It’s possible that this happened in pockets, but the 55 counties in Western Virginia were largely against secession, immediately called a confernce in Clarksburg to discuss severing its ties with Richmond, within two months had declared secession void, and it had declared an independent government by June 1861. The statewide vote for creating a new state was 18:1 in favor. By 1862, it was on its way to statehood.
Granted, this was probably all unconstitutional, but there was never any reason for West Virginia to remain part of Virginia.
Signed,
Knight of the Golden Horseshoe, 1987.
But yet they seceeded from Virginia.
Kinda hypocritical, wasn't it?
It always surprised me, as I studied history in school, how West Virginia didn’t break away from Virginia prior to 1862. Those western counties were always so distinct from the rest of the Commonwealth that in retrospect, it just seems obvious that there was no way to hold antebellum Virginia together, even throwing out Virginia’s secession from the Union.
}:-)4