Virginia in the American Civil War

A referendum written into the ordinance

On 23 May 1861 qualified voters across Virginia went to the polls to ratify or reject the Ordinance of Secession that the Virginia Convention had adopted on 17 April by 88 votes to 55. The ordinance provided that it would take effect only on approval by a majority of those voting in the referendum.

The reported majority favoured ratification. Governor John Letcher later certified 125,950 votes for and 20,373 against.

The constitutionally eligible electorate was restricted principally to adult white men, so this was not a vote of all Virginia residents.

Totals the governor could not verify

Letcher's proclamation of 14 June acknowledged that returns from several counties were unavailable and supplemented the record with estimates from newspapers and other sources. Later unofficial reconstructions produce different totals.

Opposition was concentrated in parts of western and northern Virginia, although missing returns make the complete western result impossible to reconstruct with certainty. Voting was not secret, and contemporary and later testimony records intimidation of some Unionists.

Ratifying what was already under way

The decisive reversal had come on 17 April, after Lincoln's call two days earlier for 75,000 troops moved many conditional Unionists in the convention. That same convention had rejected secession on 4 April.

By 23 May, Virginia's alignment was largely a fait accompli. State authorities had mobilised forces, seized federal installations, entered an alliance with the Confederacy and allowed Confederate troops into Virginia before the votes were cast.