USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 12
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FROM 1818 TO 1863.
States, her action would influence North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas to join the Confederate States of America. The leaders of the East were the champions of the Secession party, and the Leaders of the West were the champions of the Union party. The greatest orators and ablest intellects of the East plead for secession. The most gifted minds and ablest statesmen of the West plead for the Union. Day after day, this great battle was carried on by the two parties to gain supremacy. On the 4th of April, the test was made on the Sixth resolution, for which a substitute was offered, "That an ordinance of secession from the Federal Union should be submitted to the people of Virginia in the election to take place in May." Forty-five voted for it and eighty- nine against it.
The Union party regarded this as a triumph against direct secession, but their opponents were not idle and had sent out, a few days before this vote was taken, a circular calling upon the parties to whom it was sent in different parts of the State, to be in Richmond on the 16th day of April, to consult with their friends of south- ern rights as to what course Virginia should pursue. The effects of this policy, whether it was intended or not, gathered a crowd at Richmond, whose course could not be governed by reason. The galleries and lobbies of the hall were filled with this wild and excited throng, who hissed and jeered when the members of the Union party were speaking, and cheered when the members of the opposition party were on the floor.
This uncontrollable throng augmented its numbers every day, and filling the streets at night with bands of music at their heads, calling out the Southern men of prominence in the city, applauded their speeches, however extreme, or their views, however rash.
On the morning of the 12th of April, Beauregard fired on the walls of Fort Sumpter. The roar of his cannon shat- tered all hopes of peace and opened the greatest civil war that ever occurred in the New World.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
When the news came over the wires to Richmond, that the Confederate batteries circling Fort Sumter were raining shot and shell on its devoted walls, the wildest excitement prevailed. The wild throng on the streets swelled with increasing numbers; business closed, and almost the whole populace were on the streets. The National flag was torn from the dome of the Capitol and trampled in the street. Bonfires were kindled, the public squares were brilliantly illuminated, with bands playing and crowds cheering. The people were wild with excitement. Everywhere the Confed- erate banner was raised. A great assemblage gathered in a large hall, with closed doors. The Convention went into secret session. The Union majority seen their number, un- der the pressure of events, rapidly decreasing, and the Con- federate minority swelling up toward controling numbers. They seen a storm gathering around them that might break any hour with terrific force. Entreaty, pursuasion and ex- hortation all failed to stay the tide of desertion from their ranks. The Honorable William G. Brown, of Preston, was hissed while making an eloquent speech in favor of the Un- ion and predicting a bloody and terrible war if Virginia seceded.
Scenes beyond power of description were taking place in Richmond. The Union members were insulted on the streets in daytime, and at night crowds gathered in front of their stopping places with oaths and threats of personal vio- lence, and would leave ropes hanging on trees and lamp-posts close to their windows. These wild and maddened throngs were almost frenzied with the excitement of a coming war, whose breaking thunders were rolling up from Charleston harbor, and the great wonder is that any restraining influ- ence held them back from carrying out their threats of vio- lence against the Union members of the Convention, espec- ially those from Northwestern Virginia.
One night they came several hundred strong, with torches, drums and fifes, and gathered in front of Mrs. Thornton's, at the corner of Franklin and Fourshee streets, where the Hon.
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William G. Brown, James C. McGrew and John S. Carlisle were stopping. With oaths and yells and vile epithets they hung their ropes upon the branches of a tree standing by the house, but did not attempt an entrance into the building. They finally took down their ropes, and waving their seces- sion flags, marched away to the tune of "Dixie" played by their band.
Fort Sumter fell and Richmond was wild over the news. Peaceable secession was no longer discussed; armed revolu- tion was urged. The talk upon the streets was marching armies and great battles, to gain Southern independence. The Convention met on the 16th, and held a stormy session. The Confederate side had not received sufficient accessions to its ranks to hazard a vote yet upon an ordinance of secession.
On the morning of the 17th of April, 1861, the Conven- tion met, and ex-Governor Henry A. Wise, rising in his seat, drew a large Virginia horse-pistol from his bosom, and, lay- ing it before him, proceeded in a shrill and piercing tone of voice to urge the secession of Virginia from the Union. At the conclusion of his impassioned address, he drew forth his watch, and "with glaring eyes and bated breath' said, that, at such an hour, the troops of Virginia had occupied Harper's Ferry and its armory; at another hour, Virginia soldiers had seized the Federal Navy-yard at Norfolk. The excitement now was intense, a crisis had come, decisive ac- tion was about to be taken; the secession leaders, while the effect produced by Wise's speech was fresh, were organizing to press the question of secession upon the Convention. The leaders of the Union party, unmoved by all the great pressure brought to bear upon them, stood firm; but the rank and file of the party, made up of members from the West, with a fair sprinkling from the East, could not be held solid by their leaders. The meeting of a great assem- blage with closed doors but a short distance away, the wild throngs on the streets, the soldiers of a part of the State in motion, and the wonderful impassioned speech of Wise, all
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
combined, was more than they could resist-the current was too strong for them, the excitement too intense-and many went over to the Secession party. An excited discussion was carried on amid great confusion, and, finally, the Con- vention came to a vote upon "an Ordinance to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of Amer- ica, by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution." The Union party cast fifty-one votes against it, and the Secession party cast eighty-one votes for it.
The ordinance of secession, as thus passed, read as follows : "The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the Consti- tution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under the said con- stitution were derived from the people of the United States, and might be resumed whensoever the same should be per- verted to their injury and oppression; and the Federal Gov- ernment having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States: Now, therefore, we, the peo ple of Virginia, do declare and ordain, that the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June in the year of our Lord one thou- sand seven and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying or adopting amend- ments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abro- gated ; that the union between the State of Virginia and the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dis- solved, and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
"And they do further declare, that said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding upon any of the citizens of this State.
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FROM 1818 TO 1863.
"This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified by a majority of the votes of the people of this State, cast at a poll to be taken thereon on the fourth Thurs- day in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted."
The Convention then passed a schedule in which it was declared "that the election for members of Congress for this State to the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, required by law to be held on the fourth Thursday in May next, is hereby suspended and prohibited, until otherwise ordained by this Convention."
Among the leaders of the Union party were Messrs. Brown and McGrew, of Preston, who had boldly spoken against secession from the commencement of the session till the passage of the ordinance. Defiantly voting against the measure, their opposition to it did not cease with its passage, but in connection with Willey, Carlisle and others, on the next day, declared that Western Virginia would never sup- port it. The language of the Union leaders was declared treasonable, and, in addition to being insulted on the streets, they were greeted with threats of personal violence.
The citizens of Morgantown, on the night of the 17th of April, 1861, held a meeting, and in the name of Monongalia County entered their solemn protest against the secession of Virginia from the Federal Government, and declared that, if secession was carried out by the East, the western part of the State would repudiate the action, would dissolve all its civil and political connection with the east, and remain under the flag of the Union.
When the news was received in Preston County, that Fort Sumter had surrendered, great excitement prevailed; and when, on this news, came the rumor that the State Conven- tion had passed an ordinance of secession, the citizens felt that a bloody war was about to begin. After the shock ex- perienced by the reception of the news, the cry went up all over the county, to discard all former political parties, to bury all old political animosities, and to unite and vote down
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
the ordinance of secession. A meeting of the citizens of Kingwood and vicinity was held in front of the Court-house on Saturday morning, April 20th. The Stars and Stripes were run up, and were greeted by "Hail Columbia," played by the Morgantown band, who were present. Union speeches were made and secession denounced. The King- wood Chronicle appeared with the motto, "The Union, right or wrong-we'll defend her when right; when wrong, we'll right her," at her masthead. A stirring editorial appealed to the people of the county to oppose secession, and several letters from different parts of the county followed, calling for a county meeting to be held at the Court-house, on the 13th day of May, it being the first day of the county court, to denounce secession and organize in favor of the Union.
Turning again to the State Convention, we find it in the hands of the secessionists. On the afternoon of Saturday, April 20th, an arrangement was made by some of the Union leaders from Northwestern Virginia, to assemble at the Pow- hatan Hotel, and consult upon what was best for them to do under the circumstances. Their every move was observed by their opponents, and singly and by couples they dropped into the hotel, and repaired to a bed-room. Some eighteen or twenty members thus assembled. The venerable General John J. Jackson, of Wood County, was elected chairman of the meeting.
He was so old and feeble that he lay on the bed while pre- siding. The arrangement for the meeting was hastily made, and it was impossible to notify all the strong Union mem- bers. Owing to this fact, Messrs. Brown and Willey were not present. James C. McGrew, of Preston, was one of the members present. They decided to resist the ordinance of secession. As they could do nothing in the Convention, now in the hands of a large and increasing secession majority, and as their lives were in danger every day, they concluded to withdraw quietly, return home to their constituents, call meetings of the people of Northwestern Virginia, and urge them to vote down the ordinance of secession.
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FROM 1818 TO 1863.
This meeting was the germ idea that developed into the re-organization of the State government of Virginia, and ulti- mately into the division of Virginia, and the formation of the State of West Virginia. The members of this meeting dis- persed from the hotel, in the same manner that they had gathered, and made preparations to leave the city. In this they were joined by Mr. Brown and Mr. Willey.
Getting out of the city was no easy task. It was re- ported that all trains were stopped on the usual route by rail from Richmond to Harper's Ferry. Eight of these mem- bers got passes, but had great difficulty in getting away. The Hon. William G. Brown, James C. McGrew, Waitman T. Willey and others repaired, on Sunday, April the 21st, to to the Branch Street railroad station, where the agent at first refused to take their tickets. Finally, however, he gave them tickets to Alexandria, opposite Washington City. All trains Northward from Alexandria had ceased running, and when Messrs. Brown and McGrew arrived in Alexandria, they found almost all intercourse cut off with the North. Mr. Brown's trunk could not be found, and Mr. McGrew volunteered to remain and search for it. At the hotel where they were stopping, a rabble congregated, and several of its leaders went in, and going up to the hotel register, commen- ced reading the names of those stopping. They would, every now and then, read aloud some one's name and ask the clerk how that man was. When they read Willey's name, Mr. McGrew, who was standing near the clerk's desk, a spec- tator of their performance, responded that he was all right, and the crowd, using vile oaths, said he had better be or they would put him in the Potomac. One suggested that they throw all of them in the river. They discussed this method of disposing of the whole party for some time, but finally left without offering any violence. Mr. McGrew re- ceived permission to look for the trunk from an officer of the road, and remained behind.
The trunk arrived, and Mr. McGrew made arrangements for departure. The road was now closed to the North. Alex-
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
andria was now alive with secessionists, and it was any thing but comfortable for a Unionist. He engaged a team to be at the hotel, at 2 o'clock in the morning, to take him. across the Potomac to Washington City, and thence by a circuitous route he proposed to reach home. At 2 o'clock .. the team arrived, driven by a colored boy. Mr. McGrew realized the danger of attempting to leave Alexandria with a negro driver. There were guards, most likely, and if so, they would hardly suffer a stranger to pass, especially with a. negro. He sent for Fawcett, the owner of the team, and in- formed him that it would be difficult to get to Washington: with the boy as a driver. After some little parley, Mr. McGrew got Fawcett to consent to drive the team, and they started. A short distance, and Mr. McGrew's apprehension of an armed guard was confirmed. Two sentries halted the team, but, knowing Fawcett, they accepted his story of his only going to drive to Washington and back, and allowed him to pass. When they came to the bridge, they found a, battery of artillery. The officer in charge, after closely questioning Mr. McGrew, allowed him to pass over. Leav- ing Washington City, Mr. McGrew proceeded home over the Baltimore & Ohio railway. At Harper's Ferry, the train stopped, and he stepped out upon the platform, and found a regiment of Confederate troops. An officer stepped up and enquired if he was not a member of the Richmond Con- vention. Mr. McGrew, though not knowing what would come of it, boldly answered that he was. The officer then stepped up closer, and, whispering in his ear, said, "When you go back to Richmond, send some one here to take com- mand of these troops." Mr. McGrew said he would, and, leaving the officer, entered the cars, and the train in a mo- ment moved on westward, leaving the Confederate, who seemed to be a subordinate officer, to wait for an officer from Richmond to take command of the troops.
The delegates from Northwestern Virginia were fortunate in making their escape, fraught as it was with perils. A few days later, and it would have been impossible to have left
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FROM 1818 TO 1863.
Richmond, and most likely, all of them would have been violently dealt with by the frenzied crowds; or, if escaping that fate, would have been arrested as traitors, and im- prisoned.
When the delegates from Northwestern Virginia returned home and reported the state of affairs at Richmond, meetings were held in all the northwestern counties, condemning the ordinance of secession, and declaring it the duty of Western Virginia to adopt such measures as should result in a divis- ion of the State. The first step toward a combined move- ment to secure this result was taken at a meeting held under the auspices of the Hon. John S. Carlisle, at Clarksburg, Harrison County, on the 22d of April, 1861. About twelve hundred people were present. Resolutions were passed de- claring that the secessionists were attempting without the consent of the people to transfer Virginia from its allegiance to the Federal Government to the so-called Confederate States, and having seized without authority the property of the Federal Government in Virginia, had inaugurated war, and therefore the meeting recommended to the people of Northwestern Virginia to appoint not less than five delegates of their wisest, best and discreetest men, in each county, to meet in convention in the city of Wheeling, on the 13th day of May, to determine on the proper action Northwestern Virginia should take in the present fearful emergency.
Public excitement was intense. Men neglected their usual vocations and assembled with arms in their hands, to dis- cuss the situation. General confusion existed and society seemed to be in a state of disruption-a terrible reality seemed to dawn upon the minds of men, that there was no law. On every hand was heard the cry of opposition to se- cession, and' armed bands of men gathered, and, placing the National flag at their head, went from place to place, shout- ing death to secessionists. Those who were called secess- ionists, and believed that duty to the State required that its citizens should yield obedience to its commands and fight its battles, prudently remained quiet, Many of them were al-
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
rested by these military bands, roughly treated and compelled upon fear of their lives to take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. It was a time of peril, and men looked forward to the future with grave apprehen- sion. They beheld a civil war, of immense proportions, loom- ing up, in which the noblest blood of the land would be shed.
In the latter part of April, a report came to Kingwood that Governor Letcher had sent a force, which was on its way, to seize the arms stored in the Court-house. On Sun- day the news was carried to Masontown and Reedsville, and that evening a company of 71 foot and 30 horse gathered near Reedsville and took up its line of march for Kingwood, under the command of Captain Isaiah Kirk. They arrived at Kingwood about 3 o'clock on Monday morning, and hav- ing been joined by Jacob Cobun and an additional force, the whole body, under the direction of Captain Kirk, Jacob Cobun, D. B. Jeffers and others, surrounded the Court- house and after posting pickets, entered and took out nearly 200 muskets that had been furnished by the State, and were kept in the Court-house for the use of the militia of the county. Securing the arms, they carried them off to pre- vent their falling into the hands of the party that report said Governor Letcher had sent to take them.
The Convention in Richmond, on the 25th day of April, passed "an ordinance for the adoption of the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America," reading as follows: "We the delegates of the people of Virginia, in convention assembled, solemnly im- pressed with the perils which surround the Commonwealth, and appealing to the searcher of hearts for the rectitude of our intentions in assuming the grave responsibility of this act, do, by this ordinance, adopt and ratify the constitution of the provisional government of the Confederate States of America, ordained and established at Montgomery, Alabama, on the eighth day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty- one: provided, that this ordinance, shall cease to have any legal operation or effect, if the people of this commonwealth,
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FROM 1818 TO 1863.
upon the vote directed to be taken on the ordinance of secession passed by this convention on the seventeenth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, shall reject the same." The convention, soon after this, adjourned to meet after the people had voted on the ordinance of secession.
When the news of the Clarksburg meeting was received in Preston County, with its call for delegates to the Wheeling convention to be held on the 13th of May, 1861, the county convention of Preston called to meet on the same day, was immediately put on the 4th, and a second call issued to that effect, so delegates could be appointed in time to reach Wheeling by the 13th.
A meeting was held by the citizens of the Eighth District, on the 30th of April, Peter Zinn was elected president, Samuel Matlick vice-president, and M. L. Shaffer was ap- pointed secretary. William Michael, Frank Heermans and C. H. Corbin were appointed to draft resolutions for the consideration of the meeting. They brought in a set of res- olutions, which were adopted, condemning Virginia for her course of action in the matter of secession, censuring the Governor for his illegal proclamation prohibiting voting for Congressmen at the May election and pledging support to the cause of the Union. On the same day (the 30th), a large Union meeting was held at Gladesville, and on the first of May, Thornton J. Bonafield presided over a large Union meeting at the Bonafield School-house, which was ably addressed by James A. Brown and Thomas P. Adams.
Pursuant to the second call for a county convention in favor of the Union, a large and enthusiastic meeting was ยท held at the Court-house, in Kingwood, on Saturday, the 4th day of May, 1861. Notwithstanding a disagreeable morning, people came from all parts of the county. About one o'clock p. m. a large delegation from the Fifth District on foot and horseback entered, headed by Captain Isaiah Kirk. They marched through the principal streets of the town with the National flag flying and a martial band playing patriotic airs. The vast crowd already collected, cheered
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
them as they passed from street to street, and many of the spectators and citizens fell in the ranks. The long column then marched to the Court-house, and Colonel Charles Hooton called the meeting, over six hundred in number, to order. The Rev. G. W. Arnold opened with prayer. Sam'l R. Trowbridge was elected president, William McKee and W. H. Grimes vice-presidents, W. B. Zinn and J. J. Brown were appointed secretaries. H. C. Hagans, Colonel Charles Hooton, William B. Zinn, John J. Brown and John A. Dille were appointed a committee, by the chair, to prepare busi- ness for the consideration of the meeting. In the absence of the committee, the Hon. William G. Brown and James C. McGrew addressed the meeting upon the state of the country. The committee on its return reported a set of twelve resolutions, which, being read one at a time and voted on, were all adopted without a dissenting voice in the large assemblage. The resolutions were as follows:
"Resolved, That we have always entertained the opinion and yet honestly believe that the Government of the United States as constructed by our fathers, was one of the best governments that was ever given to man, and ought not to be abandoned by the friends of civil and religious liberty for causes short of absolute necessity.
"Resolved, That, whilst. we have not at all times been satisfied with the administration of the Federal Government, yet we never have nor do we now recognize any such neces- sity, and we pledge ourselves to use all honorable and peace- ful measures to restore peace to our distracted country and to reconstruct our once happy Union.
"Resolved, That we are unalterably opposed to the . ordinance of secession passed by the Virginia Convention, and that we will use all honorable and fair means at the ballot-box to defeat said ordinance.
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