What events during the Civil War led to the creation of West Virginia in 1863?
Executive summary
The creation of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, resulted from wartime political maneuvering by Unionist western Virginians who rejected Virginia’s 1861 secession, set up a “Restored Government of Virginia” at Wheeling, and secured Congressional approval and a conditioned statehood bill after a state constitutional convention and a ratified amendment on gradual emancipation (admission proclaimed June 20, 1863) [1] [2] [3]. Key proximate events include the Wheeling conventions and the Restored Government’s consent to partition, Congressional passage of an admissions act in late 1862, and President Lincoln’s proclamation making statehood effective in June 1863 [4] [2] [5].
1. “Wheeling Rebels”: local refusal to accept Richmond’s secession
When Virginia’s government voted to secede in April 1861, majorities in many northwestern counties opposed leaving the Union; delegates from those counties convened in Wheeling and organized alternative government structures that declared the Richmond ordinance of secession void and established the “Restored Government of Virginia” under Francis H. Pierpont [1] [4] [6]. That rump government claimed to be the legitimate Virginia government and used that claim to give legal cover for creating a new state from Virginia territory [7] [8].
2. Military control shaped politics: Union occupation made statehood possible
Union troops rapidly secured much of the trans‑Allegheny region in 1861 and kept key transportation lines (notably the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad) under Union protection—military control of these counties made the Wheeling government’s authority practical and allowed the constitutional process for state creation to proceed while large portions of Virginia remained under Confederate control [9] [10] [11]. Several accounts emphasize that the new state’s formation occurred “with Union forces in control of, or Confederate forces absent from, the areas in question” [10].
3. Constitutional and legal work: conventions, a new constitution, and the Willey amendment
Between late 1861 and early 1863 the pro‑Union counties held conventions, elected delegates, and drafted a proposed state constitution (initially calling the new polity Kanawha). Voters approved the constitution and in 1863 ratified a revision—the Willey Amendment—adding a plan for gradual emancipation that Congress required as a condition of admission [4] [9] [2]. The archives note that West Virginia ratified the revised constitution on March 26, 1863, and Congress put conditions on admission that were met before Lincoln’s proclamation [2].
4. Congress, Lincoln, and the unusual admissions path
Admission was legally unusual: under Article IV, Section 3 the creation of a new state from an existing state requires consent of the original state’s legislature. The Wheeling Restored Government purported to give that consent; Congress debated and passed an act for admission in December 1862 (with conditions), the Senate and House acted at separate times, and President Lincoln issued a proclamation setting West Virginia’s admission to take effect 60 days after April 20, 1863—formally making West Virginia the 35th state on June 20, 1863 [2] [5] [7]. Some modern accounts and scholars continue to debate the constitutional technicalities of this route, and contemporaneous Confederate and Richmond authorities rejected the new state as illegitimate [10] [9].
5. Local divisions and contested borders: loyalties split and counties disputed
Even within the area that became West Virginia loyalties were mixed—many men from the trans‑Allegheny counties fought for the Union, but significant numbers joined Confederate forces, and guerrilla violence and raids continued (e.g., Romney, Jones‑Imboden) [9] [10]. The status of Berkeley and Jefferson counties remained contested; they voted to join West Virginia in early 1863, a choice that required separate handling in Congressional and legal records [2] [5].
6. Longer causes: sectional politics, representation, and economic differences
Histories repeatedly stress that the split predated the war: western Virginians had long complained about eastern dominance in the Virginia legislature, unequal political representation tied to property and slaveholding, and disputes over internal improvements—grievances that made western counties receptive to separation once the secession crisis arrived [3] [12] [13]. The Civil War accelerated and made practicable a separation that had roots in decades of sectional politics [3].
7. What sources agree on — and what remains debated
Contemporary records, state encyclopedias, and federal archives agree on the timeline: Wheeling conventions and the Restored Government, a constitutional convention and ratification (including the Willey amendment), Congressional acts and Lincoln’s proclamation, and statehood effective June 20, 1863 [4] [2] [1] [3]. What remains debated in scholarship is the strict constitutional legitimacy of creating a state from another while that original state was in rebellion; some sources characterize West Virginia’s birth as “outside the bounds of constitutional legality,” while federal actions ultimately affirmed its statehood [10] [7].
Limitations: available sources do not mention detailed vote counts for every county in the 1861–63 referenda in this set, and deeper archival arguments over constitutional clause punctuation are discussed but not resolved here [4] [10].