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Editor's Note: "Countdown to Statehood" is a weekly series highlighting the historical events that eventually led to West Virginia becoming a state on June 20, 1863. This article is the 12th in the series.
In February 1861, a convention was held at Mechanics Institute in Richmond, Va., to discuss the possibility of secession. Delegates had been chosen by their individual counties, based on their political stand. Most of the delegates selected were pro-Union.
The topic was hotly contested for more than a month by the 152 convention delegates who leaned more toward a compromise than breaking with the Union. There was even hope that Virginia's actions in that regard might entice those states that had already left to return to the fold.
Southern states sent representatives to try to garner support to delay a vote they feared could be pro-Union.
Jubal Early, who later became a Confederate Civil War general, was one of the convention's staunchest Union supporters. Early said that "the enthusiasm for secession is short-sighted and likely to lead to war." Early, a Franklin County delegate, thought the voice of the southerners who did not own slaves (the majority of all southerners) were just as worthy of protection as the rights of those who do own slaves (the minority).
Attorney John Baldwin, from Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley, himself a slave owner, compared Virginia's place in the controversy to a lighthouse, and insisted that the state could withstand "the breasting and surging waves of Northern fanaticism and of Southern violence." He further thought that "the Lincoln administration does not represent an assault on Southern liberties, and even if it did, the U.S. Constitution protected them."
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Western Virginian Waitman T. Willey who hailed from Morgantown, reminded the delegates of the longstanding disparity between the rights of the eastern Virginia slave owners and those in the westerners who tended to not have slaves.
The pro-secessionist factions brought protestors to the city to garner support for their side. Former Virginia Governor Henry Wise, a radical secessionist, led the charge to delay the vote until they could strong-arm some more delegates.
When the vote was finally held on April 4, 1861, the ordinance of secession was soundly defeated by the vote of 90 against and 45 for. When the vote was announced, staunch Whig John Jenney cheered. He insisted that "the secessionists are now without the slightest hope of success!"
On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln called on states to furnish 75,000 troops. Included in that quota were 2,340 requested from Virginia to be accepted at Gordonsville, Wheeling and Staunton.
Here is Virginia Gov. John Letcher's response to the order.
Executive Department, Richmond, Va., April 15, 1861.
Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War: Sir: I have received your telegram of the 15th, the genuineness of which I doubted. Since that time I have received your communications mailed the same day, in which I am requested to detach from the militia of the State of Virginia "the quota assigned in a table," which you append, "to serve as infantry or rifleman for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged." In reply to this communication, I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object - an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 - will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.
Respectfully, John Letcher


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When Lou Sorrentino, the football coach at Mountain View High School in Stafford, Va., is asked about star receiver DaeSean Hamilton, he can't help but think back to another of his pretty successful players.
"I was Deon Butler's high school coach at a different school. He's just a gem of a guy. DaeSean's very similar," Sorrentino said. "He's a humble, charismatic guy, a great guy to be around. Maybe even a better guy off the field than on it, and they're great players on the field."
Butler might have been more of a diamond in the rough coming out of Hylton High School, but, if Hamilton turns out to be anywhere near the player Butler did, the Penn State football team might have struck gold with his verbal commitment two weeks ago.
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Like Butler before him, Hamilton decided to play for the Nittany Lions after his Dec. 7-9 official visit. The timing of the 6-foot-1, 182-pound Commonwealth District offensive player of the year caught many off guard, including his coach.
"I was surprised. He was a guy who was kind of waiting. This was his third visit, and he still had a couple of more I thought he was going to take. I didn't see it coming, although he'd been very busy with in-home visits and stuff like that," Sorrentino said. "I think the biggest thing I got out of him was how impressed he and his parents are with Coach [Bill] O'Brien and the staff. That stood out.
"I asked him about the sanctions - I hate to see him be the new guy and inherit some of those punishments - but, the type of kid he is, he said, 'Coach, that isn't going to be a factor for me.'"
Sorrentino said Hamilton had scholarship offers from "anybody I showed his film to." That list included Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Miami, Illinois, Michigan State and Duke.
"A lot of people just thought Tech was going to be the school I was going to pick because of where I went to high school and the people around me there," Hamilton, who could not be reached by the Mirror, told his local newspaper, the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. "But I kept trying to tell everybody I didn't have a favorite and I was going to leave my options open. It was a fair race for anybody.
"I just loved everything that I saw up there. I loved Coach O'Brien. I think he's a real good coach. My family loved him. My family loved the campus, and I just thought it was the right choice in the end," Hamilton added. "At first I went up there as if it was just another visit. I wasn't planning on making a decision, but they caught my eye the most."
Hamilton actually has met Butler, the former walk-on who left Penn State as the Nittany Lions' career receiving leader. Now with the Seattle Seahawks, Butler remains in touch with Sorrentino.
"I went back and was in the weight room and took [Hamilton and some of his teammates] through some cone drills and stuff," Butler said. "He asked me a few questions about Penn State, but most of what I remember was Coach Sorrentino talking about him being a hard worker. Just from knowing Coach Sorrentino as long as I have, I know what he's saying is the truth. He's had a lot of players. He knows what it takes to be a Penn State kid. He told me [Hamilton] has what it takes."
An all-district first-team receiver as a junior, Hamilton, who also plays basketball and carries a 4.1 GPA, finished his high school career with 193 receptions for 2,824 yards and 22 touchdowns. As a senior for the Wildcats, he caught 64 passes for 1,073 yards and 10 touchdowns, although his season was cut short by an injury in the regional semifinals. Even the injury had trouble slowing him down.
"In the regional semifinals, we were pretty big underdogs. We were winning, 14-13, but they had all the momentum, there three minutes to go in the game, we're facing a third-and-20. Everybody in the stadium knew we were going to throw it up to him," Sorrentino said. "He was double covered. He goes up and gets it for a 25-yard gain. He breaks his collarbone on the play, stays in the game, and, on the next series, we have a fourth-and-5, he catches it, breaks a tackle. We kneeled on it after that."
Sorrentino attributes much of Hamilton's success to another quality he shared with Butler: outstanding body control. Butler said being able to twist, turn and adjust to make a play on a pass is an underrated skill that will serve Hamilton well at the next level.
"That's big, especially for the level he's going to now," Butler said. "The athletes are going to be a little bit better. The windows are going to be a little bit tighter. He's not always going to be able to do what he did in high school with 2, 3 yards separation to make the easy catch. He's going to have to be able to come in and out of his breaks to make that separation. You hear that quarterbacks throw the receivers open, but receivers have to have the body control to adjust to the ball."


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Pennsylvania has always enjoyed a rich heritage in the sport of fly-fishing. Our state is blessed with many miles of world-class trout water, and over the past 100 years or more, these legendary streams have produced a small army of legendary fly-fishermen, fly tiers and angling authors. In 1998, a small group of volunteers formed the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum Association with their mission to "preserve and promote the history and heritage of fly fishing in Pennsylvania." Over the past 15 years, the organization has acquired collections of angling artifacts and fishing memorabilia to create worthwhile exhibits of those historical items.
Two weeks ago, PFFMA unveiled its most impressive set of exhibits to date. Housed at the Allenberry Resort Inn near Boiling Springs in Cumberland County, those exhibits honor ten Pennsylvania fly-fishermen who made substantial contributions to the sport. As I moved from one showcase to another, each revealed a new set of fly boxes, books, vests, rods or other personal treasures that belonged to one of those men and represented his influence to fly-fishing. When I reached the end of the display, I looked back over the names above each case and found myself smiling as I realized I had met each of them over the past 30 years and had become friends with at least half of them.
I met Vince Marinaro at a Trout Unlimited conference in the late 1970s. Marinaro was a skilled fly tier, rod builder and author of two classic books, "A Modern Dry Fly Code" and "In the Ring of the Rise." I first met Charlie Fox at that same event when we sat next to each other at one meeting, and I was able to chat for about a half hour. Fox wrote two of my favorite fishing books, "Rising Trout" and "This Wonderful World of Trout," and he signed then for me at a fly-fishing show a few years later.
Ed Koch was another angling author from the Cumberland Valley who gained recognition for his book "Fishing the Midge," which introduced many anglers to the fine art of tying and fishing tiny flies for fussy trout. I first met Koch at a fly show in the late 1980s, where I was tying Muddler Minnows at my booth. That operation entailed rapping a brass hair stacker on the table several times for each fly.
Koch happened to be tying flies across the aisle from me and after a few minutes marched up to my booth and said, "What the heck are you tying over here? You sound like a danged woodpecker?" We both had a good laugh over it, and that introduction marked the start of our friendship.
Through Koch, I later met Norm Shires, a talented photographer from the Cumberland Valley whose work was showcased in books by Koch and others.
Jim Bashline had been one of my favorite outdoor writers since I was a teenager, so I was thrilled to finally meet him when he moved to Spruce Creek in the mid-1980s. I soon become friends with him and his wife. Sylvia, and both were very encouraging to me when I started my own writing career a few years later.
That was also about the time I started working at a fly shop in State College where I got to know George Harvey quite well. Harvey started the renowned Penn State angling program back in the 1930s and probably introduced more folks to fly-fishing and fly tying than anyone who ever lived. I also had the privilege of visiting his famous "tying room" several times, where letters from presidents and other dignitaries Harvey had fished with during his long career adorned the walls among the shelves stacked high with all sorts of tying materials.
Sadly, all six of those great anglers have passed on, but four others of the group are certainly still with us. Ed Shenk is known for some of the fly patterns he developed for targeting big trout. I first met him when he was one of the judges the first time I won the Pennsylvania state fly-tying championship. I fished the Susquehanna River with Bob Clouser about 20 years ago. He is best known for his Clouser Minnow, which he designed to catch smallmouth bass, but that fly proved so incredibly effective that it has probably taken more species of fish in both fresh and saltwater that any other fly pattern.
When George Harvey retired fom Penn State, Joe Humphreys replaced his longtime mentor as head of the angling program. A few years later, he made history by catching a state-record brown trout on fly tackle. During the years I worked in State College, I also became friends with Humphreys and had the chance to see that huge trout hanging on the wall of his den.
I first met Charlie Meck in the mid-1970s while he was working on his first book, "Meeting and Fishing the Hatches." Meck would pen 14 more fly-fishing books in the decades to follow, making him one of Pennsylvania's most prolific angling authors and a nationally recognized expert on mayflies and other aquatic insects. Having known Charlie for more than 35 years, I was delighted to accompany him to Allenberry for the unveiling of his PFFMA exhibit.
For more information about the PFFMA and its fundraising events, visit their website at paflyfishing.org.