How Did Virginia’s Governors Respond to Secession?

While staunch unionists were rare among Virginia’s political class, opinions differed on the secession question. The events of early 1861, however, would push nearly all of them into the same camp.

When the Civil War broke out, Virginia had one sitting governor and eight living ex-governors. All owned slaves, though their opinions on slavery and secession differed. When a decision was finally reached for Virginia to secede, however, all lined up behind it.

This fact is important in understanding public perception during this pivotal period of Virginia history. While most of these men no longer held any formal office, they remained respected members of their community, and their opinions and actions influenced others.

What if, for example, all these men (or most of them) had steadfastly refused to support secession and encouraged their peers to actively resist it? The events of April and May 1861 may have gone very differently.

Ex-governor Henry A. Wise, for example, organized the seizure of Harpers Ferry Arsenal behind the sitting governor’s back, and his words and actions at the Secession Convention pushed many delegates to switch sides. Most of these prominent men were outraged at Lincoln’s call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion in the Deep South. If his peers had instead supported the president’s call, would Wise have acted so rashly, knowing he risked public censure or even arrest?

The following is a list of living Virginia governors in 1861, their age, political affiliation, careers, and summary of their views on slavery, secession, and support for the Confederacy. Of the eight ex-governors, three were onetime senior members of the Governor’s Council and served as acting governor for a year or less. The Governor’s Council was abolished in 1851.

• John Tyler (1790–1862) 71y – Democrat / Independent and slaveholder. Viewed slavery as morally wrong, but never freed his own slaves. Served as governor from 1825 to 1827. Went on to serve as a U.S. Senator and became the tenth president of the United States. In February 1861, Virginia Governor John Letcher and he organized a peace conference in Washington DC, hoping to stave off war, but the effort failed. As delegate to the Richmond Convention, he voted in favor of secession twice. After Virginia joined the Confederacy, he was elected to represent Virginia in the Provisional Confederate Congress.
• Wyndham Robertson (1803–1888) 58y – Whig. Acting governor for one year. Slave owner and politician from Richmond. Initially opposed secession but supported it after Lincoln’s call for troops. Served in the state legislature during the war.
• John Rutherfoord (1792–1866) 69y – Democrat. Owned nine slaves according to the 1860 census. State delegate and acting governor for one year. Businessman and politician from Richmond. As a young man, Rutherfoord served as captain of the Richmond Fayette Artillery. His son served in the 10th Virginia Cavalry during the Civil War. I couldn’t find anything about his opinion concerning secession, but in this 1864 letter to his son he refers to Union forces as “the enemy”.
• John Munford Gregory (1804–1884) 57y – Whig. Owned nine slaves according to the 1860 census. Acting governor for one year. Judge and state politician from Charles City County. Later moved to Richmond and became Virginia’s Commonwealth Attorney. During the Civil War, his son, Dr. William Thomas Gregory, was an assistant surgeon in the 13th Virginia Cavalry.
• William Smith (1797–1887) 64y – Democrat and slave owner. Lawyer, 30th and 35th Governor of Virginia, and U.S. Congressman. Served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, wounded in battle, and was elected governor a second time in 1864. He was an ardent secessionist.
• John B. Floyd (1806–1863) 55y – Democrat and slave owner. 31st Governor of Virginia and later U.S. Secretary of War. Publicly opposed to secession but suspected to have taken actions as Secretary of War to support it. Served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army.
• Joseph Johnson (1785–1877) 76y – Democrat. Owned 11 slaves in 1860. As governor, Johnson stirred controversy by commuting the sentence of a slave who struck and killed his overseer while being beaten. Johnson was a strict constructionist who opposed secession on pragmatic grounds. When Lincoln called for troops, however, he changed his mind and supported the Confederacy, though he was too old to actively aid the cause.
• Henry A. Wise (1806–1876) 55y – Democrat and slaveholder. 33rd Governor of Virginia and U.S. Representative. Ardent secessionist and served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. As ambassador to Brazil, he vocally opposed Brazil’s continued participation in the international slave trade.
• John Letcher (1813–1884) 48y – Democrat. Former U.S. Representative and 34th Governor of Virginia (in office 1860-1864). Despite owning six slaves in 1860, Letcher argued in favor of gradual emancipation. Equivocating on secession, he opposed radical secessionists but maintained that Virginia had the right to secede. Once Virginia seceded, he served as a wartime governor and aided the Confederate cause.

Since none of these men was a committed unionist, they broadly fell into two camps: pro-secession (aka “fire eaters”) and moderates. Moderates initially opposed secession but changed their mind when President Lincoln called for troops to suppress the rebellion. A third category can be assigned to men who either focused on domestic affairs during the war or whose opinion couldn’t be determined.

“Fire Eater”	Moderate	Neutral/Unknown
John Tyler William Smith * John B. Floyd * Henry A. Wise *	Wyndham Robertson Joseph Johnson John Letcher	John Rutherfoord John Munford Gregory

Because there were no staunch unionists among Virginia’s most prominent political leaders in 1861, it was easy for the secessionists to pull the moderates to their side of the aisle. Each of these men was deeply embedded in Virginia’s political aristocracy and risked much if he went against the prevailing sentiment.