The State of West Virginia was a child of the factors which led to the Civil War. Shortly after Virginia’s secession from the Union, Western Virginia adopted the Reorganization Ordinance of June 19, 1861. By the time of its split with Virginia, West Virginia had already become a battle ground. The first land battle of the Civil War was fought in West Virginia. None of the battles here had the excessive casualties which characterized engagements in Virginia and Tennessee. The campaigns conducted here attempted to disrupt enemy communications and supplies rather than destroy armies.  This led to a series of actions which emphasized movement and fortification. As a result, many towns in West Virginia changed hands dozens of times.

Campaigning in the hilly, heavily wooded terrain of West Virginia was a difficult proposition. The poverty of the land combined with the difficulty in maintaining supply lines necessarily kept opposing armies small. Troops suffered from the harsh climatic conditions as well as disease. As with most campaigns of the 19th century, far more soldiers were lost to disease than fell in battle.  Veterans would recall the physical hardships endured in the mountain campaigns as the worst of the war. The following quote by Walter Taylor, aide-de-camp to Robert E. Lee, typifies the West Virginia mountain campaigns.

In subsequent campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia the troops were subject to great privations and to many severe trials- in hunger often; their nakedness scarcely concealed; strength at times almost exhausted but never did I experience the same heart-sinking emotions as when contemplating the wan faces and emaciated forms of those hungry, sickly, shivering men of the Army of Valley Mountain.

1861
The Civil War began when Confederate artillery shelled the Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. Five days later, leaders of Confederate Virginia decided to capture the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry for the southern cause. As southern militia marched toward Harpers Ferry, Union troops set fire to the armory and arsenal, preventing the weapons from falling into Confederate hands. With a loud explosion on the night of April 18, the Civil War arrived in western Virginia. During the war, Harpers Ferry changed hands numerous times. The intersection of two major railroads, the Baltimore and Ohio and the Winchester and Potomac, and its military importance in the Shenandoah Valley made Harpers Ferry a key strategic stronghold.

1863
The state of West Virginia was formed in the midst of the Civil War, America’s most traumatic conflict.

Conclusion
The Civil War has often been referred to as a war of brother against brother and father against son. No other state serves as a better example of this than West Virginia, where there was relatively equal support for the northern and southern causes. Often families were split down the middle over their beliefs on the war. There are many instances of divided loyalties and even of individuals fighting for both sides. During the Battle of Scary Creek, a Confederate soldier supposedly saw his brothers fighting on the other battle lines, decided he was in the wrong place, and changed sides on the spot.

While many historians have traditionally placed the number of Union troops enlisted in West Virginia at a much higher figure than Confederates, more recent studies suggest there were almost as many southern troops as northern. Traditional sources have placed Union strength as high as 36,000 compared to only 7,000 to 10,000 Confederates. At least one recent study has raised the southern number to over 20,000 and lowered the Union figure to about the same. Part of the problem with early studies is they ignored numerous southern sympathizers who fought in militias or as irregulars.

The divisions caused by the Civil War lasted long afterward. These were usually fought out in political arenas but occasionally developed into violence. Military service in the Civil War became a badge of honor, as both Union and Confederate veterans attended reunions and participated in parades well into the twentieth century. West Virginia was the only state to send relatively the same number of Union and Confederate veterans to the Battle of Gettysburg reunion, another symbol of the divided state created by the Civil War.

West Virginia Facts
•    On May 31, 1910, the Supreme Court held that the Maryland-West Virginia boundary was the low-water mark of the south bank of the Potomac River.
•    West Virginia is considered the southern most northern state and the northern most southern state.
•    15% of the nation's total coal production comes from West Virginia.