Posse Comitatus Act. The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. Â§ 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act â in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807 â is to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
The U.S. state of West Virginia has 55 counties. Fifty of them existed at the time of the Wheeling Convention in 1861, before which West Virginia was part of the state of Virginia.
By my count there are 3143 Counties, Parishes or Independent Cities in the USA. There are a few oddities to be considered. The District of Columbia has no county government. The District was carved from the states of Maryland and Virginia. The Virginia portion was ceded back to Virginia in the mid 1800s.