The Governor's Pawns
eBook - ePub

The Governor's Pawns

Hostages and Hostage-Taking in Civil War West Virginia

  1. 272 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Governor's Pawns

Hostages and Hostage-Taking in Civil War West Virginia

About this book

An in-depth look at the unique actions of the newly formed state of West Virginia during the Civil War

While the taking of hostages by both the Union and the Confederacy was common during the Civil War, it was unique for an individual state government to engage in this practice. The Governor's Pawns examines the history that led to the taking of political prisoners in western Virginia, the implementation of a hostage law by Virginia's pro-Union government in 1863, and the adoption of that law by the newly recognized state of West Virginia.

The roots of state hostage-taking took hold prior to the Civil War. Sectional politics between eastern and western Virginia and their local communities, as well as long-standing family rivalries, resulted in the extreme actions of secession and war. Randall Gooden uses genealogical sources to tell the fascinating stories of individuals swept up in the turmoil, including hostages and their captors, freedmen, and government and military officials. Gooden emphasizes the personal nature of civilian arrests and hostage-taking and describes the impact on communities and the families left scarred by this practice.

The Governor's Pawns takes readers into the city streets, state and national capitol buildings, army camps, jails and military prisons, hospitals, and graveyards that accompanied the tit-for-tat style of pointedly personal warfare.

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Yes, you can access The Governor's Pawns by Randall S. Gooden in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & American Civil War History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Halftitle Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction
  8. Chapter 1: The Roots of Division and Animosity in Virginia and West Virginia, 1787–1861
  9. Chapter 2: Pro-Union Virginia and the Move toward Hostage-Taking, 1861–63
  10. Chapter 3: Judge George W. Thompson, Governor Pierpont, and the First Hostage Case
  11. Chapter 4: The New State and Hostage-Taking after the Jones-Imboden Raid of 1863
  12. Chapter 5: Hostage Politics in Barbour County in 1863
  13. Chapter 6: Guerrillas and Retribution in Gilmer and Doddridge Counties, 1863–64
  14. Chapter 7: Rebel Rangers, Union Scouts, and Hostages on the South Branch
  15. Chapter 8: The Plight of Southwestern West Virginia in 1864
  16. Chapter 9: The Union League Raid in Berkeley Springs in 1864
  17. Chapter 10: Governor Boreman and George Buchanon
  18. Epilogue: The Endgame
  19. Appendix: A Chronology of Hostages and Hostage-Taking in Civil War Western Virginia and West Virginia
  20. Notes
  21. Bibliography
  22. Index