There is a lot of stuff that made it 'complicated'....
The only part of Virginia that had slaves in any numbers was the southeast...
after FT Sumter, the VA Legislature was in recess....the SE politicians called a 'special session' and
went up to Richmond, and with not even a quorum, seceded the state.
Afterwards the Legislature convened and actually to rescind the secession... however
Washington DC had an enemy right across the Potomac, so they invaded Virginia to set up a
safe perimeter defense... occupying Arlington and Fairfax County...
When that happened, the State Mobilized and considered it self invaded.
Robert E Lee would have taken command of the Union Troops until that happened...
He gave his allegiance to Virginia....
The Western Counties of the State were so pissed, owning no slaves or anything else to go to war
over, they seceded from the State of Virginia...by 1863, they formed a new state.. originally called
Kanawha named after the river that goes thru the center of the State, but later changed to West Virginia..
However many people from Western Virginia still fought for Virginia, not necessarily the confederacy.
Traveling around the State it is hard to find statues to Union Soldiers from what is now West Virginia.
but it certainly is no problem finding statues to the local boys who fought for Virginia.
Virginia was so destroyed by the Civil War and all the repercussions that were thrown on it,
decided it was better to remain a separate state.
And those invading troops were stopped at a town called Manassas...the south called it after the creek that
ran thru the area, Bull Run...
as kids in the early 1960s, we were still discovering stuff left over from the two battles there... it was all over the place..
I even remember finding the remains of a cannon, with a couple of my friends in a sand bar on Bull Run, just 1/2 mile
down the dirt road from our school in Yorkshire.
