“their part of the state had broken off and become West Virginia”
Doesn’t that pretty much lay all these questions to rest?
The creation of West Virginia is interesting and illustrates an important principle in federal law relating to the Civil War, viz., the secessionist governments of the Confederacy were never recognized as having legal existence and the states which they purported to represent, legally, never left the Union. In the case of Virginia, after the Ordinance of Secession was approved state-wide, a rump government was formed consisting largely of the West Virginia counties and some other northern counties that had voted pro-Union. Francis Pierpoint became the Governor of Virginia and established the temporary state capitol in Alexandria, within Union lines. The Pierpoint government of Virginia (recognized by the Union as Virginia’s only legal government) consented to the creation of West Virginia — as required by Art. IV, Sec. 3, U.S. Constitution.