Communications

Abstract

COMMUNICATIONS To the Editor of Ctvtl War History: In commenting upon the review of my book, A Banner in the HiHs, in the September, 1963, issue I should first like to assure the reviewer, Mr. Richard O. Curry, that I await publication of his study of new state politics in West Virginia with anticipation and a complete willingness to be instructed . At the same time I cannot permit his gross distortion of my own work to pass unnoticed. "Not only," avers Curry, "does Moore argue that an overwhelming majority of West Virginians remained loyal to the Union in 1861, but tiiey urged and abetted McClellan's invasion . . . and favored the creation of a new state." This is not at all an accurate rendition of my statements. First, the adjective "overwhelming" is Curry's—not mine. But even if we accept his own estimate tiiat "40 per cent of the inhabitants . . . were loyal to the Confederacy" I would still maintain that a sixty-forty split is more than adequate to justify my statement "that a majority of the western people preferred to live under the constitution and in the Union." And, far from failing to realize that many westerners were loyal to the Confederacy, on page 84 I say: In many parts of the west the conflict of loyalties brought about a virtual suspension of government. Most of the sheriffs, county attorneys, and judges were secessionists who refused to serve the Restored Government but who were prevented by the loyal men in their areas from exercising their offices under the Richmond regime. As to the aiding and abetting of McClellan's invasion, my actual statement on page 68 is: Eager to avoid the appearance of aggression, McClellan intended that the advance of Ohio troops should appear as a response to the request of the people themselves. Whether there was any genuine desire for such a movement was not wholly clear, and the general determined to reassure himself on this point before crossing the Ohio. For this purpose he sent Lieutenant Orlando M. Poe ... on a reconnaissance along the Ohio-Virginia border. ... He [Poe] reported that the people of western Virginia from the Kentucky line to Parkersburg were disaffected, but that north of Parkersburg they were loyal. In the next paragraph I state that McClellan "was advised that the movement of Ohio troops into Virginia might arouse state loyalty and drive the westerners to secession." Likewise, no allegation is made that an "overwhelming majority" favored the new state. My discussion of the referendum on the new state ordinance is factual and accurate: Voting was extremely light; 22 votes were cast in Braxton County, 32 in Raleigh, 218 and 65 in Tucker. Only seven counties, all in the northwest except Kanawha, recorded as many as a thousand votes. Because of the general turbulence and the difficulties of communication, the returns were fragmentary and overlapping and an accurate tabulation proved impossible. Of 19,189 votes ultimately certified by the secretary of the commonwealth, 18,408 favored division and 781 opposed. Only an extremely biased reader could interpret this as an assertion that "an overwhelming majority" favored the new state! After declaring that my evaluation of the origins of the new state movement is "virtuaUy meaningless" since I show "no awareness of the changing pattern that characterized geographical politics in antebellum Virginia," Curry adds: Before 1830 all of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge stood together in opposition to eastern domination. Between 1830 and 18T1, however, the Shenandoah Valley and trans-Allegheny southwest allied themselves with Tidewater and Piedmont, thus leaving only the trans-Allegheny northwest isolated and alienated from the rest of the state. My own statement on page 1 is that in 1830 the Blue Ridge was the dividing Une between eastern and western Virginia , but by 1860 this demarcation had shifted to the eastern edge of the Allegheny Front. This phenomenon reflected the triumph of the proslave philosophy in the Valley, and the satisfaction of the people there with the constitution of 1830. Through this process of integration "eastern Virginia" gained a province, and "western Virginia" was reduced to a minority status. I submit that this statement does indicate some awareness of...