The Civil War divided Marshall County. Western Virginian Southern Unionists collected in the Wheeling Convention after the Virginia Secession Convention of April 1861. Jacob Burley's son, a farmer and Whig who also served as sheriff and then local Justice of the Peace since 1850, James Burley had been easily elected as Marshall County's delegate at the Secession Convention. His father-in-law was Bushrod W. Price, who had served as delegate in the Virginia General Assembly. Burley voted against secession during both votes, which caused the secessionists to expel him from that convention, but he later won election to the West Virginia Senate in 1863 and 1867. Marshall County's delegates to the Wheeling Convention included Remembrance Swan (whose son Remembrance M. Swan would fight for the Union as an Iowa volunteer), C. H. Caldwell and Robert Morris. Ultimately, the Wheeling Convention process led to the creation of the State of West Virginia in 1863.