If I recall he was a southerner who elected to fight for the North. His capture of New Orleans did much to seal the fate of the CSA. If the South had put more into the forts and ironclads defending the Big Easy they might have kept his Yankee fleet out—but union problems kept the two Ironclads from being finished when they were needed—They would have been better off with one—finished—that two half built. By the time he captured Mobile, Alabama, the war was over.
Virginia supplied many of the Civil War's most famous leaders, including for the Confederacy: Generals Robert E. Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Johnson, Ewell, Hill & Pickett.
For the Union: Generals Winfield Scott & George Thomas, Admirals David Farragut and Samuel Lee.
Virginians did not originally want to secede, and when forced by war to do so, split their state almost in half -- by territory: 63% Confederate (VA), 37% Union (WV), by population: roughly 70% - 30% and by pre-war serving military officers: 60% Confederate, 40% Union.