Confederate Dead

In Mercer County, Virginia, now West Virginia, honor was given to Confederate soldiers from local cavalry, infantry, militia, battery, reserve, provost guard, and sharpshooter units, along with all at home who sacrificed for the cause. The account praises Mercer County’s men as loyal, fearless defenders whose devotion to Virginia taught future generations truth, courage, and patriotism. It presents the county’s entry into the Civil War in 1861–1865 as a determined effort to defend Virginia’s soil from a threatened Northern invasion, preserve rights and liberties, and uphold primary allegiance to the state over the federal government. It says they stood ready to surrender their lives and everything but honor, fought to the finish, and yielded only to overwhelming force, while the principles for which they battled remained sacred even though the effort to establish them by war failed.

Princeton, West Virginia · United States