West Virginia’s War was the Real War:

Some Myths and Misunderstandings about the state created by the U.S. Civil War

West Virginia’s Civil War story is unique, and it is uniquely misunderstood. While it shares some common experiences with the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, it was unique in that it was the only state created by the conflict. Questions remain about why Virginia’s northwest separated from the Old Dominion after it joined the Confederacy. And in older, traditional military histories of the Civil War, West Virginia is viewed as a sideshow to the real war, to the point where maps of the conflict often don’t assign it to a “theater” of war. This talk will explore some of the central questions about why West Virginia’s separation came to be, what role events in the region had in influencing the outcome of the larger conflict, and why West Virginian’s today still harbor ambiguous feelings about the state’s birth in wartime.  

William Kerrigan is Professor Emeritus of History at Muskingum University in New Concord Ohio. His most recent book is West Virginia’s War: The Civil War in Documents. (Ohio University Press, June 2025) He will have copies available for sale at the talk.