Editing Abbeville, South Carolina (section)

==History==
Abbeville was established by French Huguenots in 1764,<ref name="EB2"/> at a site named by [[John de la Howe]].<ref name="EB2"/> It was incorporated in 1840.<ref name=Colliers/>

Famed [[states' rights]] advocate and Vice President [[John C. Calhoun]] first practiced law in Abbeville, and he was born on a farm on the outskirts<ref name="EB2"/> in what is now [[Mount Carmel, South Carolina|Mt. Carmel]].<ref name=usc>{{harvnb|Ragsdale|Jacob|Nystrom|1989|p=729}}</ref>

===Abbeville and the American Civil War===
[[File:Rock at Secession Hill.jpg|thumb|left|The rock at Secession Hill]]
[[File:Burt-Stark house.jpg|thumb|left|{{Center|Historic Burt-Stark House}}]]

Abbeville has the unique distinction of being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. On November 22, 1860, a meeting was held at Abbeville, at a site since dubbed "[[Secession Hill]]", to launch South Carolina's [[secession]] from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]];<ref name=gaz/><ref name=can>{{harvnb|Canby|1984|p=2}}</ref> one month later, the state of South Carolina became the first state to secede.

At the end of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], with the Confederacy in shambles, Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]] fled [[Richmond, Virginia]], and headed south, stopping for a night in Abbeville at the home of his friend [[Armistead Burt]]. It was on May 2, 1865, in the front parlor of what is now known as the [[Burt-Stark Mansion]] that Jefferson Davis officially acknowledged the dissolution of the Confederate government, in the last official cabinet meeting.<ref name=gaz/><ref name=can/>

===2003 right-of-way standoff===
{{Main|2003 Abbeville right-of-way standoff}}

On December 8, 2003, in a 14-hour standoff that stemmed from a land-survey dispute, two Abbeville lawmen were killed by West Abbeville resident Steven Bixby. This siege has been compared by both sympathizers of the Bixbys and law enforcement agents to the events of [[Waco siege|Waco]] and [[Ruby Ridge]].<ref>{{harvnb|Anon|2003|p=2}}</ref> In February 2007, Steven Bixby was convicted on 17 counts including the two murders, as well as lesser charges of kidnapping and conspiracy. He was given two death sentences for the murders plus 125 years in prison on the other charges.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}