Alfred Beckley (1802-1888) was the founder of Beckley, West Virginia, in 1838. He served the Virginia Militia from 1849-1861. During the American Civil War, in 1861, he served in the Confederate Army under General Henry A. Wise, and was in charge of the 12th Brigade of the Virginia Militia in the Kanawha Valley. He resigned on February 28, 1862, and surrendered himself to Rutherford B. Hayes in Union-occupied Beckley in March 1862. He was taken as a prisoner of war to Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, and released in June 1862, after which he had no involvement in the war. He died on May 26, 1888.

John Buchanan Floyd was born in 1806 near Blacksburg, Virginia. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1847 and served as Governor of Virginia from 1848-1852. In 1857, he was appointed Secretary of War by United States President James Buchanan. Floyd resigned as Secretary of War in December 1860 following the secession crisis. In 1861, he was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, where he served beside Robert E. Lee in the western Virginia campaign during the American Civil War. He died of illness on August 26, 1863, and is buried in Abingdon, Virginia.