Virginia Secedes and Forms Its Armed Forces to Fight the Union

Pursuant to this recommendation, Taliaferro became commander of Virginia’s state forces that very day – April 17, 1861

The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 brought the political tension that had been increasing for decades between the North and the slaveholding South to a breaking point. On February 13, 1861, delegates representing all counties in Virginia met to decide how the state would respond to recent events, especially Lincoln’s imminent inauguration and the secession of Southern seven states. They voted to remain in the Union and hoped that a compromise could be reached to defuse the situation. By the spring of 1861, as secession support progressed, Virginia’s government again called for a special convention to decide Virginia’s position. On April 4, 1861, the convention voted 88 to 45 against seceding from the United States. The desire to preserve the Union changed in Virginia after the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, which resulted in President Lincoln’s calling for volunteer troops to defeat the rebels. On April 17, the Virginia delegates reconvened, this time voting 88 to 54 in favor of secession. Virginia’s joining the Southern Confederacy sparked a radically different war than would otherwise have taken place. If not for that, Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and other Confederate luminaries would instead have fought for the Union.

Virginia having left the Union, it immediately became necessary for it to raise an armed force. The Confederate States Army did not begin organizing until April 27, and it would be months before such an army would be available in Virginia. Thus action by the state to place its militia on a war footing was required, and quickly, as Virginia bordered on the Union state of Maryland and the U.S. capital at Washington, DC, which would be filled with Federal soldiers.

Former U.S. President John Tyler, who was a member of the Virginia Convention and had voted for secession (the only U.S. president of any state to do so), and other convention members, believed they knew the man to organize and run the Virginia militia army. He was Gen. William B. Taliaferro. Taliaferro fought in the Mexican War as a major, then entered public life, serving as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He also continued his military service as commander of a division of the Virginia state militia; he commanded at Harper’s Ferry following the raid of that town’s arsenal by John Brown.

Letter Signed by Tyler, along with 13 other members of the Virginia Convention, 2 pages, no date but almost surely April 17, 1861, and perhaps from the Convention floor, to Virginia Governor John Letcher and his Council, recommending that Taliaferro be appointed to lead the Virginia armed forces. “To The Govr. and Council. Understanding that Maj. Genl. Wm. B. Talliaferro desires to apply for command in the regular army of the State of Virginia, we take pleasure in recommending his application to the favorable consideration of the proper authorities. Genl. Taliaferro served in the Mexican War until its termination and was afterwards appointed as Maj. Genl. by the State of Virginia and we think him entitled to rank high as an applicant for command.” This letter is unpublished.

Other signers included W.P. Cecil, who voted for secession; George W. Richardson, who twice voted for secession; Marmaduke Johnson, who first voted against then voted for secession; Henry L. Gillespie, voted for secession in the State Convention of April 17, 1861; Peyton Graveley, twice voted against secession but ended up signing the Ordnance of Secession; Lewis Daniel Isbell, who twice voted for and also signed the Ordnance of Secession; Walter Daniel Leake, voted for the Ordnance of Secession, Robert Craig Kent, voted for secession; John Critcher, first voted against secession but then voted for it and signed the Ordinance; Samuel Woods, twice voted for secession; James Baldwin Dorman, first voted against then voted for secession; Charles King Mallory, first voted against then voted for secession; and Miers W. Fisher, twice voted for secession. These signatories accounted for some 1/6 of those who had voted for secession, a significant percentage.

The Governor and Council agreed, and Taliaferro became Major General in command of Virginia’s state forces on April 17, 1861, the very day of secession. The next day, April 18, 1861, in what might be Virginia’s first tangible act of aggression of the Civil War, Taliaferro and some of his command were sent to take the U.S. naval base at Norfolk, Virginia. Union forces abandoned the base the next day.

It is quite extraordinary to find a letter so likely from the very day of secession setting up a Confederate state’s armed forces.