when did west virginia became a state and why
West Virginia West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions of 1861, after the American Civil War had begun. Delegates from some Unionist counties of northwestern Virginia decided to break away from Virginia, although they included many secessionist counties in the new state.[7] West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the war. West Virginia was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, the first to separate from any state since Maine separated from Massachusetts, and was one of two states admitted to the Union during the American Civil War (the other being Nevada). While a portion of its residents held slaves, most of the residents were yeomen farmers, and the delegates provided for gradual abolition of slavery in the new state Constitution.
Virginia in the American Civil War The Commonwealth of Virginia was a prominent part of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. As a slave-holding state, it held a state convention to deal with the secession crisis, and voted against secession on 4 April 1861. Opinion shifted after 15 April, when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union to put down the rebellion, following the capture of Fort Sumter, and the Virginia convention voted to declare secession from the Union. (In the Western counties, where there was little slavery, pro-Union sentiment remained strong, and they presently seceded from Virginia as a separate Union state, West Virginia.)