Civil War Begins in the Mountains of (West) Virginia

— The First Campaign —

West Virginia, born of a nation divided, was the setting for the first campaign of America's Civil War. Although still part of Virginia in1861, many citizens of the west remained loyal to the Union, rather than the Confederacy. By late May, Union General George B. McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio, launched the first campaign, ordering troops to cross the Ohio River and secure "Western" Virginia for the Union.

Here, during June-July 1861, McClellan's army won the inaugural Union victories of the Civil War. Hailed as the North's first battlefield hero, McClellan was summoned to Washington on July 22, following a stunning Union debacle at Manassas, Virginia. Federal troops now occupied Western Virginia, as loyal delegates met in Wheeling to form the "Restored Government of Virginia," a Union government to oppose the Confederate one in Richmond.

By August 1861, Southern forces again threatened. Confederate General Robert E. Lee attempted to reclaim Western Virginia, but failed miserably. Troops of both armies remained to guard the mountain passes during that terrible winter. By 1862, conflict shifted east. The first campaign proved to be decisive: the western counties under Union control became the state of West Virginia in 1863. The arduous conflict in these mountains forged armies and leaders-notably McClellan, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson-who shaped the course of the Civil War.

"The history of that remarkable campaign would show, if truly portrayed, a degree of severity, of hardship, of tail, of exposure and suffering that finds no parallel."
Col. Samuel V. Fulkerson, C.S.A.

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