This account is primarily taken from:
Mylott, James P. (1984) "A Measure of Prosperity, A History of Roan County" Mountain State Press, Charleston, WV,1984.
Additional information was obtained from:
Bishop, William H. (1927) "History of Roane County West Virginia" 1927.
H. H. Hardesty (1884) "Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia" H. H. Hardesty & Co., New York, 1884 .
"The Civil War Battlefield Guide, Second Edition" Frances Kennedy ed., Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1998.
A majority of the delegates to the Virginia General Assembly considered themselves loyal to the Union when it convened in January 1861 and believed a compromise could be reached to save the Union. A committee was formed and tasked with opening negotiations between the Federal Government and the Confederate States. However, President Lincoln refused to acknowledge any legitimacy of the Confederate States. This, coupled with the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 and the Union's forceful response, caused many delegates to shift loyalty.
Virginia Governor Letcher summoned a special convention in February 1861, and on April 18, 1861, four days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, a Secession Ordinance was approved. In accordance with the Virginia State Constitution, the ordinance was to be approved by the voters before taking effect. A statewide election was scheduled for May 23, 1861.
Upon approval of the Secession Ordinance by the Virginia General Assembly, the pro-Union leaders in northwestern Virginia met in April at Clarksburg to denounce the secessionist movement and initiate separation of western Virginia, forming a new, proUnion state. A call was issued to Unionists in the area to attend what later became known as the First Wheeling Convention to be held on May 13-15, 1861, to organize opposition to the secessionist movement. Plans were made for a Second Wheeling Convention in the event secession was approved, as anticipated.
In the May 23rd election, the citizens of Roane County voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederate States, as did a majority of the people of Virginia. However, a majority of the future citizens of West Virginia voted against secession and the Second Wheeling Convention was convened on June 11, 1861. The result of the convention was the adoption of a resolution entitled "A Declaration of the People of Virginia" which called for the Virginia state government to be reorganized with proUnion officials. When news from the convention reached Roane County, notice of a county meeting to be held June 24, 1861 was given.
"A large and respectable meeting of the substantial citizens of Roane County assembled" and minutes of the meeting were maintained documenting the seven resolutions unanimously adopted. The fifth resolution was the most important stating:
"We conceive our allegiance to the State of Virginia to be paramount to that we owe to the Federal Government; as our allegiance to that was result of the exercise of her sovereignty; and now that she has absolved us from that, by the same sovereignty, we hold ourselves as alien to her, and bound only to obey her laws. "
The minutes make no mention of the slavery issue and indicate that the issues at hand were states' rights and the role of the federal government. A delegation was selected to be sent to Lewisburg to protest the Wheeling Convention and the adopted resolutions were ordered to be published in the Charleston and Lewisburg newspapers.
Roane County's concern for and interest in the war is indicated by 334 of its citizens choosing to take up arms, with 229 joining the Union forces and 115 joining the Confederacy.
The Union troops soon began to secure the towns in the area, and in late June of 1861 Federal troops from the 22n Ohio Volunteer Infantry occupied Spencer for a short period of time before departing westward .
Union troops of the 193rd Virginia Militia led by Col. William Pell, a Spencer resident and owner of a large and successful leather goods business was placed in charge of protecting Roane County. The first armed conflict occurred in Spencer during August 1861, occurring in three separate engagements over the span of 11 days. In the first incident, Confederate guerrillas fired upon the town from Tanner's Hill, located in an area presently known as Schoolhouse Hill or College Hill. Union troops returned fire and the Confederate guerrillas fled. Col. Pell ordered the courthouse fortified and windows boarded with two-inch lumber from McKown's Mill. Provisions were gathered in preparation for a prolonged siege. In the meantime, an estimated 400 Confederate guerrillas, led by Capts. George Downs, Peregrine Hays, Dan Dusky, and Perry Connolly surrounded the countryside.
It was at this time that William Pool, helping to butcher a beef near the present site of the Spencer Post Office, was killed by a single shot fired from Goff Hill. Pool, presiding justice for the county, thus became the first war casualty in Roane County.
The second war casualty occurred during the second engagement, in which the Confederate guerrillas were able to surround the courthouse and fire upon it. Sanford "Doc" Boone volunteered to climb into the courthouse cupola to gain a better vantage point for determining the number and position of the besiegers. Shortly thereafter he was shot from a corn patch near the present corner of Church and Main Streets. The battle ended in a stalemate, with the Confederate guerrillas unable to force Pell to surrender. Pell took advantage of the ensuing lull and ordered another fortification constructed on a hill southwest of town, which became known as Fort Hill and is the knoll presently located above Circle Avenue.
The third engagement was a siege lasting seven days. Guerrillas kept the Federal troops pinned down in the courthouse and Fort Hill fortification. The troops engaged in a constant banter of words, with the guerrillas threatening to bring a cannon to bombard the courthouse. The Federal troops saw what appeared to be a cannon with a Confederate flag flying above at daybreak on the fourth day of the siege, but were unable to be certain due to the distance. That night the troops distracted the Confederate guards while a small group made their way to the top of the hill on which the cannon was located. Upon arrival, they discovered the "cannon" was simply a wagon with a log tied on it. The men stole the Confederate flag and returned safely to the courthouse, where they raised the flag over the courthouse privy.
The siege continued and on the evening of the sixth day Mrs. Isaac McKown slipped into town and informed Col. Pell' s wife that a group of guerrillas had been camped near her home (near the present intersection of US Rt. 119 and WV Rt. 36) since the beginning of the siege. The next morning a group of Union troops sneaked up on the still-sleeping guerrillas. killing two and wounding many others. This attack along with rumors of additional Union troops advancing from Ripley, led the Confederate guerrillas to retreat.
In December 1861. Col. John C. Rathbone, commanding four companies of the 11th (West) Virginia Infantry arrived in- Spencer and established a command post in the courthouse. The presence of these troops and the onset of winter led the guerrillas to withdraw from the area. However, the spring of 1862 saw a renewed Confederate interest in guerrilla warfare.
Col. Rathbone sent an erroneous message in early May to Brig. Gen. Benjamin Kelly that the Confederates had captured both Arnoldsburg and Spencer. Kelly immediately sent a large force of Federal troops to recapture the towns. He arrived in Spencer. satisfied himself that all was well. and left for Weston on May 16th• The following evening Confederate Capts. Downs. Hays, and Silcott approached Spencer under a flag of truce. They reported that Brig. Gen. Kelly had sent them to arrange a truce with Col. Rathbone. Rathbone being unable to confirm with Kelly took them at their word and Judge Brown mediated the negotiations. An eight-day cessation to hostilities was arranged, during which both armies were free to travel throughout the area.
Kelly, upon receiving word of the truce, was enraged and sent word to Rathbone to "move at once on them and kill or capture their whole force if possible". Throughout the summer of 1862 the Union forces maintained steady pressure on the guerrillas.
In September 1862 Confederate Gen. Jenkins arrived in Spencer during the early morning hours and deployed his men along the ridge northeast of town, near present day Prospect Street on Alvord Hill, in such a manner to give the appearance of a force two or three times its actual size. Messengers entered town under a flag of truce and demanded that the Federals surrender unconditionally within 30 minutes. Rathbone surrendered without attempting any defense. Jenkins and his men rode into town and claimed it "in the name of Jefferson Davis and the southern Confederacy". The men stayed only long enough to gather the militia guns and burn them on the courthouse square. The Union troops were paroled after taking an oath not to bear arms against the Rebels for a period of30 days.
Jenkins and his men left the morning following the surrender in the direction of Ripley. Once out of sight, Union Capt. Sympson and his men, who refused to surrender and had escaped towards Reedy, returned and regained Union control of the town throughout the remainder of the war.
The movement for the formation of a new state was successful. After finally submitting to the Congressional stipulation that slavery be excluded from the state, final approval was granted and West Virginia became the 35th Union state on June 20, 1863.
Roane County's involvement in the war continued at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain near Dublin, Virginia on May 9, 1864. A large portion of local troops, serving both the Union and Confederate armies, was wounded or killed in what was the largest Civil War battle in southwestern Virginia. Union Brigadier General George Crook led 6,500 infantry and 12 artillery pieces with the aim to destroy the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad connecting Richmond with Tennessee. Confederate Brigadier General Jenkins (who had two years earlier captured Spencer) led 2,400 men and ten artillery and had resolved to make a stand. Following a brisk artillery duel, the Union infantry attacked and the West Virginia brigade, in its first battle, drove to within 20 yards of the Confederate line resulting in many casualties. The battle lasted little more than an hour, but the ferocity of the fighting is evidenced by the 688 Union losses, roughly ten percent, and 538 Confederate losses, approximately 23 percent.
The war continued until April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The last Confederate troops surrendered May 26, 1865 and the war was finally over, having cost the country more than 600,000 lives and approximately $5 billion in property damage.
Following the war, the state of affairs in Spencer during the war was described in
the Weekly Bulletin, formerly published in Spencer as:
"A guerrilla warfare ensured; property was taken, houses burned,
citizens murdered, and all the damnable transactions of war took place.
Spencer was captured by Union forces, and besieged by the Confederates.
For forty days and nights a random fire was poured in upon our beleaguered
town and upon the Federals, who were cooped up in the court-house, praying
for Blucher or Night'. Night came not, neither did Blucher; but General
Jenkins answered the prayer, captured the town and took possession thereof
in the name of the Southern Confederacy and Jefferson Davis ... Bands
of horse thieves, belonging properly to neither of the contending armies,
ravaged the county and killed unoffending citizens. "