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
Foreign enlistment in the American Civil War South, as well as the enticement to profiteer from the war by supplying the South, meant that the Confederate agent operated openly from the Globe Hotel in St. George's, while the US Government's consul was attacked in the street and had his flagpole cut down on the 4th of July. Many Bermudians earned fortunes handling supplies to the South, or, like Thomas Leslie Outerbridge, crewing blockade runners. Another prominent volunteer was the Scotland-born, Captain William Watson. Foreign enlistment in the American Civil War Foreign enlistment in the American Civil War largely favored the Union, which was far more successful in