This past week, I had the opportunity to speak at the Civil War roundtable in Wheeling. The talk was held at the Ohio County Library in the auditorium on the lower level and there was a good turnout.

I had a great time speaking to the group. Roger Micker, who asked me to speak, did so about a year ago after one of our Union Cemetery tours and I was honored to do it.

Joining the ranks of presenters who have spoken to the group is humbling as despite my best efforts, the Civil War is something I am not an expert on.

I had spoken to a Civil War roundtable before, once in Charleston, when I was the director of the Historic Craik-Patton House. That historic structure was built in 1834 by James Craik who was the grandson of Dr. James Craik. Dr. Craik looms large in American history. He was a close, personal friend and physician of George Washington, in addition to being his comrade in arms.

Dr. Craik served with Washington from the early days of the French and Indian war in the early 1750s, to the American Revolution, and finally, Dr. Craik was at the president’s bedside at his last illness in December of 1799. As an aside, I would be willing to bet that some of the officers who served at Historic Fort Steuben in 1786-87, and were veterans of the Revolution, knew Craik. Certainly Dr. John Elliot, who served as the fort’s doctor, would have known of him. I love making those connections.

Before the Civil War, the Craik-Patton house was owned by George Patton, grandfather to Gen. George S. Patton of World War II fame.

The general’s father, also named George, spent many happy years of his childhood there. It was, however, the only time he lived with his parents and siblings before the Civil War, which would drastically change their lives. George joined up with the 22nd Virginia Infantry fighting for the Confederate cause, and at his first engagement at Scary Creek in 1861, he was wounded quite severely.

After he recovered from his wounds, he returned to the fighting but was wounded again in May of 1862. His luck ran out, unfortunately, when he was killed at the September 1864 battle of Opequon or the Third Battle of Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. George obtained the rank of colonel, but the Confederate government had promoted him to brigadier general. Unfortunately, the promotion did not make it to George before he was killed.

Here in Steubenville, the feelings were very much pro union. Across the river in Hancock and Brooke counties, the story was a little more complicated.

I like to look at the 1860 election as a good indicator of what the feelings were in our local area. Jefferson County went solidly red. Of the 4,627 votes cast in the county, 2,682 were cast for Lincoln, comprising of around 57 percent of the vote. Ohio, as a whole, went for Lincoln at more than 51 percent, and Ohio’s 23 electoral votes went to him.

In Hancock County, Lincoln barely lost. Of the 634 votes that were cast, 254 were for Lincoln and 262 were cast for John Breckinridge, a Southern Democrat, who narrowly won the county. Brooke County voted overwhelmingly for Breckinridge but did cast 173 votes in Lincoln’s favor.

In the state of Virginia, Ohio County cast the most votes for Lincoln, with 771 votes. Percentage-wise, for Lincoln in Ohio County, 21 percent voted for him, while in Hancock, 40 percent were for Lincoln.

Virginia ultimately went with John Bell from the Constitutional Union Party, and he gained the 15 electoral votes the state had to offer.

In the whole state of Virginia, Lincoln gained 1,887 votes, a little more than 1 percent of the vote in the whole state, and more than half of those votes came from Ohio, Brooke and Hancock counties.

Election statistics don’t tell the whole story, but they do give us a good idea of the feelings of the voters here.

When Virginia seceded from the Union in April of 1861 and touched off by Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to squash the rebellion, the river became the dividing line between North and South, Union and Confederate.

Overwhelmingly though, folks in the Northern Panhandle of Virginia voted to stay with the Union. Ohio county cast 3,368 votes to stay with the union, Brooke, 721; Hancock, 743; Marshall, 1,993; and Wetzel, 790. Of the 20,390 votes to stay with the Union statewide, almost 7,000 came from the Northern Panhandle alone. From those same counties, 611 voted for secession.

At the same moment when Virginia was contemplating her place in the United States, cities like Steubenville were mustering her men. One of the most compelling moments of the Civil War in Steubenville must have been when those first volunteers left the city. The county bell, located at the corner of Market and Third streets, rang nonstop to gather the townsfolk and volunteers for a grand send-off.

Today, the bell is in Union Cemetery. There was a parade down Market Street where the volunteers stopped at the headquarters of the Woman’s Soldiers Aid Society, which today would be east of the fountain at Fort Steuben Park. After speeches by prominent city folks, a flag was presented to the group, along with a Bible from Hetty Beatty, wife of the Rev. Charles Beatty. The group disembarked Steubenville and many never returned.

The first volunteer in Steubenville to join the Union cause was Col. James Collier, a hero of the War of 1812 and first collector of the Port at San Francisco, a post he held from 1849 to 1851. Collier was in his 70s when he joined up.

He made it as far east as Harrisburg until his comrades convinced him that it was better if he returned to Steubenville. He did eventually play a role in defending Steubenville in 1863, when Morgan’s Raiders were in the county.

Collier was given command of between 500 and 600 soldiers to stop the raid.

Soldiers from Jefferson County numbered in the thousands and it is recorded that 20 companies were formed in Steubenville and Jefferson County alone.

In Hancock County, 466 men joined up for the Union cause. Area soldiers took part in many important battles of the war, fighting along with their fellow soldiers to defend their nation.

Many never returned, and those that did made sure to commemorate their fallen comrades with fitting memorials, like the one dedicated to the soldiers of Jefferson County erected in Union Cemetery in 1869.

For these men, life would never be the same. And, for little George Patton, who lost his father in 1864 at Winchester, and his favorite uncle, Tazwell Patton, at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the war was devastating. These brothers share a plot in Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester.

I had the opportunity to visit the grave some years ago of the Patton brothers, and knowing their story and history nearly 160 years after they were killed, it still was poignant to me.

Having the opportunity to tell these important stories at the Civil War roundtable keeps this history alive, and in a small way, ensures that they will endure long into the future.

(Zuros is the director of Historic Fort Steuben)