West Virginia counties had already supplied soldiers for the Confederates
when the new State was organized in 1861. As early as May, 1861, Colonel
B. F. Kelley was in the field with the First West Virginia Infantry
marshalled under the Stars and Stripes. He served to the end of the war
and was brevetted major-general. West Virginia furnished thirty-seven
organizations of all arms to the Federal armies, chiefly for local defense
and for service in contiguous territory. General Kelley was prominent in
the Shenandoah campaigns.
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