West Virginia in the American Civil War in the context of "Allegheny Mountains"

In the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states or the Border South were four, later five, slave states in the Upper South that primarily supported the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia. To their north they bordered free states of the Union, and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the Confederacy to their south.

Of the 34 U.S. states in 1861, nineteen were free states and fifteen were slave including the four border states; each of the latter held a comparatively low percentage of slaves. Delaware never declared for secession. Maryland was largely prevented from seceding by local unionists and federal troops. Two others, Kentucky and Missouri, saw rival governments, though their territory mostly stayed in Union control after 1862. Four others did not declare for secession until after the Battle of Fort Sumter and were briefly considered border states: Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. They are called the Upper South, in contrast to the Deep South. A new border state was created during the war, West Virginia, which was formed from 50 counties of Virginia and became a new slave state in the Union in 1863 (with, initially, gradual abolition law).

Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains within the state's northern panhandle. It is the fifth-most populous city in West Virginia and the most populous city in the northern panhandle with a population of 27,062 at the 2020 census. The Wheeling metropolitan area had 139,513 residents in 2020. Wheeling is located about 60 miles (97 km) west of Pittsburgh and 120 miles (190 km) east of Columbus via Interstate 70.

Wheeling was settled in 1769 on land contested between colonial Pennsylvania and Virginia, and later grew to become Virginia's largest city west of the Appalachians. During the American Civil War, Wheeling was the host of the Wheeling Conventions that led to the separation of West Virginia from Virginia and served as the state capital from 1861 to 1870, and again from 1875 to 1885. It became a manufacturing center in the late nineteenth century due to its location along major transportation routes, including the Ohio River, National Road, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. After the decline of heavy industry and substantial population loss following World War II, Wheeling's major industries now include healthcare, education, law and legal services, entertainment and tourism, and energy.