No Cause of Offence: A Virginia Family of Union Loyalists Confronts the Civil War

Despite the image of a “Solid South,” many southerners stayed loyal to the Union during the Civil War and coexisted uneasily with their Confederate neighbors. In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the Lewises gave “no cause of offense” but did not hide their beliefs, made clear to Stonewall Jackson as he made their home his headquarters. One family member, a delegate who refused to sign the Secession Ordinance, ran an iron furnace that kept dozens of Loyalists out of the Confederate Army.