Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided Read Free Page B

districts. Easterners controlled the government, leading to complaints of an all-powerful “Richmond Junta.”
     
    Little tax money was spent west of the Alleghenies. Urging reform, Thomas Jefferson noted the gross inequities of Virginia's constitution as early as 1782: “The majority of the men in the state who pay and fight for its support are unrepresented in the legislature.” Westerners talked of revising the state constitution—and of carving Virginia in two. 15
     
    Reform efforts led to a constitutional convention at Richmond in 1829. Representation and suffrage were the key issues. Western delegates sought representation on the basis of white population; easterners desired representation based on slave property as well. Led by former Presidents James Madison, James Monroe, and Chief Justice John Marshall, the east granted few concessions. Poor white farmers of the trans-Allegheny were looked on as mere peasants, occupying a niche similar to Tidewater slaves—unworthy to vote.
     
    Shenandoah Valley counties, formerly allied with the west, joined eastern Virginia to protect slave property. The resulting constitution further isolated the west. A Wheeling Gazette writer urged westerners to call their own convention for “a division of the state—peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.” 16
     
    On August 13, 1831, a “wild fanatical Baptist preacher” named Nat Turner and sixty Negro followers went on a murderous rampage, killing more than fifty whites in Southampton County, Virginia. Fear of additional slave uprisings sparked a great national debate. Abolitionists sought to end the “peculiar institution,” yetsoutherners defended it as a right ordained by God. One year later, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson offered a resolution in the Virginia General Assembly to gradually emancipate the slaves. After much debate, it was defeated.
     
    As discontent rose in the trans-Allegheny, Virginians gathered in the “Reform Convention” of 1850. Compromise was finally reached on the issue of representation; all white males over twenty-one years of age were given the right to vote. For the first time, Virginians—rather than their General Assembly and the courts—would elect the governor and state and local officials. Westerners claimed a triumph for democracy, but easterners won preferential taxation of slaves—and prohibition of legislative emancipation. 17
     
    As the convention closed, President John Y. Mason exhorted the members to allay sectional strife: “May you long live to see this ancient commonwealth united and happy at home, honored and respected abroad.” It was not to be. The issue of slavery continued to fester. On the evening of October 16, 1859, it exploded. John Brown, an aging abolitionist from “bleeding Kansas,” led a raid on the United States armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His goal was to arm the slaves and lead them in revolt.
     
    Slaves failed to respond, but the angry townspeople of Harpers Ferry and vicinity surrounded Brown's small band in the armory fire engine house. Brown's raid ended on the morning of October 18 when a company of Marines under U.S. Army Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed his stronghold. Brown was captured and taken to nearby Charles Town, Virginia, to stand trial for treason. There, on December 2, 1859, under tight security, he was hanged. 18
     
    John Brown's raid polarized the nation. Pledging to halt the further spread of slavery, Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. South Carolina promptly separated from the Union, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas in early 1861. The die was cast upon bombardment of Fort Sumter. Virginia now moved toward secession. The Alleghenies, a towering barrier in war and peace, were about to become the flashpoint in a great Civil War.
     

PART I

    IMPENDING
STORM

CHAPTER 1
A VERY GOD OF WAR
    “ There are multitudes of brave men in the West, but no soldiers. ”
    —George B.