On November 22, 1860, on the hillside behind this memorial, the first organized secession meeting was held. The ancient artillery company, the Southern Rights Dragoons, and companies of minute-men from Abbeville, Greenwood, Cokesbury, Ninety-Six, Bradley, Due West, Donalds, Wickliffe, and Calhoun's Mill marched with an immense concourse of loyal citizens to the grove, where they announced their intention of defending their sovereign rights as guaranteed 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. The 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 as vice presidents; James C. Calhoun and G. McDuffie Miller as secretaries; and A.M. Smith, W.M. Rogers, and J.F. Livingston as marshals of the day. After prayer by Rev. North, addresses were made by Thomas C. Perrin, A.C. McGrath, Milledge L. Bonham, Samuel McGowan, James N. Cochran, and William C. Davis. Edward Noble introduced the resolutions of secession, Thomas Thomson advocated them, and they were unanimously passed. Thomas C. Perrin, Edward Noble, John A. Calhoun, Thomas Thomson, John H. Wilson, and D.L. Wardlaw were nominated to represent the district at the convention called by the legislature, and secession had its birth.