USA > West Virginia > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, West Virginia > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
At the close of the ceremonies a mass meeting was held at Weston, which was addressed by several of the officers, all of whom expressed strong Southern sen- timents. Colonel Peterson, who was soon to lay down his life for Virginia, appealed to all in the approaching conflict to stand by their state, pointing out the sub- ordinate position occupied by the federal government in any conflict as to the constitutional rights of states and nation. The Union men said nothing. As Michael Egan has well said, "They had scored their victory in deeds rather than in talk."
Meanwhile the political leaders of the county at- tempted to stampede the people into the ranks of the se- cessionists. The Weston Herald, which had been a Constitutional Union organ during the campaign of 1860, with the motto, "Civil and religious liberty, the Consti- tution and the Union," now came out boldly under the caption, "Southern Rights and Southern Independence." Mass meetings, addressed by leading citizens, were held in all parts of the county.
The convention of the people of Virginia to decide whether or not the state should remain in the Union was
4
290
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
still in session. There were days of tense anxiety for the quiet settlements on the West Fork. The people began to reflect upon the issues at stake, and upon the probable results of a hasty decision to leave the Union, and as day after day passed with no decision, they began to take courage, and believe that after all Virginia would re- main in the Union, or at least would take a neutral stand. They were disappointed. It became increasingly evident that the national government intended to use force to bring back the seceded states, and upon the Pres ident's first call for volunteers, the convention was stam- peded by ex-Governor Wise and other pro-slavery poli- ticians into the submission of the Ordinance of Secession to the people. Delegate Caleb Boggess, of Lewis, voted against the ordinance and escaped with some difficulty from Richmond.
Tremendous confusion followed the submission of the secession ordinance. Eastern Virginia leaders seized all federal property in the state and prepared for war as if the ordinance had already been ratified by the people. In Lewis County it was reported that the house of Caleb Boggess had been burned to the ground by the seces- sionists in revenge for his vote against the ordinance. Charges of conspiracy and treason against the state were in the air, and no man whose avowed sympathies were with the Union felt quite safe.
The majority of the people of the county believed to some extent in states' rights, but they were not in favor of dismembering the nation. Caleb Boggess had rightly represented his constituents. The attempts of the east- ern politicians to coerce the people brought to their minds all the long train of grievances they had against the east-the restrictions of suffrage in the west, the un- fairness in taxation, the denial of facilities of education, and the creation of an enormous debt for the benefit, principally, of that part of Virginia east of the Alle- ghanies. Many of the citizens of the western part of the state made up their minds not to follow the east any
291
THE SECESSION FROM VIRGINIA
longer. Union men met quietly and secretly to devise measures to counteract those being taken by the former leaders in the politics of the county. Some of these meetings in Weston were held in the Hale-Vandervort store, some at the Hale shoe shop, some at Chalfant's drug store and others at various private houses, all under the cover of night and their secret closely guarded. Con- federate sentiment in Weston was also very strong.
A mass convention at Clarksburg April 22, at which many Lewis County men were present, adopted resolu- tions calling a convention of the loyal citizens of the state to meet at Wheeling on May 13, and recommending that each county send at least five delegates. The re- sponse in Lewis County was immediate. At a meeting said to have been held in the Hale store near the western end of the covered bridge across the West Fork, the Union men chose as delegates F. M. Chalfant, Alexander Scott Withers, J. W. Hudson, P. M. Hale, Jesse Woofter, W. L. Grant, J. Amen and J. A. J. Lightburn. All at- tended the convention.
The purpose of the convention, which met before the vote on the secession ordinance, was to agree upon concerted action to be taken in case the Ordinance was ratified. Mr. Withers was appointed a member of the committee on state and federal relations, and in this committee the first discussion of the question of the formation of a new state came up. Some of the more advanced Union men wanted a new state immediately, the Wood County delegation, for instance, displaying a banner with the words, "New Virginia-Now or Never." While the convention discussed constitutional objec- tions, Francis H. Pierpont evolved a plan afterwards fol- lowed by which western Virginia could be constitution- ally separated from the old state. As a first step he pro- posed that the convention should wait until the popular vote on the ordinance had decided finally whether Vir- ginia should remain in the Union or not. It was neces- sary, in order to secure a semblance of legality, that ac-
292
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
tion looking toward the formation of a new state should be taken by a body duly called and whose members had been duly elected by the people. He therefore proposed that an election should be held on June 4, to select dele- gates for a second convention which should devise such measures as the welfare of the people of northwestern Virginia seemed to demand. His motion was adopted, and consideration of the formation of the new state was delayed.
The ordinance of secession was carried at the spe- cial election by a large majority of the state at large, but the people of western Virginia opposed it by a vote of ten to one. Lewis County was almost unanimously opposed save for the polling precincts at Walkersville, Hall's store, Little Skin creek and part of the vote at Weston.
The election of delegates from Lewis County to the second Wheeling convention resulted in the choice of P. M. Hale, a rising young business man of Weston, and J. A. J. Lightburn, a Baptist minister of the Broad run community, who was soon to lay aside the staff of the shepherd and take up the sword in order that he might make the triumph of righteousness more certain. The division which arose in the convention between Carlile, who desired to form a new state immediately, and Pier- pont, who wished to reorganize the government of Vir- ginia, led to a deadlock which was broken, so a tradi- tional account goes, by a short speech by P. M. Hale, which won over the other delegates to the plan of Pier- pont. The convention adopted the plan which provided that new officers should be elected to take the places of those who had followed the state in seceding from the Union, and that a new government should be established at Wheeling. The convention also passed an ordinance submitting to the people the question of whether they wished to form a new state out of that part of Virginia lying west of the Alleghanies.
P. M. Hale and J. A. J. Lightburn sat in the House
293
THE SECESSION FROM VIRGINIA
of Delegates and Blackwell Jackson in the Senate when the legislature declared the offices of the state vacant, by reason of the fact that the holders had renounced their allegiance to the United States, and elected loyal men to fill them.
Not all the people of Lewis County took advantage of the opportunity to vote on the ordinance to cre- ate a new state. By the time of the election, Union troops had entered the county, and the Confederate sym- pathizers feared to vote their sentiments. Only 455 votes were cast. The ordinance was ratified with but twelve dissenting votes in the county. Judge Robert Er- vine was elected to represent the county in the constitu- tional convention which framed the first constitution of the state of West Virginia. The remainder of the his- tory of the formation of West Virginia is state history rather than county history, and it is therefore passed over. One point is not to be forgotten, however, and that is that P. M. Hale, the delegate from Lewis in the first legislature of West Virginia, served on the commit- tee on education and was largely instrumental in fram- ing the first free school law of the new state.
During the Civil war the majority of the people of Lewis County took sides with the Union. Out of a to- tal of perhaps 1300 voters in 1861, it is estimated that 1000 sided with the federal government or were luke- warm in their adherence to the Confederacy, and the others actively supported the Southern cause. All of Freeman's creek with the exception of the later comers like the Simmons and Rexroads were unanimously for the North; few southern soldiers enlisted from there. The same may be said of Hacker's creek, where the Con- federates had high hopes that Blackwell Jackson, a cousin of "Stonewall", would be able to bring the people to their side. Unfortunately for them, he himself was one of the most loyal Union men. Stone Coal creek was almost solidly for the North, as were Murphy's creek, Rush run and Canoe run. All the Irish and Ger-
294
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
mans who had settled in the Sand fork and Leading creek sections espoused the cause of the United States because they knew nothing and cared nothing for the rights of states. They knew merely that they owed their enjoyment of liberty to the national government and that they had just sworn to support it.
The Confederate sections of the county were prin- cipally in the southern end. The citizens of Skin creek under the leadership of Colonel Peterson and others be- lieved that the rights of Virginia were being put in jeopardy by the citizens of the northern states, and they prepared to defend the state from invasion. The Collins Settlement, which was peopled mainly by emigrants from the Shenandoah valley and other parts of Virginia, un- der the vigorous leadership of the Bennetts, Regers, Watsons and others presented such a united front in favor of the Confederacy that it was called "Dixie" by those of Union sympathies.
Weston was badly divided in sentiment. The rep- resentatives of some of the old families-men like Dr. Bland, Captain Boykin, A. A. Lewis, Jonathan M. Ben- nett and many others-sided with the Confederacy. The later comers who had been atttracted to the town by reason of the advance of industy in the 'fifties and es- pecially through the location of the asylum in the town, generally cast their lot with the Union. The Union men were probably in a majority.
The neighboring counties were almost as much di- vided as Lewis. Harrison, though strongly Union for the most part, had a strong Southern group on Duck creek, just north of the Lewis County line. Upshur was almost solidly for the North, with the exception of a set- tlement in the extreme southern part of the county, cor- responding to the Collins Settlement in Lewis; though the French creek settlement exercised a great influence in holding the region around it, both in Upshur and on the Left fork of West Fork in Lewis, for the Union. Web- ster, Braxton, Gilmer, Clay and most of the other so-
295
THE SECESSION FROM VIRGINIA
called "back counties" sent more soldiers into the Con- federate than into the Union forces. The Webster Coun- ty court protested against paying taxes to West Virginia, declaring that county still a part of Virginia. Some Union men pointed out the fact that the territory of Webster was separated from the remainder of Virginia by a part of West Virginia; and if they did not want to be in the new state the only course would be to form an independent state. It has been called the "Independent State" ever since.
The state militia which had been organized with such lack of care by Virginia did not all respond to her call. Out of the two regiments which paraded on Henry Butcher's meadow, only about twenty-five men marched away to join the forces of the state. They were assigned to Company "I", 31st Virginia Regiment, C. S. A., under Captain Jackson, and experienced some of the bitterest fighting of the whole war. The bodies of many of them lie buried on the battlefields of northern Virginia. Be- sides the men who left with the militia for the rendez- vous of the Confederates, many later joined other organ- izations. Thomas J. Jackson, who had been a second lieutenant in 1845, and whose later life had been spent in the army or in the classrooms of the Virginia Military Institute, joined his fortunes to those of his state, and was recognized as perhaps the greatest military genius of the war.
Four companies were raised in Lewis County for the service of the United States-companies "C" and "D" of the 10th Virginia Infantry and companies "B" and "D" of the 15th West Virginia Infantry. Company "B", 15th West Virginia Infantry was organized and commanded by Captain Michael Egan, whose bold stand for the United States on the occasion of the last muster had made him generally known throughout the county. Thomas D. Murrin was captain of Company "D", 10th Virginia Infantry ; William J. Nicholes, of Company "C" of the same regiment; and Jasper Peterson of Company
296
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
"D" of the 15th West Virginia Infantry. In addition to the four companies there were numerous Lewis County citizens who joined other organizations. The most dis- tinguished of these was J. A. J. Lightburn, who had or- ganized the 4th Virginia regiment, commanded for a time the district of the Kanawha, conducted a masterly retreat from Charleston in the face of a superior enemy force, was wounded at the gates of Atlanta, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general for gallantry in action.
4
*
CHAPTER XXIII. MILITARY OPERATIONS
Three strategic factors determined that trans-mon- tane Virginia should be the theatre of contending armies very early in the struggle. In the first place, the Vir- ginia frontier was the Ohio river and the Mason and Dixon line, and Virginia wished to preserve her terri- tory from invasion. Secondly the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was the most southern line across the moun- tains by which Washington was connected with the rich and populous states of the middle west, by which the capital received troops and supplies and by which armies could easily be transferred from the eastern field of op- erations to the theatre of the Mississippi valley. It was an imperative necessity for the North to hold the rail- road. With the road in their possession they could hold Washington and keep up communication between the eastern and western forces; without it they would have had to depend on roundabout routes likely to be over- worked in hauling foodstuffs to the people of the sea- board cities. The Confederates wished, of course, to pre- vent its falling into the hands of the North. The third factor was the anti-secession sentiment in northwestern Virginia which the officials at Washington knew through their agents. If the north acted quickly, the Union men in northwestern Virginia could be encouraged. The number of Union sympathizers could be increased if the faint-hearted could be shown that it was safe for them to take their stand by the old flag.
These factors were of course not overlooked by the government of Virginia. On April 30th, 1861, General Lee ordered Major Boykin of Weston to issue a call for
298
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
volunteers, proceed to Grafton and assume command of the forces raised. Two companies joined his command, one from Fairmont and one made up of the remnant of the Virginia militia in Lewis County which responded to the call of the state, armed only with flint-lock mus- kets, in bad order, and without ammunition. The result of the call must have been disappointing to the Con- federate leaders. They doubtless expected that the peo- ple of the northwest would be able to hold the frontier until help should come, and, in accordance with their usual policy in dealing with the west, the officials con- centrated most of their troops for the defense of the east- ern part of the state.
On May 16, Colonel Porterfield, who had assumed command at Grafton, reported that there was much di- versity of feeling and that his troops lacked arms.
The greatest efforts were made to secure volunteers. On May 30, Governor Letcher issued a flamboyant proclamation calling upon the people to rally to arms. "The heart that will not beat in unison with Virginia is a traitor's heart; the arm that will not strike for home in her cause is palsied with a coward fear." The soil of Virginia had been invaded !
Federal troops under McClellan crossed the Ohio river at Wheeling and Parkersburg, and with an energy which McClellan scarcely showed in any later campaign, penetrated at once to the heart of the northwest at Graf- ton, stampeded the sleeping Confederates at Philippi, and practically cleared the Monongahela valley almost without loss of life. The Confederates raised some forces from the Valley of Virginia which under the command of General Garnett attempted to drive off Mcclellan; but after the sharp skirmishes at Rich mountain and Laurel hill he sought safety in flight, only to be over- taken and killed at Corrick's ford on the Cheat river.
Up to the last week in June McClellan's troops had confined their attention to following up the Confederate forces and preparing to meet them when they turned
299
MILITARY OPERATIONS
with reinforcements. No troops had been sent to aid the Union men at Weston. It was important that troops should be sent quickly. In 1860 the General Assembly of Virginia had appropriated $125,000 for the construc- tion of the lunatic asylum, and $30,000 of this amount had been deposited in the Exchange bank at Weston. It was to be expected that the Secession government of Virginia would recall the funds. The Union men feared they would be delivered to Richmond by the bank offi- cials if such a call were made. The loyalty of the bank to the Restored government of Virginia and to the United States was seriously questioned by Weston people.
Union citizens of Weston determined, if possible, to secure the funds for the use of the newly organized government at Wheeling. On June 26 (and very late that night according to the story of Captain Wilkinson), a meeting was held in the back room of A. C. Hale's shoe shop, to take concerted action with a view to hav- ing troops brought to Weston. Those in attendance were: Captain J. C. Wilkinson, George C. Danser, Wil- liam J. Daugherty, J. G. Vandervort, A. C. Hale, E. M. Tunstill, Robert Irvine, J. F. Osborn and Major Charles E. Anderson, and except for them the meeting was se- cret. It was decided that Captain Wilkinson should go at once to Wheeling and inform Governor Pierpont of the matter. He set out at once to walk to Clarksburg, caught an early train, and reached Wheeling late in the afternoon of the next day. He secured an audience with the new governor immediately, and within two hours thereafter orders had been issued for the Seventh Ohio regiment to proceed from Camp Dennison, Ohio, to Wes- ton. P. M. Hale, then a member of the Legislature, also had an important part in having the troops sent to Wes- ton. He had gone to Grafton at about the same time that Captain Wilkinson had started from Weston and had an audience with General McClellan in which he re- quested that the Seventh Ohio be sent to Weston be-
300
1
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
cause its commander, Colonel E. B. Tyler, having pre- viously been a fur buyer, "knew every hog-path in Lewis County."
The Seventh Ohio left Camp Dennison and came by way of Wheeling and Grafton to Clarksburg where the regiment arrived at 4 p. m. on June 28. The march to Weston was taken up on the evening of the next day. The troops reached Jane Lew about midnight, where they received a royal welcome from the inhabitants. At 5 a. m. Weston was in sight. The approaches were seized, and the regiment entered the town by Main street . with a fife and drum corps playing.
James Jackson and six other secessionists were im- mediately arrested and sent to Grafton. Other promi- nent men of the town, who were also arrested, were re- leased after an examination. R. J. McCandlish, the cash - ier of the Exchange bank branch was arrested and forced to hand over $28,000 of its funds. Governor Pier- pont, upon being notified of the action, sent John List to Weston to take possession of the money "on behalf of its rightful owners, the true and lawful government of Virginia."
The money was taken to Wheeling and deposited in banks there to the credit of the state. It was used in paying the salaries of officers, and other expenses inci- dent to setting the Restored government in operation. A much greater amount was, however, appropriated by the Legislature of the Restored government and used later in the construction of the institution. Contrary to the general belief among the people of the town the Weston branch of the Exchange bank was loyal to the United States, and the confiscation of its funds was unwar- ranted. Cashier McCandlish immediately went to Wheeling, saw Governor Pierpont and, aided by the in- tercession of Major Anderson, secured credit for the money from the Wheeling banks in which it had been deposited.
The people of Weston received the troops with
.
301
MILITARY OPERATIONS
emotions ranging all the way from fear and hatred to unbounded joy. Nothing was too great for the regiment to ask. Mrs. Osborn prepared breakfast for sixty-four hungry soldiers on the morning of their arrival and Mrs. Dinsmore satisfied the hunger of dozens of others. Camp Tyler, so-called from the name of the commanding offi- cer of the regiment, was established on the west side of the river on what is now a part of the hospital lawn. A large flag pole was brought from the country, from which the Stars and Stripes was soon proudly waving to the breeze. The office of the Weston Herald, which had been hastily vacated by its editor and proprietor, F. J. Alfred, was seized by the young officers of the regiment, and within a few days "The Ohio Seventh" made its ap- pearance. Its motto was, "We come to protect, not to invade." In his salutatory the editor says: "The Ohio Seventh will be published as often as circumstances will permit, and of such material as may be found in se- cession offices where we may chance to stop long enough to raise our flag and issue a paper. Confederate States' bonds and other 'secesh' paper not received for either subscriptions or advertising."
Though the troops had been brought to Weston pri- marily for the purpose of securing the Virginia funds in the Exchange bank, there was no disposition among the higher command of the Union forces to order their with- drawal. Weston was an important strategic center, the possession of which by the Union forces gave them a certain security and a point of vantage for further move- ments into the Confederate territory of the northwest. It was an important outpost for the protection of the Bal- timore and Ohio railroad because of its location on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike by which Confeder- ate raiding parties aiming at the Northwestern railroad west of Clarksburg were likely to approach. Most im- portant of all, it was the junction of the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike with the state road, and was the gate to the northern approach to the Kanawha valley,
302
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
and the center from which the secession territory to the south and west could be most easily commanded. Other troop movements soon showed that the Union leaders did not intend easily to relinquish the advantage gained.
On July 4, a company was dispatched to Walkers- ville to break up a Confederate recruiting station and bring in prisoners. At about the same time, reinforce . ments arrived from Clarksburg, among which was a de- tachment of the gallant First Virginia cavalry, which was billeted in the Bland hotel, the Bailey house and other public and private buildings. Colonel Stanley Matth- ews, afterwards an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, led his regiment across the Ohio river and swept up the Little Kanawha to Glenville and then to Weston. It was not long until a detachment of the quartermaster's department was stationed in the town, which became a sort of sub-station for the main office at Clarksburg. A two-story frame building was erected out the Parkersburg pike in which goods were stored un- til required to be issued to the men. George Ross, who later became prominent in the affairs of the county, was one of the clerks of the quartermaster's department who came to Weston at this time. Upon the department de- volved part of the responsibility of maintaining com- munication between the advanced posts and the main body, and the units in Weston were placed in connection with Clarksburg first by courier, and later by the erec. tion of the first telegraph line in Lewis County.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.