Overview

An in-depth look at the unique actions of the newly formed state of West Virginia during the Civil War While the taking of hostages by both the Union and the Confederacy was common during the Civil War, it was unique for an individual state government to engage in this practice. The Governor's Pawns examines the history that led to the taking of political prisoners in western Virginia, the implementation of a hostage law by Virginia's pro-Union government in 1863, and the adoption of that law by the newly recognized state of West Virginia. The roots of state hostage-taking took hold prior to the Civil War. Sectional politics between eastern and western Virginia and their local communities, as well as long-standing family rivalries, resulted in the extreme actions of secession and war. Randall Gooden uses genealogical sources to tell the fascinating stories of individuals swept up in the turmoil, including hostages and their captors, freedmen, and government and military officials. Gooden emphasizes the personal nature of civilian arrests and hostage-taking and describes the impact on communities and the families left scarred by this practice. The Governor's Pawns takes readers into the city streets, state and national capitol buildings, army camps, jails and military prisons, hospitals, and graveyards that accompanied the tit-for-tat style of pointedly personal warfare.

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9781606354575

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Reviews

"""The Governor's Pawns: Hostages and Hostage-Taking in Civil War West Virginia is heavily researched and documented by the author. …it is highly recommended to those with especial interest in West Virginia during the Civil War [and] those interested in legal histories and aspects of the Civil War."" —Civil War News ""What especially appealed to this reviewer was the scope and breadth of Gooden's research. …. Beyond detailing the hostages and their experiences, Gooden expands the scope of his work to include the impact of hostage-taking on families and communities, friends, and enemies alike."" —Emerging Civil War ""The Governor's Pawns is an excellent history of a war measure that tested (sometimes sorely) the legal, jurisdictional, and cooperative boundaries between state and federal authority during the Civil War. … Raising the level of awareness, Gooden's work adds significantly to the Civil War literature addressing the delicate balance between ensuring public safety and protecting the individual civil liberties of citizens."" —Civil War Books and Authors ""For those who thought there was nothing left to discover about America's Civil War, this fresh and compelling book will change your minds."" —Ronald L. Lewis, professor and Robbins Chair emeritus in history at West Virginia University ""As a generation of scholars have recaptured the American Civil War's messiness, Randall Gooden reminds us that West Virginia—a border state born out of the conflict—may have been the messiest. In The Governor's Pawns, Gooden reveals how the state government's hostage-taking became more centered on revenge and control, thus splintering communities and bedeviling policymakers."" —Steven E. Nash, author of Reconstruction's Ragged Edge: The Politics of Postwar Life in the Southern Mountains ""Randall Gooden's decades of immersion in the documents on the West Virginia statehood movement inform this valuable work on the tumultuous formation and early years of the state. Gooden recovers the sad, neglected story of Civil War–era civilian hostages caught in the middle of long-standing sectional conflicts in western Virginia."" —John Hennen, author of A Union for Appalachian Healthcare Workers: The Radical Roots and Hard Fights of Local 1199"

Author Information

Randall S. Gooden is a native of West Virginia and professor of history at Clayton State University, where he teaches courses on the Civil War era. He has also served as the assistant curator at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.

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