South Carolina secession crisis (Napoleon's World)

The secession crisis in South Carolina in 1863 was a major event that occurred in the spring of 1863 in South Carolina, in which the state legislature threatened to withdraw from the Union due to fears of growing abolitionist influence in the United States Congress. A "Free State of South Carolina" was established at Spartanburg and a group of men marched on Columbia from there to protect the secessionists in case of violence. In response, Stephen Douglas dispatched the United States Army under Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant to quash the rebellion, resulting in the Battle of Spartanburg. The crisis is, along with the Pennsylvania Crisis two years prior, regarded as the closest the United States has ever come to civil war.

The show of force by the United States Army and the demonstration by the military that it would quash uprisings in both the North and the South was met with varying political appraisals. In the North, it was hailed as a tremendous victory over slaveowners seeking to leave the Union, and reinforced the National Party. In the South, many Democrats felt betrayed by President Douglas for sending the army to fight his own citizens, leading to increased fears of an overreaching central government and permanently undermining his support amongst a crucial wing of his party. Most importantly, it made even clearer the fault lines dividing the nation's two regions and demonstrated to Northern politicians that an end to slavery would require Southern - and by proxy, state-level - cooperation as opposed to a unilateral federal motion to end it.