District Map

    At the beginning of the war most of the county governments in western Virginia were loyal to the Richmond government, with the exceptions of counties in the northern panhandle and the extreme northwest. The county governments of Hampshire, Fayette, Jackson, Gilmer, Pocahontas and Raleigh passed bonds from $3,000-15,000 to raise arms for the militia.

    With the take-over of the northern counties by the Federal army a struggle ensued over governance of these counties. Officials who would not swear oaths of loyalty to the Federal government and the Wheeling government were either replaced and/or arrested. Confederate raids into Union-held territory would often result in the arrest of county or even Wheeling government officials, and Union raids would take similar actions. Often arrests were made for the sole purpose of prisoner exchange, without any charges, as in the case of Judge George W. Thompson, arrested and held in the Wheeling Atheneum in 1863. His offence apparently was having sons in the Confederate army.

    In many cases there were no county governments at all, as shown by this deposition of the Union citizens of Calhoun County to the Wheeling government on August 20, 1861-

"The humble memorial of the undersigned qualified voters in and for the county of Calhoun respectfully represent that they were unable to hold an election for a delegate to your Convention on the fourth Tuesday in October, 1861, as they desired to do and would have done but for the following reasons: there is neither sheriff, clerk or justice in said county, and no court has been held in said county since June last, all the county officers are or have been engaged in the rebellion, so that there was no one to hold an election... The undersigned comprise nearly the whole loyal voters in the said county, for, in fact at the election upon the Ordinance of Secession there were but fifty (50) votes cast in said county against it."

    A postal system under the Confederacy operated irregularly in southern West Virginia, though offices in Lewisburg and Union functioned relatively undisturbed for the duration of the war. Offices in Romney, Harper's Ferry and Shepherdstown depended upon the presence of the army to stay in operation. Confederate postal route 2655 was given to Beniah Vint on Sept. 30, 1863 by N.L. Blakemore of Sangerville, Augusta County, to carry mail to Green Valley (W) Va.

One of the most common offences brought against female prisoners by Wheeling was the carrying of letters and papers for the Confederacy.

    In 1862 the Confederate Congress allowed Pres. Davis to institute martial law in areas of unrest and occupation, which included parts of West Virginia. In 1863 James Seddon, the Secretary of War, informed Gen. Samuel Jones that martial law was no longer to be enforced.

    To what extent Confederate currency was freely accepted in West Virginia is hard to determine. In 1863 when Dr. Camden of Weston was liquidating some of his assets prior to his imprisonment he sold his favorite horse for $148 in Confederate money. A court case was brought in 1878 between Thomas Feamster and James Withrow over slaves bought during the war with Confederate money.

This is a Virginia $5 note

with a portrait of Jonathan M. Bennet of Lewis County, who was auditor for Virginia during the war.  

Here is a 75 cent note issued by the county of Mercer on May 1, 1863, payable in January 1864.

This is a receipt for a $500 Confederate bond issued to Aaron Sevy in Lewisburg, Greenbrier County, in 1864.

One of the primary uses of the Confederate government by West Virginians was to appeal for the exchange of relatives or friends held by Union authorities. Sometimes the Confederate government formally addressed abuses by Federal officials in West Virginia, as in the case of Gen. Milroy's punitive war on private citizens in his effort to combat guerrilla activity.

    In his address to the Confederate Congress in January, 1863, Davis stated:

"Recently I have received apparently authentic intelligence of another General, by the name of Milroy, who has issued orders in Western Virginia for the payment of money to him by the inhabitants, accompanied by the most savage threats of shooting every recusant, besides burning his house, and threatening similar atrocities against any of our citizens who shall fail to betray their country by giving him prompt notice of the approach of any of our forces. And this subject has also been submitted to the superior military authorities of the United States, with but faint hope that they will evince any disapprobation of the act."

    Davis' complaint to Gen. Halleck in Washington, Milroy's superior, was able to put the brakes on a few of Milroy's excesses.

    In late 1862 and early 1863 the Federal and Confederate governments became embroiled over the fate of two West Virginians. Partisan Rangers Daniel Dusky and Jacob Varner had been captured and tried for a raid on the Ripley post office and sentenced by a civilian court to 4 years hard labor. Gov. Letcher was informed of the situation and on Jan. 2, 1863 sent a letter to President Lincoln informing him that these men were part of Virginia's official military and should be treated accordingly. After a flurry of paper bullets were exchanged a pardon was issued for both men, and they were exchanged for Federal officers held in Richmond.

    In February 1863 during the 37th Congress Senator John Carlile, Wheeling's own choice for the U.S. Senate, in a last effort to stop the creation of West Virginia, introduced Senate Bill S.531. It postponed the creation of the state until such time as the counties of "Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Fayette, Nicholas, and Clay, now in the possession of the so-called confederate government," were under Federal control. The bill was tabled.

    With the disruption of county government, of course, goes all the normal functions of citizenship, such as voting. The Confederate Congress made it possible for citizens in their armed forces to vote as part of their home districts. On May 28, 1863, it was not only voting day for Unionist West Virginians, about to choose their first state government, but also for Confederate West Virginians, who voted in their congressional elections.