Found per Google search:

As the proceedings began, the general mood in the convention was against
secession. On April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter surrendered to Confederate forces,
and three days later, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 75,000
troops to put down the rebellion. These events convinced the majority of
delegates that the time had come for Virginia to leave the Union. On April
17, 1861, delegates passed an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 88 to 55.
Led by John Carlile, western delegates withdrew from the convention and made
plans for a pro-Union convention.

The names of those who voted in the affirmative are -
Messrs. William M. Ambler (Louisa)

Wm. B. Aston (Russell and Wise)
James Barbour (Culpeper)
Angus R. Blakey (Madison)
George Blow, Jr.
James Boisseau (Dinwiddie)
Peter B. Borst (Page)
Wood Bouldin (Charlotte)
William W. Boyd (Botetourt)
Thomas Branch (Petersburg)
James C. Bruce (Halifax)
Frederick M. Cabell (Nelson)
John A. Campbell (Washington)
Allen T. Caperton (Monroe)
William P. Cecil (Tazewell)
John R. Chambliss (Greenesville and Sussex)
Manilius Chapman (Giles)
Samuel A. Coffman (Rockingham)
Raphael M. Conn (Shenandoah)
James H. Cox (Chesterfield)
Richard H. Cox (Essex and King & Queen)
John Critcher (Richmond County & Westmoreland)
Harvey Deskins (Floyd)
James B. Dorman (Rockbridge)
John Echols (Monroe)
Miers W. Fisher (Northampton)
Thomas S. Flournoy (Halifax)
William W. Forbes (Buckingham)
Napoleon B. French (Mercer)
Samuel M. Garland (Amherst)
Henry L. Gillespie (Fayette and Raleigh)
Samuel L. Graham (Tazewell)
Fendall Gregory, Jr. (King William)
William L. Goggin (Bedford)
John Goode, Jr. (Bedford)
Thomas F. Goode (Mecklenburg)
F. L. Hale (Carroll)
Cyrus Hall (Pleasants and Ritchie)
Leonard S. Hall (Wetzel)
Lewis E. Harvie (Amelia and Nottoway)
James P. Holcombe (Albemarle)
John N. Hughes (Randolph and Tucker)
Eppa Hunton (Prince William)
Lewis D. Isbell (Appomattox)
Marmaduke Johnson (Richmond City)
Peter C. Johnston (Lee and Scott)
Robert C. Kent (Wythe)
John J. Kindred (Southampton)
James Lawson (Logan, Boone and Wyoming)
Walter D. Leake (Goochland)
William H. Macfarland (Richmond City)
Charles K. Mallory (Elizabeth City, Warwick, York and Williamsburg)
James B. Mallory (Brunswick)
John L. Marye, Sr. (Spotsylvania)
Fleming B. Miller
Horatio G. Moffett (Rappahannock)
Robert L. Montague (Matthews and Middlesex)
Edmund T. Morris (Caroline)
Jeremiah Morton (Greene and Orange)
William J. Neblett (Lunenburg)
Johnson Orrick (Morgan)
William C. Parks (Grayson)
Wm. Ballard Preston (Montgomery)
George W. Randolph (Richmond City)
George W. Richardson (Hanover)
Timothy Rives
Robert E. Scott (Fauquier)
William C. Scott (Cumberland and Powhatan)
John T. Seawell (Gloucester)
James W. Sheffey (Smyth)
Charles R. Slaughter (Campbell)
Valentine W. Southall (Albemarle)
John M. Speed (Campbell)
Samuel G. Staples (Patrick)
James M. Strange (Fluvanna)
William T. Sutherlin (Pittsylvania)
George P. Tayloe (Roanoke)
John T. Thornton (Prince Edward)
William M. Tredway (Pittsylvania)
Robert H. Turner (Warren)
Franklin P. Turner (Jackson and Roane)
John Tyler
Edward Waller (King George and Stafford)
Robert H. Whitfield (Isle of Wight)
Samuel C. Williams (Shenandoah)
Henry A. Wise
Samuel Woods (Barbour)
Benj'n F. Wysor (Pulaski) - 88.


The names of those who voted in the negative are -
Messrs. John Janney (Pres't) (Loudoun)
Edward M. Armstrong (Hampshire)
John B. Baldwin (Augusta)
George Baylor (Augusta)
George W. Berlin (Upshur)
Caleb Boggess (Lewis)
George W. Brent (Alexandria)
William G. Brown (Preston)
John S. Burdett (Taylor)
James Burley (Marshall)
Benj. W. Byrne
John S. Carlile (Harrison)
John A. Carter (Loudoun)
Sherrard Clemens (Ohio)
C. B. Conrad (Gilmer, Wirt and Calhoun)
Robert Y. Conrad (Frederick)
James H. Couch (Mason)
William H. B. Custis (Accomac)
Marshall M. Dent (Monongalia)
William H. Dulany (Fairfax)
Jubal A. Early (Franklin)
Colbert C. Fugate (Scott)
Peyton Gravely (Henry)
Algernon S. Gray (Rockingham)
Ephraim B. Hall (Marion)
Allen C. Hammond (Berkeley)
Alpheus F. Haymond (Marion)
James W. Hoge (Putnam)
J. G. Holladay (Norfolk County)
Chester D. Hubbard (Ohio)
George W. Hull (Highland)
John J. Jackson (Wood)
John F. Lewis (Rockingham)
William McComas (Cabell)
James C. McGrew (Preston)
James Marshall (Frederick)
Henry H. Masters (Pendleton)
Samuel McD. Moore (Rockbridge)
Hugh M. Nelson (Clarke)
Logan Osburn (Jefferson)
Spicer Patrick (Kanawha)
Edmund Pendleton (Berkeley)
George McC. Porter (Hancock)
Samuel Price (Greenbrier)
David Pugh (Hampshire)
John D. Sharp (Lee)
Thomas Sitlington (Alleghany and Bath)
Burwell Spurlock (Wayne)
Alex. H. H. Stuart (Augusta)
Chapman J. Stuart (Doddridge and Tyler)
George W. Summers (Kanawha)
Campbell Tarr (Brooke)
William White (Norfolk County)
Williams C. Wickham (Henrico)
Wait. T. Willey (Monongalia) - 55.


      On May 13, 1861, delegates from twenty-seven western Virginia counties
assembled at Washington Hall in Wheeling to consider responsive action to
the Ordinance of Secession. William B. Zinn of Preston County was appointed
temporary chairman of the convention, and George Latham of Taylor County was
selected as temporary secretary.




     An immediate debate ensued over which delegates should be allowed to
participate in the proceedings. General John Jay Jackson of Wood County
favored the seating of all attendees from Northwest Virginia, but John
Carlile urged that the convention be "composed only of gentlemen who come
clothed with the authority conferred upon them by the people of their
counties when they appointed them." Finally, a proposal by Chester D.
Hubbard of Ohio County to create a committee on representation and permanent
organization was adopted, ending the debate.


      After this issue was resolved, the delegates focused on the proper
response to the crisis. General Jackson, Waitman Willey, and most of the
other delegates believed that any steps taken prior to the statewide vote on
the Ordinance of Secession would be premature and "altogether unwise."
Others, however, including John Carlile, sought immediate action. "Let us
act," Carlile stated, "let us repudiate these monstrous usurpations; let us
show our loyalty to Virginia and the Union; and let us maintain ourselves in
the Union at every hazard. It is useless to cry peace when there is no
peace; and I for one will repeat what was said by one of Virginia's noblest
sons and greatest statesmen, "Give me liberty or give me death!"





     On May 14, John Carlile proposed a resolution for the creation of the
new state of New Virginia. Opponents deemed this proposal revolutionary, and
the majority of the delegates supported resolutions offered by the Committee
on State and Federal Resolutions, which recommended that if the people of
Virginia approved the Ordinance of Secession on May 23, western Virginians
would elect delegates to a Second Wheeling Convention to begin on June 11,
1861.


The only way a state can be made from part of an old state is for the old
state to approve it. Virginia would not give its approval, because if they
did, they wouldn't be able to make money by cheating the westerners anymore.
So the state of West Virginia was formed in a very tricky way.

Because the state of Virginia had illegally seceded from the Union -- the
United States had not given Virginia permission to leave and become part of
the Confederacy -- it was decided that a new government of Virginia could be
formed. This new government would be part of the Union. So in 1861, some
western Virginians formed the Restored Government of Virginia, which
belonged to the United States, the North. The North approved of this.

Now this new government of Virginia held a meeting to approve the formation
of the state of West Virginia. This was a very sneaky way for the Union to
gain more land, because the real government of Virginia no longer belonged
to them, but to the Confederacy. But it worked, and on June 20, 1863, the
state of West Virginia officially came into being.

See: ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wv/history/sketch.txt




----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: Secession - West Virginia Style?


> Hello All:
>
> I am having an interesting discussion on another Listserv concerning the
> History of Secession.  (1863 in West Virginia)
>
> Does anyone have information concerning this:
>
> 1.  When the western counties of Virginia (now West Virginia) seceded,
what
> was the role of the Virginia General Assembly?
>
> 2.  Did the citizens of Virginia vote or were they given the opportunity
to
> vote for or against West Virginia secession?
>
> 3.  Did any court(s) rule secession as legal or illegal?
>
> 4.  Any books on the very subject?
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> Regards,
>
> Kristyn Ankrom
> Colonial Heights
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions
at
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>
>

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