Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood
Undated
September 1863

West Jefferson, Ohio,
September 7, 1863.

Editors Intelligencer:

We chanced to spend a few days in the Atheneum hospital of your city in a wounded and very week condition, at least, such was our condition when first arriving there. The Union ladies learning our situation came in to see us, leaded with viands, which they spread out before us in such abundance, that we could select the most palatable of the luxuries, and the part we considered the most conducive to health, so that our improvement was remarkably rapid while we stayed there. We do not wish to mention the kindness of the ladies of Wheeling exclusively, for after the rebels left Winchester and the citizens were permitted to enter the hospital, they manifested a great deal of interest in our welfare, and treated us very kindly; the same may be said of the loyal ladies of Martinsburg, where we spent a few days in the hospital; but we have yet to see the ladies of Wheeling surpassed in hospitality and devotion to the Union cause. If such a devotion to the Union was universal throughout the North, what would be the result? Those leading traitors whose only hope of success is in a divided North, would begin to seek refuge in foreign countries to avoid that fate which all traitors to a free, prosperous and happy country deserve. New light dawning upon their deluded followers would cause them to see the error of their way, and to depart from it and come back into the Union and remain peaceful and loyal citizens. Our Union would then be restored to that state in which it was transmitted by our forefathers to their children, after having purchased it at the cost of so much blood and treasure, and in the same condition in which it descended to us. It would then resume its former proud position among the nations of the earth. We, as a nation, in our struggle for self existence, should imitate the actions of those revolutionary heroes, whose self sacrifices and patient endurance of hardships in that noted struggle for liberty, has become proverbial. Our wound is slowly improving, and we hope to be able soon to take our place with our brave comrades by whose side we were fighting when wounded.

J. T. McKinnon,
110th Regt. O. V. I.

Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: Undated: September 1863