Wyndham Robertson was the Acting Governor

Governor of Virginia

The governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....

 of the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 from 1836 to 1837. He also served twice in the Virginia House of Delegates, the second time during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

Robertson was a Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

, and was an advocate for Union during the secession crisis that precipitated the Civil War. However, after Lincoln's call for troops, he advocated secession. After the war, he was a member of the Committee of Nine

Committee of Nine

The Committee of Nine was a group of state leaders in Virginia, following the American Civil War, who engineered the political machinery so that the Old Dominion might be readmitted into the Union.Led by Alexander H. H. Stuart, a former U.S...

 that helped usher Virginia back into the Union.