Who was President when West Virginia was admitted to the Union?

This question, courtesy of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents, is more interesting because of the history behind it.  It's Civil War related - so you know right away that there is probably some serious passion behind it.  Who was President when West Virginia was admitted to the Union?  Rutherford Hayes, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Harrison or Abraham Lincoln?


Alright, I said Civil War, so that basically gives it away: it's Abraham Lincoln.

So, what happened that made West Virginia a state?  Again: the Civil War.  West Virginia was originally a part of Virginia.  However, it was most decidedly more pro-Union than the rest of Virginia.  So, when Virginia voted to secede from the Union, the people of West Virginia met in a Constitutional Convention, declared that the rest of Virginia had violated its constitutional oaths by voting to secede (and thus vacated their offices) and reorganized its government, claiming to represent the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.  They organized their own government, complete with a new Governor and two United States Senators (that were recognized in Washington D.C.).  Eventually, the government acknowledged that it represented only the West Virginia portion only.  It applied for statehood and was recognized by the federal government in 1863.

Yup.  West Virginia exists because of the civil war.