Read Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided for Free Online

George Porter. “It was the darkest hour I ever saw. Men wept like children. Our country is hopelessly ruined.”
     
    Western delegates had voted overwhelmingly against the ordinance. Now the most vociferous among them feared for their lives. Axe-wielding secessionists stormed the Capitol, toppled its flagpole, and tied the Stars and Stripes to a horse's tail. A lynch mob descended on John Carlile's boarding house as he fled the city. 47
     
    Richmond's “Secession” convention promptly aligned with the Confederate States of America. Western delegates scrambled home to continue the fight. If the Richmond traitors could secede from the Union, westerners threatened to secede from Virginia. 48
     
    Ever loyal to the Stars and Stripes, they talked of a new government and a new state. Richmond had never supported them—this was only the latest slander in a century of eastern tyranny. It was time for citizens of the west to look out for themselves. To protect the helpless and sustain the Lincoln government, they would rend Virginia in two.
     
    Mass meetings were called. A gathering on April 22 in Clarksburg, Western Virginia, brought out nearly twelve hundred people. John Carlile fired up the crowd. The citizens of each county were urged to select five or more “of their wisest, best, and discreetest men” as delegates to counteract the Richmond convention.The “Clarksburg Resolutions” were widely distributed—news of the secession vote at Richmond outraged loyal Unionists. 49
     
    But the sentiment in Western Virginia was far from unanimous. Only days after the Clarksburg mass meeting, “Southern Rights” advocates gathered in that town to endorse the Secession Ordinance. Loyalty was divided even in counties bordering the Ohio River. A Parkersburg newspaper predicted that Lincoln's “treachery” would cause the people of Western Virginia to “repudiate Unionism.” 50
     
    On Monday, May 13, 1861, a convention of Unionists met in Wheeling. It was a proceeding of dubious legality. Attending were more than four hundred delegates from twenty-seven counties. Some had been chosen at public forums, others had been picked by irregular means—even at secret gatherings in the dead of night. The delegates traveled to Wheeling at their own peril. 51
     
    Nonetheless, Wheeling was a safe venue. Located on the Ohio River in the panhandle far northwest of Richmond, it was Western Virginia's largest city with fourteen thousand residents. Wheeling was one of the few population centers in the state with an overwhelming majority of Unionists. It was a major manufacturing hub. Large numbers of immigrant workers gave the city a decidedly northern flavor. 52
     
    The Wheeling convention sparked intense curiosity. Reporters attended from New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and other northern cities. The town was decked out in patriotic splendor—flags by the hundreds waved from the streets. Bands blared as throngs of visitors arrived by steamboat and train in a “spectacle to stir the blood.”
     
    The convention opened at Washington Hall; inside, a large stage decorated with bunting overlooked the eager, fluttering mass. Grafton attorney George Latham was made temporary secretary and recorded debate. The bombastic John Carlile rose to call for action. Ignoring arguments that the convention lacked authority, he sought no less than a new state government to shield the people of Western Virginia from the “rattlesnake flag” of the Confederacy.The convention promptly split into two factions: those advocating deliberation until the May 23 referendum on Virginia secession, and those seeking—without delay—a new state. 53
     
    Carlile spoke as chief advocate for division of the state. A large banner with the inscription “New Virginia, now or never” served as his backdrop. “Let this Convention show its loyalty to the Union, and call upon the government to furnish them with means of defense, and they will be furnished,”