In the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, Mason County's delegate, lawyer James H. Couch (1821-1899), although a slaveholder, voted against secession. Mason County then sent no delegates to the Virginia House of Delegates until West Virginia's statehood, which Virginia's House of Delegates refused to recognize, thus seating James Hutcheson who had been elected by Confederate soldiers in their camp. Meanwhile, William W. Newman claimed to represent Mason as well as nearby Jackson, Cabell, Wayne and Wirt counties throughout the war.Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 482, 485, 488 Mason County sent more than 1000 men to the Union army and one company of 61 men to the Confederate Army (the 37th Virginia Infantry).Virgil A. Lewis's Soldiery of West Virginia (1911, 1972 reprint) p. 223 In March 1863, in the only wartime skirmish in Mason County, during the Jones-Imboden Raid, the 6th Virginia Cavalry and 8th Virginia Cavalry attacked the Mason County Courthouse, where they believed munitions stored, leaving bullet holes in the walls until a replacement was built in 1954.Mason County West Virginia: Experience History and the Mystery (Mason County Welcome Center) p. 8
