Such a pretext they found in his treatment of Fremont.
The singular episode of Fremont's arrogance in 1861 is part of
the story of the border States whose friendship was eagerly
sought by both sides--Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and those
mountainous counties which in time were to become West Virginia.
To retain Maryland and thus to keep open the connection between
the Capital and the North was one of Lincoln's deepest anxieties.
By degrees the hold of the Government in Maryland was made
secure, and the State never seceded. Kentucky, too, held to the
Union, though, during many anxious months in 1861, Lincoln did
not know whether this State was to be for him or against him.
The Virginia mountains, from the first, seemed a more hopeful
field, for the mountaineers had opposed the Virginia secession
and, as soon as it was accomplished, had begun holding meetings
of protest. In the meantime George B. McClellan, with the rank
of general bestowed upon him by the Federal Government, had been
appointed to command the militia of Ohio. He was sent to assist
the insurgent mountaineers, and with him went the Ohio militia.
From this situation and from the small engagements with
Confederate forces in which McClellan was successful, there
resulted the separate State of West Virginia and the extravagant
popular notion that McClellan was a great general.
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