Secession Hill - Abbeville, SC
Posted by: 
jhuoni
N 34° 10.720 W 082° 22.500
17S E 373283 N 3782820
At this spot on November 22, 1860 a LARGE group gathered to call for South Carolina's Secession for the Union.
Waymark Code: WMMD31
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2014
Views: 6
Front
On November 22, 1860, a mass meeting on this site was one of the first held in the South after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president on November 6. A procession from the town square, numbering 2,000 to 3,000, made its way to a grove here, near the Greenville & Columbia RR depot. Many in the crowd wore palmetto cockades as bands played, militia and volunteer companies marched with flags and banners, and some units even fired cannon salutes.
Back
Andrew G. Magrath, arguing “the time for action has arrived,” was typical of most speakers, who called for South Carolina’s immediate secession from the Union. The meeting passed resolutions urging secession and recommended delegates to represent Abbeville District at the Secession Convention in December. This hill, then known as “Magazine Hill” for a powder magazine here, was soon renamed “Secession Hill” and has been known by that name since 1860.