Map confusion - West(ern) Virgina and secession

So I saw this map in this thread and one thing lead to another and now I would like some Virginia experts on here to this up if possible:

Which counties in what is now West Virginia really voted for secession from the United States in 1861?

I've seen maps like this:

Secession_Vote_by_CountyA.jpg


EDIT: and this:

4855-004-AFB1B908.gif


which would imply that large parts of western Virginia voted against secession.

However we then have maps like the one I linked to at the beginning which shows that apparently support for a separate West Virginian state was only high in the northern counties and...umm..."lukewarm" in the rest of the state. ;)

WVStatehoodVote.png


Here it is again but showing the connection between the high support areas and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad:

image007.jpg


And then we have maps like this:

WVSecession.jpg


and this:

5310768666_1ff48ed815_z.jpg


which clearly don't agree with the first map showing the vote for secession by counties throughout the CSA.

So what's going on? Are the maps showing different things (like referendum votes versus convention votes)? And can anyone provide an accurate map of the CSA votes on secession (by county) if the one shown is actually not accurate?
 
Last edited:
I don't have a specific answer to your question, but this map shows a lot of why the border ended up where it did.
 
The problem is that the hard core of Virginia Unionism was those counties immediately nearest the Ohio River and near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border, while the state of West Virginia as it evolved included several counties that actually were either secessionist by plurality or majority. Making this more complicated is that the very architects of the idea of West Virginia did this when they tried to sabotage their own idea. The result was that West Virginia was a very violent and confused place during and after the war and a political mess that really just made things worse without contributing to anything positive. Too, even in areas where Southern Unionism was in the majority there were often also some secessionists in those regions.

This is why the real Civil War is a lot bloodier, messier, and murkier than it's made out to be.
 
Top