Confederate Broadside: "To the People of Western Virginia." One printed page measuring 6.75" x 13". Following Virginia's secession from the United States, a convention was held in Wheeling, Virginia, to organize a new government and form anew state loyal to the Union. The new state of West Virginia applied for admission into the United States and was formally admitted on June 20, 1863. This broadside was issued at the command of Maj.Gen. William W. Loring from the headquarters of the Confederate Department of Western Virginia in Charleston, Virginia (the capital of West Virginia) on September 14, 1862. It reads, in part: "The Army of the Confederate States has come among you to expel the enemy, to rescue the people from the despotism of the counterfeit State Government imposed on you by Northern bayonets, and torestore the country once more to its natural allegiance to the State. We fight for peace and the possession of our own territory. We do not intend to punish those who remain at home as quiet citizens . . . but to those who persist in