In the border states there was a widespread concern with the military coercion of the Confederation. Many, if not most, opposed it. When Abraham Lincoln called the troops to march south to retrieve Fort Sumter and other national belongings, the Southern Unionists were dismayed. Secessionists in Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia got those states to separate from the US. and join the Confederate States of America.
In Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, they were both in favor of the Confederation and in favor of the Union. West Virginia was formed in 1862-63 after unionists from the counties of northwest Virginia, then occupied by the Union Army, had established a loyal ("restored") government of the state of Virginia. Lincoln recognized this government and allowed them to divide the state. Although all the states, except the South Carolina slavery, contributed white battalions to the Union and the Confederate armies (Unionists of South Carolina fought in units of other states of the Union), the break was more severe in these border states. 4 Sometimes men from the same family fought on opposite sides. Nearly 170,000 men from the border states (including African-Americans) fought in the Union army and some 86,000 in the Confederate army.
Ultimately, Lincoln intended that these border states remain in the Union, in order to provide a bit of balance between the north and the south and thus be able to continue.
