Burt-Stark Mansion - Abbeville, South Carolina
Burt-Stark Mansion - Abbeville, South Carolina
When the Civil War began the first reading of the secession papers was done in the Burt-Stark Mansion giving birth to the Confederacy. For years the war ravaged the county, thousands were injured or killed and lives ruined. Plantations were burned, livelihoods destroyed and in the end, the slaves freed.
This tragic period in history not only began at Burt-Stark Mansion but also ended here on May 2, 1865, less than a month after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the war council of the Confederate forces met with President Jefferson Davis and disbanded the armies. Present at this meeting were cabinet members Benjamin, Mallory, Reagan and Breckinridge and five Brigade Commanders, Ferguson, Dibrell, Vaughn, Duke and Breckinridge.
