West Virginia in the American Civil War West Virginia in the American Civil War The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War (see History of West Virginia), in which it became the only state to declare its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops, which included a number of newly-formed Unionist "Virginia" regiments under General George McClellan, drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as
Irish Americans in the American Civil War American Civil War as a war to free the slaves and thus blamed them for the draft, as well as the war. Many black people were caught by the mob, stabbed, and lynched as a result. When the riots started, the New York State Militia were absent because they had been sent to assist regular Union troops repelling General Lee's Confederate Army in Pennsylvania, thus leaving the New York City Police Department as the only serious force available to put down the riot. The city police were unable to halt a crowd which was ten times more numerous, and the