U.S. Data Repository -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: Chapter XVIII,THE WAR OF THE REBELLION-- DIVISION OF THE STATE. ETC. After the events related in the sixteenth chapter nothing of great interest transpired in the county for, several years. The War of the Rebellion, which broke out in 1861, attracted the attention of citizens to other scenes than the comparatively insignificant things that were happening in Marion, and many of those who were fit for service enlisted in the conflict either upon one side or upon the other. Those whose sympathies were with the South (and they comprised a large number of the most prominent men in the county) left their farms and houses and joined the Confederate Army--many taking with them their families, and leaving their property to be confiscated by the Government. After the close of the war the majority of them returned, while a few remained in the South, having taken up their permanent residence there. During the four years struggle which followed the passage of the Ordinance of Secession in Virginia, Marion county furnished many brave soldiers for both sides. Some left home never to return alive, and their bones lie in the fields of the Sunny South, or upon the mountains and in the valleys of their native State. Others returned battle-scarred veterans, and have lived to see the chasm, which divided the opposing hosts, bridged, and to forgive and try to forget the bitter past. Men who for four long years fought upon opposite sides--each striving for what he conceived to be the right--now, as in days of old, partake of one another's hospitality, and calmly and good-naturedly discuss their political differences of the past and of the present. The county of Marion fortunately was not embraced in that part of Virginia which was so long the seat of active war; consequently her citizens were in a measure spared the terrible scenes which were enacted in other portions of the State. The only event of any special interest which transpired within the county was the raid of the Confederate General Jones on the 29th of April, 1863. The principal object of the raid, which was extended throughout the State--was to destroy property and obtain for the Confederate Army horses and provision. On the morning of the day above mentioned the army entered Fairmont and proceeded at once to take possession of the town. The railroad bridge, mentioned in former chapter, which crosses the Monongahela one mile above Fairmont, was destroyed, and at this place the Confederates had a short skirmish with a company of Union men. There was also considerable skirmishing during the entire day in and around the town. It was the intention of the Confederates to burn the suspension bridge between Palatine and Fairmont, but the idea was finally abandoned. Governor F. H. Pierpoint was at this time the Union Governor of the State, and his home being in Fairmont, it was sought out by the raiders and his library taken from the house and burned in the street. The arrival of Mulligan's Union battery in the evening was too late to do effective service, for Jones and his men had taken their departure. This was the nearest Marion county came during the war of having anything like a battle within her borders. In the skirmishes during the day several men on both sides were wounded, but none were killed. As this county is within the limits of what is now the State of West Virginia, It is proper to give in this connection a brief account of the formation of the State, which occurred in 1863, and the causes which led to it. For many years before the adoption of the new constitution of 1852 there had been considerable dissatisfaction among some of the best men of Virginia on the subject of equal representation, and threats of dividing the State had been made by those of the western portion. This alarmed the eastern men, and in 1847 they passed in the Legislature an act making it treason for any person to instigate others to establish a usurped government within the State. Any person so doing, either by writing or speaking, were liable to be confined in jail not exceeding twelve months, and fined not exceeding one thousand dollars. This law was intended to suppress the discussion of the subject of a division of the State. In order to satisfy the people of the west on the subject of equal representation, the constitutional convention of 1851-2 fixed the basis of representation in the House of Delegates on the population. This gave the western part of the State a majority in the House; but in the Senate the representations were still by districts, and some of the districts of western Virginia, with populations of from fifty to sixty thousand were represented by one Senator--no more than the districts in tidewater with populations of less than twenty thousand each. The westerners, in order to procure this compromise from the east, were obliged to consent to a clause in the constitution to the effect that all slaves under the age of twelve years should not be taxed, and all over that age were to be valued at three hundred dollars for the purposes of taxation. This produced great dissatisfaction in the west. They had but few slaves and the constitution provided that all other property should be taxed ad valorum--so that a pig or a calf, a month old on the first day of February, was taxed at full value, while young negroes were not taxed. The constitution did not prohibit the taxing of incomes and salaries, and the Legislature taxed incomes of over one thousand dollars at two percent, while negroes were taxed at forty cents on the hundred dollars; so to give an extreme case, a merchant's clerk with a salary of eleven hundred dollars; paid twenty-two dollars tax, and a negro valued at three hundred dollars, paid one dollar and twenty cents--the clerk paying as much as about fifteen slaves. The slaves might be hired out at two hundred and fifty dollars a year, and thereby yield their master an income of nearly four thousand dollars, but this income was not taxed because the slave had already been taxed. These inequalities of taxation produced, as above mentioned, great dissatisfaction. It was oppressive, and prepared the minds of the people to throw off the yoke at the first opportunity. The war gave them this opportunity, and they took advantage of it. The Union citizens of the State called a convention composed of the members elected to the General Assembly, on the fourth Thursday of May, 1861, and in addition thereto, doubled the number of delegates that each county was entitled to in the popular branch of the Legislature. The Capital of the State, being in the hands of the Secessionists, the convention assembled at Wheeling on the 11th of June, 1861, to take into consideration what was best to be done for Virginia. The convention declared the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General vacant, (because the incumbents had joined the Confederacy) and proceeded to elect officers to fill their places for the term of six months, until their successors should be duly elected. Francis H. Pierpoint, of Fairmont, was chosen Provisional Governor, and at the expiration of the term named he was regularly elected Governor of what was known as the "Restored Government of Virginia." After the State was divided Pierpoint removed the seat of Government from Wheeling to Alexandria. On the 20th of June, 1863, West Virginia was made a State. It passed through the forms of legislation prescribed in the Constitution of the United States for the formation of a new State, and was made one of the States of the Union. Thus were the threats of the past fully carried out, and the erection of the State of West Virginia was not altogether one of the results of the rebellion, but of oppression in the days previous to the Rebellion. Wheeling was made the temporary Capital, and the business of the new State was immediately entered upon, with Arthur I. Boreman as Governor.