Editing Union County, South Carolina (section)

===Civil War and aftermath===
The [[American Civil War|Civil War]] brought a standstill to the county's growth and progress. Many local men rushed to enlist in the Confederate Army and numerous units of Union County soldiers served on battlefields across the South. On April 20, 1861, a strange object appeared in the sky above the Kelly-Kelton community of northeastern Union County. A large hot air balloon called the ''Enterprise'' descended to the ground, piloted by [[Thaddeus S. C. Lowe|Professor T.S.C. Lowe]], who had left [[Cincinnati, Ohio]] the day before. He had attempted to fly from Ohio to Washington, D.C. but instead was swept southward across Virginia into South Carolina. The locals crowded around this mysterious object, many insisting that Lowe be "shot on the spot," as they believed him to be a Northern spy. Local tradition states that Professor Lowe gave a Masonic distress sign and his life was saved by the Masons in the crowd. Eventually he would make it back to the North and work with the Union Army on aerial reconnaissance projects during the war. At the close of the war, Confederate [[Jefferson Davis|President Jefferson Davis]] came through Union County following the fall of Richmond in 1865. He and his entourage crossed the ferry at Pinckneyville and made their way to the town of Union. They dined at the [[William Henry Wallace|William Wallace]] house on Et Main Street in Union and the Cross Keys house in southwestern Union County before his eventual capture in Georgia.<ref name="auto"/>

Following the war, a system of [[sharecropping]] and tenant farming was established to take the place of slavery and provide a consistent labor force. Union County's history parallels the history of much of the South during Reconstruction. The county was known for widespread [[Ku Klux Klan]] violence during this time period, against what many inhabitants saw as the excesses of ‘[[carpetbagger]]’ government. In the 1920’s, Ezra A. Cook published ‘Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed’, which gave this example:

“Headquarters, Ninth Division, S. C. Special Orders, No. 3, K. K. K. 

Ignorance is the curse of God. 

For that reason we are determined that members of the legislature, the school committee and the county commissioners of Union county shall no longer officiate. Fifteen days' notice from this date is given, and if they, and all, do not at once and forever resign their present inhuman, disgraceful and outrageous rule, then retributive justice will as surely be used as night follows day. 

By order of the Grand Chief, 

A. 0., Grand Secretary.”

The Industrial Revolution hit the county in the 1890s as local businessmen and Northern industrialists began investing in Union County [[textile mill]]s.<ref name="auto"/>