the war.

Thunder In the Mountains

Thunder In the Mountains PDF Author: Lon Savage
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822971429
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
The West Virginia mine war of 1920-21, a major civil insurrection of unusual brutality on both sides, even by the standards of the coal fields, involved thousands of union and nonunion miners, state and private police, militia, and federal troops. Before it was over, three West Virginia counties were in open rebellion, much of the state was under military rule, and bombers of the U.S. Army Air Corps had been dispatched against striking miners.The origins of this civil war were in the Draconian rule of the coal companies over the fiercely proud miners of Appalachia. It began in the small railroad town of Matewan when Mayor C. C. Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield sided with striking miners against agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, who attempted to evict the miners from company-owned housing. During a street battle, Mayor Testerman, seven Baldwin-Felts agents, and two miners were shot to death.Hatfield became a folk hero to Appalachia. But he, like Testerman, was to be a martyr. The next summer, Baldwin-Felts agents assassinated him and his best friend, Ed Chambers, as their wives watched, on the steps of the courthouse in Welch, accelerating the miners' rebellion into open warfare.Much neglected in historical accounts, Thunder in the Mountains is the only available book-length account of the crisis in American industrial relations and governance that occured during the West Virginia mine war of 1920-21.

West Virginia

West Virginia PDF Author: Otis Rice
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813127335
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
" An essential resource for scholars, students, and all lovers of the Mountaineer State. From bloody skirmishes with Indians on the early frontier to the Logan County mine war, the story of West Virginia is punctuated with episodes as colorful and rugged as the mountains that dominate its landscape. In this first modern comprehensive history, Otis Rice and Stephen Brown balance these episodes of mountaineer individualism against the complexities of industrial development and the growth of social institutions, analyzing the events and personalities that have shaped the state. To create this history, the authors weave together many strands from the past and present. Included among these are geological and geographical features; the prehistoric inhabitants; exploration and settlement; relations with the Indians; the land systems and patterns of ownership; the Civil War and the formation of the state from the western counties of Virginia; the legacy of Reconstruction; politics and government; industrial development; labor problems and advances; and cultural aspects such as folkways, education, religion, and national and ethnic influences. For this second edition, the authors have added a new chapter, bringing the original material up to date and carrying the West Virginia story through the presidential election of 1992. Otis K. Rice is professor emeritus of history and Stephen W. Brown is professor of history at West Virginia Institute of Technology.

Civil War in Fayette County West Virginia

Civil War in Fayette County West Virginia PDF Author: Tim McKinney
Publisher: Quarrier Press
ISBN: 9781891852916
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
The definitive book on the Civil War theatre in Fayette County. Lifelong resident of Fayette County, Tim McKinney is well known all over the region for his meticulous research and well written books on the Civil War. Generous amounts of photographs, maps, sketches, and letters, along with the nature of the fighting over extremely rough terrain, make this history enjoyable for war buffs as well as the casual reader. From the Richmond Dispatch, 1861: In Mountain Warfare the learning of strategist is of little importance. In a country where it is impossible to find enough level land to muster a company of militia, there is little scope for ingeniously studied military plans. It is impossible for the books to embrace the thousand topographical features of a wild region, where all nature seems drunk and the hills and mountains in high frolic. The only rule of warfare in such a region is to throw away all rule. The policy there is to fight and march, to march and fight. Ingenious ink and paper plans of campaign are about as useless in the region about the Big Sewell Mountain as a McCormick's reaper in a mountain "wheat" field. The great requisites of an army fit for mountain warfare are good legs and plenty of ammunition. The best general for such an army is he who will keep them most actively on the march and most constantly loading and firing. Physical exertion is the great thing in mountain warfare; the refined strategy of science can have no play.

The Battle of Lewisburg: May 23, 1862

The Battle of Lewisburg: May 23, 1862 PDF Author: Richard L. Armstrong
Publisher: 35th Star Publishing
ISBN: 0996576428
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The early morning hours of May 23, 1862 brought the horror of war to the residents of the small, mountain town of Lewisburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). A brigade of Union troops, commanded by Colonel George Crook, had occupied the heavily Confederate leaning town less than two weeks earlier. Now, Lewisburg felt the fury of a battle waged in her streets. Bullets flew in every direction. Cannon balls whistled overhead and occasionally struck the homes and other buildings of the town. Confederate soldiers, some of whom grew up in Lewisburg, fought and died in their hometown. A few hours later, 240 Confederates were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. The victorious Union troops suffered the loss of 93 men killed, wounded, and captured. Confederate Brigadier General Henry Heth, with a superior force, now found himself forced to retreat in complete disarray. Colonel George Crook would soon be promoted to brigadier general, largely because of his conduct at Lewisburg. This carefully researched book by historian and author Richard L. Armstrong contains 248 pages, 34 images, and 13 maps (including a detailed map of the town the day after the battle by Captain Hiram F. Devol of the 36th Ohio Infantry). The cover features the beautiful painting of Lewisburg in the 1850s by renowned landscape artist Edward Beyer. Lewisburg, now a part of the state of West Virginia, is the county seat of Greenbrier County, and is named for Revolutionary War period General Andrew Lewis. A previous winner of the “Coolest Small Towns in America” award, the town offers many quaint shops, restaurants, galleries, and other attractions. Walking tour brochures, including one focused on the Battle of Lewisburg, are available at the Greenbrier Valley Visitors Center, located downtown on the corner of Washington and Court Streets.

The Battle of White Sulphur Springs

The Battle of White Sulphur Springs PDF Author: Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614233268
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Though West Virginia was founded for the purpose of remaining loyal to the Union, severing ties with Virginia, home of the capital of the Confederacy, would prove difficult. West Virginia's fate would be tested on its battlegrounds. In August 1863, Union general William Woods Averell led a six-hundred-mile raid culminating in the Battle of White Sulphur Springs in Green Brier County. Colonel George S. Patton, grandfather of the legendary World War II general, met Averell with a dedicated Confederate force. After a fierce two-day battle, Patton defeated Averell, forcing him to retreat and leave West Virginia, and ultimately the Union, in the balance. Civil War historian Eric J. Wittenberg presents a fascinating in-depth analysis of the proceedings in the first book-length study of this important battle.

The Battle of Hurricane Bridge, March 28 1863

The Battle of Hurricane Bridge, March 28 1863 PDF Author: Philip Hatfield
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737857525
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Battle at Hurricane Bridge is an often overlooked Civil War action occurring at the small and otherwise quiet western Virginia village. For five hours behind the limited protection of an unfinished earthen fort, the green Union troops of the 13th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry under the command of Captain James Johnson, fought to hold off the hardened Confederate veterans of the 8th and 16th Virginia Cavalry commanded by Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins.Ultimately, the March 28, 1863, battle at Hurricane Bridge directly contributed to the Union army maintaining control of the James River & Kanawha Turnpike, a key supply line, and enabled Federal control of the Kanawha Valley for the remainder of the war.

The Battle of Charleston

The Battle of Charleston PDF Author: Terry Lowry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780966453485
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
The Battle of Charleston (West Virginia), fought September 13, 1862, between the Confederate forces of Gen. William Wing Loring and the Federal command of Col. Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn, pales in comparison to many of the more well-known and documented engagements of the American Civil War. Yet the battle and the activities comprising the 1862 Kanawha Valley Campaign, particularly Lightburn's subsequent retreat, beginning at Fayetteville and ending at Point Pleasant, were of much more strategic importance than readily meets the eye and held special meaning for many of its participants.One such individual was Sgt. Joseph Pearson, Company F, 44th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, who wrote about the battle of Charleston in his journal, "We had several killed and wounded in this affair, but it was only a skirmish to what we afterwards learned of war. Yet I was more impressed with the dread[ful] feeling of that little action than all the others I was in to the finish."The 1862 Kanawha Valley Campaign has long been neglected by scholars, probably due to the great national attention placed on the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, which took place during this same time period. Owing to the meticulous work of author/historian Terry Lowry, it has finally been given its due.