• Augusta - 3,130 for secession; 10 opposed

• Berkeley - 508 for secession; 1,303 (opposed

• Clarke - 553 for secession; 3 opposed

• Frederick - 1,503 for secession; 359 opposed

• Jefferson - 813 for secession; 365 opposed

• Page - 1,099 for secession; 4 opposed

• Rockingham - 3,012 for secession; 22 opposed

• Rockbridge - 1,728 for secession; 1 opposed

• Shenandoah - 2,513 for secession; 5 opposed

• Warren - 675 for secession; 3 opposed

I find the numbers opposed to secession in Berkeley County particularly interesting.

I have said it before, raw numbers can be deceiving. With that in mind, tomorrow, I'll look at some other items related to secession and the referendum vote in the Shenandoah Valley.

While I can't speak with confidence just yet on the referendum for secession in Rockbridge, I have spent a considerable amount of time looking at a county in the central Shenandoah Valley.

On the surface, the results of the referendum for secession in Page County, Virginia show that 1,099 were in favor and four opposed; seemingly a reflection of overwhelming support for secession.[1]

A review of the Southern Loyalist Claims (aka, Southern Claims Commission applications) for Page County, however, reveals that several men had been reluctant to vote, mostly out of fear of retaliation.[2] Morgan M. Price and Martin Ellis felt that it was not safe to go to the polls with their sentiments. Ellis elaborated that there was too “much excitement” to side against secession. Price remembered, albeit incorrectly, that only one man voted against secession, and that that man was forced to “leave immediately to save himself from the mob.”[3] William H. Sours remained away from the polls and stated that “My sympathies were with the Union Cause. I did not talk much in favor of the Union. I had to be careful how I expressed my sentiment. I feared that I would be arrested if I spoke much.” Both James C. Robertson and Joseph Painter, Sr. remembered that they were too afraid to go to the polls. Painter was “informed that a party was coming out to hang several of us unless we would come out and vote for secession.”[4]

For those few Page County residents who applied for loyalist claims in years after the war, yet had been on record as having voted for secession, most stated that they had cast their votes either under an "illusion" presented by others or under duress.[5] Samuel Varner claimed that he had voted for secession because he was told if he “wanted peace he must vote for secesh.” Martin Hite noted that he had been “persuaded to vote for the adoption of the ordinance.” Joseph Miller simply noted that he was obliged to vote for secession through “fear.” [6] However, anyone who voted for secession, no matter the circumstances, would not receive approval for their loyalist claim. Nevertheless, understanding that the threat of bodily harm kept some men away from the polls to express their sentiment, it is not difficult to believe that some who had voted in favor of secession may well have done so out of fear for their lives or that of their families. Thus, even after Lincoln’s call for troops and the almost unanimous show of public support through the public referendum vote, Unionists were still very much a presence in Page County.

As historian John Inscoe points out, after the “secession process was completed and the war under way . . . the fluidity of the political debate as it had evolved in different ways in different states over the winter and spring of 1860-61 quickly gave way to the hard-and-fast allegiances demanded by two nations at war.” He further goes on to state that “suddenly to be a Unionist made one part of a self-conscious minority viewed with suspicion and hostility, a minority whose very presence threatened the new regime and its cause . . . Those who clung to what had been merely one side of a vigorous political debate were suddenly perceived as subversive and even traitorous, as ‘enemies to the country.”[7] The example of the experiences of Page County Unionists fits very well into Inscoe’s description, especially considering the reign of fear that followed the public referendum vote.

Saint Antipas: The inhabitants of Pergamum dwelt in the darkness of idolatry and in the depths of impurity. They were slaves to their passions, slanderers, bullies, incestuous. He who would seize and kill a Christian was regarded as good and just. The whole of their idolatrous faith consisted of soothsaying, the interpretation of dreams, the services of demons and the extreme excesses of debauchery. Among these slaves of Satan, dwelt Antipas “as a light in the midst of darkness, as a rose among thorns, as gold in mud.” In terror of Antipas, as of fire, the demons appeared to the pagan priests in their dreams and told them that their great fear of Antipas was driving them from the city. The priests stirred up the multitude and they began to torment Antipas, pressing him to deny Christ and worship idols. Antipas said to them, “Then your so-called gods and lords of the universe are afraid of me, a mortal man, and have to flee the city, why do you not learn from this that your faith is in vain?” The saint spoke further with them of the Christian faith as the only true and saving faith, but the people became incensed like wild beasts and dragged the aged Antipas before the temple of Artemis, where an ox cast in bronze stood. They heated the ox and threw the servant of God inside. St. Antipas, inside the red-hot ox, glorified God with thanksgiving. Antipas prayed for his flock and for the whole world, until his soul parted from his exhausted body and went to join the angels and the rest of the saints in the Kingdom of Christ. He was crowned with unfading glory in the year 92.   Antipas, who was but one man stood with such presence of God, in truth and faithfulness. That he by himself (through the Spirit) posed a threat to Satan himself (revelations 2:13), holding the example as one of the greatest Unknowns of the Bible. Mentioned by the Resurrected Christ himself in the Book of Revelations (what honor) in the passage below.  

(Revelation 2:13)"'I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.