Rare Civil War-dated Confederate broadside entitled "To the People of Western Virginia," one page, 6.5 x 13, issued by Major General William Wing Loring on September 14, 1862, noting recent victories at Fayette C. H., Cotton Hill, and Charleston, imposing martial law, and calling upon citizens to join the Confederate army. In part: "The Army of the Confederate States has come among you to expel the enemy, to rescue the people from the despotism of the counterfeit State Government imposed on you by Northern bayonets, and to restore the country once more to its natural allegiance to the State. We fight for peace and the possession of our own territory. We do not intend to punish those who remain at home as quiet citizens in obedience to the laws of the land, and to all such clemency and amnesty are declared; but those who persist in adhering to the cause of the public enemy, and the pretended State Government he has created at Wheeling, will be dealt with as their obstinate treachery deserves." In very good to fine condition, with scattered light foxing, and staining to the edges. Along with Nevada, West Virginia is one of two American states formed during the American Civil War, and is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state. The 1861 Wheeling Convention, an assembly of Virginia Southern Unionist delegates from the northwestern counties of Virginia, was designed to repeal the Ordinance of Secession created by the 13 southern states and the Territory of Arizona formally seceding from the United States of America. When their referendum was finalized, the assembly formed its own restored government of Virginia, recognized by the Federal government, and were empowered to authorize the creation of a new state of West Virginia.
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