What’s in a Name? Secessionist, Southern, or Confederate?

In the spring of 1861, Virginia was in an ambiguous position. Although its Secession Convention had voted to secede, the state had not yet officially joined the Confederacy. During this period, volunteers rushed to form armed companies, regiments, and batteries, sometimes clashing with federal troops and naval ships. What, then, should we call these state forces? While it’s typical to use “Confederate” as a catch-all term (as I admittedly have) it is not, strictly speaking, accurate.

This issue is even more apparent in western Virginia, where unionists counter-mobilized to organize companies for federal service. Here, terms like “state forces” or “Virginia forces” prove inadequate, as two competing governments both claimed to be the legitimate authority in the state. For example, a 1st Virginia Infantry Regiment, organized in Richmond, fought for the Confederacy, while another 1st Virginia Infantry Regiment, organized in Wheeling, fought for the Union (later redesignated as the 1st West Virginia Infantry).

Regiments organized in Virginia during the spring and summer of 1861 often had two separate creation dates, one for state service and another for Confederate service. This timeline is significant. The units that fought in the Action at Philippi on June 3, 1861, were not acting under Confederate authority. Strictly speaking, there were no “Confederate forces” at Philippi on that day.

This distinction was not merely semantic; it had significant practical consequences. On June 6, Virginia Governor John Letcher signed General Orders, No. 25, which initiated the transfer of the state’s Provisional Army and Navy to the Confederate government. However, this transfer was not fully executed until July 1. In the interim, Virginia bore the full responsibility for its forces: the state paid the officers and volunteers, commissioned their ranks, and provided their arms and provisions, all from its own treasury and under its own authority.

The federal government’s perspective, however, was entirely different. President Abraham Lincoln never recognized the legitimacy of secession. Instead, he recognized the unionist “Reorganized Government of Virginia,” which operated on the premise that Governor Letcher and other officials had vacated their offices by embracing secession. Consequently, in the eyes of the federal government, the units paid by the Richmond treasury were not a legitimate state army but simply organized mobs acting in an extra-legal capacity.

Further complicating things, contemporary accounts from northwestern Virginia reveal that both unionists and secessionists often referred to secessionist forces simply as “Southern” or “Southerners.” This colloquialism likely stemmed from the political rhetoric of “Southern rights”–a term used by radical pro-slavery advocates (the “Fire-Eaters”) to justify secession. While historically noteworthy, this term is also ambiguous. Since all Virginians were technically southerners, using this label only adds to the potential for confusion.

So, to be precise and avoid confusion, I make a conscious effort to use the term “secessionist” to describe the units and individuals who fought for the state government in Richmond prior to the transfer of authority to the Confederacy. I use “unionist” for those units and individuals who supported the federal Union and the Reorganized Government in Wheeling. The term “Confederate” is reserved for events following the June 6 transfer order, and consistently applied after the transfer was completed on July 1, 1861.