Historian publishes WV Civil War book
September 21, 2011 ·
A book by an Eastern Panhandle historian takes a fresh look at West Virginia during the Civil War.
“West Virginia and the Civil War: Mountaineers are Always
Free” by Mark Snell, director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University, focuses on events surrounding the state’s
formation in 1863.
“There’s been no modern study of West Virginia and the Civil
War in almost 50 years,” Snell said.
“And so much archival material, special
collections and other sources have come to light in the last 50 years, couple
with the statistical analysis that we do here on Civil War soldiers at the
George Tyler Moore Center, with all of that new information, I thought it was
time for someone to write an all-encompassing book on West Virginia and the
Civil War.”
Snell says West Virginia is the only state created directly
as a result of the Civil War. Snell said not everyone was in favor of forming
the new state and the enlistment statistics bear that out.
“We know that approximately 20,000 Confederate soldiers
served in the Confederate army that came from within the counties of West
Virginia today, and we know approximately 20,000 Union soldiers came from West
Virginia Counties,” Snell said.
“So we’re looking at really split almost down the middle of
those who wanted to create a new state, serve in the Union Army, those who wanted
to remain part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, serve in the Confederate Army,”
Snell added.
“West Virginia and the Civil War: Mountaineers are Always
Free” is part of a Civil War sesquicentennial book series published by The History Press.