Over many years, many have opined about the reason or reasons of the Civil War. Rarely has anyone gone into the issue as well as Larry Marshall, of Nottoway.

His research is the basis for this week’s column.

He found that history books have misrepresented Virginia’s position in the 1860s. Those books should not have painted all of the southern states with the same broad brush.

While South Carolina and Georgia led the Deep South out of the Union, Virginia did everything possible to prevent our nation from being torn apart.

The Deep South states may well have been willing to end their role in the Union for a less noble purpose, but as for Virginia, our forefathers tried mightily to hold the Union together until unconstitutional steps were taken in Washington to force other states back into the Union at gunpoint. Ignoring the pleas of the Virginia delegation led us to secede.

Frank Ruff represents Lunenburg in the Virginia Senate. His email address is Sen.Ruff@verizon.net.