Secession Hill - Birthplace of the Confederacy

These simple monuments mark "Secession Hill,"  at the corner of Secession Avenue and Magazine Street in Abbeville, South Carolina.  It was here, on November 22, 1860, that the first meeting was held to launch South Carolina's secession from the United States of America. One month later, the state of South Carolina became the first state to secede.

Abbeville is also the birthplace John C. Calhoun, former Vice President of the United States and a noted states rights advocate.

The inscription on one pillar reads: 

THIS MEMORIAL

Was erected by

Abbeville Chapter,

United Daughters of the Confederacy

To commemorate the first organized meeting advocating the right of a state to secede from the Union.

This meeting was presided over by Thomas C. Perrin, with Judge D. L. Wardlaw, John A. Calhoun, Dr. J. W. Hearst, John Brownlee, Dr. J. H. Logan and J. Foster Marshall. Vice Presidents; James C. Calhoun and G. McDuffie Miller, Secretaries; A. M. Smith, W. M. Rogers and J. F. Livingston, Marshals of the day.

After prayer by Rev. North, Addresses were made by Hon. Thomas C. Perrin, Hon. A. C. McGrath, Gen. Milledge L. Bonham, Samuel McGowan, James N. Cochran and William C. Davis.

Edward Noble introduced resolutions of secession, which were advocated by Thomas Thompson and unanimously passed.

Thomas C. Perrin, Edward Noble, John A. Calhoun, Thomas Thomson, John H. Wilson, D. L. Wardlaw were nominated to represent the district at the convention called by the legislature.

November 22, 1860          November 22, 1927

"WE HAVE KEPT THE FAITH."

The second inscription reads: 

"LORD GOD OF HOSTS, BE WITH US YET,

LEST WE FORGET, LEST WE FORGET.

On this hillside in the rear of this memorial on November 22, 1860, the first organized secession meeting was held.

On that day the Ancient Artillery Company, the Southern Rights Dragoons, and companies of Minutemen from Abbeville, Greenwood, Cokesbury, Nineyt-Six, Bradley, Due West, Donalds, Wickliffe and Caohouns Mill marched in line together with an immense concourse of loyal citizens: Repairing to the grove. They there announced their intention of defending their sovereign rights guaranteed them in the Constitution of the United States.

Resolutions demanding the immediate withdrawal of the state from the Union were unanimously passed, and representatives to the convention called by the Legislature were nominated.

AND THUS SECESSION HAD ITS BIRTH.

"Ah! realm of tombs but let her bear

his blazon to the last of times,

No nation rose so white and fair,

Or fell so pure of crimes."

***

Four and one half years later, during the closing days of the War Between the States, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, Virginia and headed south, stopping for a night in Abbeville at the home of his friend Armistead Burt. There, on May 2, 1865, in the front parlor of what is now known as the Burt-Stark Mansion, Davis met for the last time with his cabinet and Council of War. There they officially acknowledged the futility of continuing to fight for Southern Independence and decided to disolve the Confederate government.

Thus, Abbeville lays claim to being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy.