The Shenandoah Valley’s Delegates to the 1861 Virginia Secession Convention

I realized that I should have included this with my earlier posts about the vote for secession in the Shenandoah Valley. This is a record of the vote from Virginia’s Secession Convention. Keep in mind that these votes were made on April 4 and April 17 respectively. The public vote on secession did not come until later in May 1861. This information comes from the Members of the Virginia Convention of 1861 which is part of the Virginia Civil War Home Page. An asterisk (*) indicates that the vote of that particular delegate on April 17 was originally against secession, but, for whatever reason, the delegate opted to change the vote to yes. As an interesting side-feature, I have included the approximate age of the delegate at the time of the vote. Of the sixteen delegates with ages known, the average age appears to have been 45.

Name	Approx. age	Representing	4/4/61 Vote	4/17/61 Vote
Baldwin, John Brown	41	Augusta Co.	—	Yes*
Barbour, Alfred M.	32	Jefferson Co.	No	Yes
Baylor, George	57	Augusta Co.	No	Yes
Borst, Peter B.	35	Page Co.	Yes	Yes
Coffman, Samuel Augustus	37	Rockingham Co.	No	Yes
Conn, Raphel Morgan	55	Shenandoah Co.	Yes	Yes
Conrad, Robert Young	56	Frederick Co.	No	Yes*
Dorman, James Baldwin	36	Rockbridge Co.	No	Yes
Gray, Algernon Sidney	47	Rockingham Co.	No	Yes*
Hammond, Allen C.	?	Berkeley Co.	No	Yes*
Lewis, John Francis	43	Rockingham Co.	No	No
Moore, Samuel McDowell	65	Rockbridge Co.	No	Yes
Nelson, Hugh Mortimer	50	Clarke Co.	No	Yes*
Osburn, Logan	49	Jefferson Co.	No	Yes*
Pendleton, Edmund	45	Berkeley Co.	No	No
Stuart, Alexander Hugh Holmes	54	Augusta Co.	No	Yes*
Turner, Robert H.	28	Warren Co.	Yes	Yes
Williams, Samuel Croudson	49	Shenandoah Co.	Yes	Yes

Tagged: Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart, Alfred M. Barbour, Algernon Sidney Gray, Allen C. Hammond, April 17 1861, April 4 1861, Augusta County, Berkeley County, Clarke County, Edmund Pendleton, Frederick County, George Baylor, Hugh Mortimer Nelson, James Baldwin Dorman, Jefferson County, John Brown Baldwin, John Francis Lewis, Members of the Virginia Convention of 1861, Osburn Logan, Page County, Peter B. Borst, Raphael Morgan Conn, Robert H. Turner, Robert Young Conrad, Rockbridge County, Rockingham County, Samuel Augustus Coffman, Samuel Crousden Williams, Samuel McDowell Moore, Shenandoah County, Virginia, Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, Warren County, West Virginia

Posted in: American Civil War, Civil War Memory - General