Why did Virginia reject secession in early 1861, only to join the Confederacy weeks later? Addresses by Governor John Letcher and his unionist rival, governor of the Restored Government of Virginia, Francis H. Pierpont, reveal how the outbreak of the Civil War divided Virginians over whether loyalty to their state meant leaving the United States…
Continue reading ➞ Letcher and Pierpont on Virginia’s Road to Secession
On January 7, 1861, with South Carolina declaring itself out of the Union and Abraham Lincoln not yet in office, Virginia Governor John Letcher addressed the General Assembly on the growing sectional crisis. He blamed Northern hostility to slavery for undermining constitutional obligations and destroying trust between the sections. “For the present condition of public…
On November 15, 1860, Virginia Governor John Letcher called a special session of the state’s general assembly to convene at the capitol in Richmond on Monday, January 7, 1861. When senators and delegates took their seats, President-elect Abraham Lincoln had not yet assumed office, and only South Carolina had declared its secession. Mississippi, Florida, and…
Continue reading ➞ Virginia’s Anti-Coercion Resolution, January 7, 1861
Following the April 17 secession vote at the convention in Richmond, former Virginia governor Henry A. Wise, leader of the secessionist faction, retired to his home at Rolleston Hall outside Norfolk, afflicted with illness and exhaustion. Laid up in bed, he dispatched a flurry of letters requesting offices in the Confederate government for his friends…
Continue reading ➞ Letter from Henry A. Wise to Thomas P. McCandlish, May 26, 1861
This past week, I joined Chris Mackowski of Emerging Civil War to discuss events along the upper Potomac River in Virginia in 1861. From the description: "Throughout 1861, the front along the Potomac River in northern Virginia presented a kaleidoscope of ever-shifting military, political, logistical, and social dynamics. M.A. Kleen of Spirit61.info joins the Emerging…
Continue reading ➞ Let’s Discuss Virginia 1861 on the Emerging Civil War Podcast
Though seldom remembered today, former Virginia governor Henry A. Wise played a key role in aligning Virginia with the Confederacy. He served as a Confederate general throughout the war, lost his eldest son, and surrendered with Lee at Appomattox Court House. A (sometimes reluctant) secessionist, he was nevertheless not an enthusiastic supporter of slavery, despite…
Continue reading ➞ When and How Did Henry A. Wise Enter the Fight?
As secession divides West Point’s cadets, Class of ’61 follows fractured friendships from the academy to the battlefield at Bull Run. But how well does its sprawling fictional drama capture the historical upheaval of the Civil War’s opening months? Written by Jonas McCord, directed by Gregory Hoblit, and produced by Steven Spielberg, Class of ’61…
Continue reading ➞ Class of ’61: Civil War History Lost in a Tangled Drama
In July 1861, Francis H. Pierpont defended the unionist government at Wheeling as Virginia’s lawful authority and denounced secession as a conspiracy that sacrificed the state to Confederate interests. His extraordinary-session address reveals how loyal Virginians made a constitutional, economic, and political case for restoring Virginia to the Union. On June 20, 1861, in Wheeling,…
Our previous map of the Chesapeake Front was, to put it bluntly, atrocious. But thanks to the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) and U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line files, I was able to obtain a shape file of Virginia with historical county boundary lines. I did have to do some editing, particularly around Sewell's Point,…
The release of Battlelog 1.7 represents a major milestone: narratives for all 39 military actions in Virginia and West Virginia from May through July 1861 have been completed and revised with the most accurate and up-to-date information on what happened, where, when, and why. So what's next for our encyclopedia? Well, we have the military…
Continue reading ➞ All 39 Battle Narratives Have Been Updated – Now What?
