Seceding from Secession, Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.
Seceding from Secession, Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.
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Seceding from Secession
The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia

Author: Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., Eric J. Wittenberg, Penny L. Barrick

Narrator: David Stifel

Unabridged: 6 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/16/2021

Synopsis

"West Virginia was the child of the storm," concluded early Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran, Maj. Theodore F. Lang. The northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union's thirty-fifth state. In Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, authors Eric J. Wittenberg, Edmund A. Sargus, and Penny L. Barrick chronicle those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of the West Virginia.

President Abraham Lincoln, an astute lawyer in his own right, played a critical role in birthing the new state. The constitutionality of the mechanism by which the new state would be created concerned the president, and he polled every member of his entire cabinet before signing the bill. Seceding from Secession includes a detailed discussion of the 1871 US Supreme Court decision Virginia v. West Virginia, in which former Lincoln cabinet member Salmon Chase presided as chief justice over the court that decided the constitutionality of the momentous event.

About Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.

Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., serves as a federal district judge in Columbus, Ohio, worked as the US Attorney heading federal prosecutions in the district from 1993 through 1996, and since 2005 has been an adjunct professor at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, where he teaches trial advocacy and an evidence seminar.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Raymond on January 09, 2022

This treatise on West Virginia's founding is a bit dry with all the quotation from all the legalese however accurate it may be to its meaning. Otherwise, it gives the sides of the issues leading to Virginia's split and how the players involved acted a dispassionate view. Since West Virginia's split......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on May 27, 2021

This was an interesting book on how the state of West Virginia came to be. The middle and end part has too much political jargon for my liking, but overall, I did love the book on West Virginia's early history.......more

Goodreads review by Virginia A Andrews on March 10, 2021

Thououghly enjoyed this Historic read. Very well researched and a story well told. Once you start reading it is hard to put down.......more

Goodreads review by John Ryan on December 20, 2020

My friend, Federal Judge Sargus warned me that this is a book written by three lawyers highlighting the legal side of the creation just south of us. He lived in an Ohio boarder community, St. Clairsville, for some time before finally moving to Columbus soon after serving as a federal judge for years......more

Goodreads review by Josh on November 26, 2022

This book covers the history of West Virginia's creation during the American Civil War, from Virginia's secession in 1861 and the pro-Union movement in the western part of the state through the Wheeling conventions and debates over the potential statehood that is ultimately achieved in 1863. A few l......more

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