Burt - Stark Mansion The Burt - Stark Mansion , also known as Armistead Burt House , in Abbeville , South Carolina was the site of the last Council of War of cabinet members of the Confederate government . On May 2 , 1865 , Jefferson Davis , hoping to continue the struggle , met unanimous opposition , and realized the Confederate independence cause was lost . It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992 , specifically for being where Jefferson Davis had his last council of war . History . The property has had seven owners . The original owner , David Lesley , owned it until his death in 1855 . He had hired a man named Johnson , an English landscaper , to organize the property . The next owner was a Presbyterian pastor named Thomas A . Hoyt , who owned it until 1859 when he was sent to another church in Louisville , Kentucky . A banker from Charleston , South Carolina , Andrew Simonds , bought it from Hoyt , and in 1862 sold it to Armistead Burt , who owned it when Jefferson Davis used the building . Davis ' wife , Varina Davis , had met Armistead Burt when Jefferson Davis first entered the United States Congress in December 1845 . Burt invited Varina Davis and her children to his house , as Varina was sent away from Richmond , Virginia for her protection . Varina pointed out to Burt that Union soldiers might eventually burn his house for harboring her , but he said there would be no greater cause then for his house to be burnt for . Varina moved to the Mansion on April 17 . Days later , after Varina had left to go further South , Davis came to the house . On May 2 , 1865 , between four and six in the afternoon , Jefferson Davis held his final war council , with Secretary of war John C . Breckinridge and several military officers , most notable of them Braxton Bragg and Basil W . Duke . Davis wanted to continue the fighting , using the forces still plentiful west of the Mississippi River , but the others disagreed . When Davis asked the men why they were still there then , they replied it was to make sure Davis got to safety . After fuming for a minutes , Davis resigned himself to the decision of the others , effectively ending the existence of the Confederate State of America . However , the last land Confederate force to surrender would not be until June 24 , when Stand Watie surrendered in Oklahoma ; the last Confederate vessel surrendered at Liverpool later that year . After the Abbeville meeting , the Cabinet , Davis ; a three thousand strong protective force , and the treasury of the Confederacy dispersed . After the war , in 1868 Burt had to sell the house due to bankruptcy . A local planter , James R . Norwood , bought it ; when he died in 1875 , his widow and daughter inherited it . James Samuel Stark bought it from them in 1900 , and with his wife restored the building . On their death , their daughter Mary Stark Davis inherited it . After Davis died in the Fall of 1987 , Abbeville Historic Preservation Commission was given control of the house , and have operated tours of it ever since . Construction . The house is a white Greek Revival style two story house with a frame structure and lap siding . A front pedimented portico , also two stories high , is supported by four square columns . Underneath this is a small wooden latticework second - story balcony . It has a brick foundation , with wooden walls . The roof is made of aluminum and tin , with both asphalt and cedar shingles . The shutters on all the windows are original . There were several exterior buildings , but the only one still standing is the kitchen ; the other building once on the property were a carriage house , cow barn , milk house , smokehouse , and well house . Spacious rooms and high ceilings mark the interior . A central great hall with an Adam fanlight is the main entrance to the domicile , with a drawing room on each side . The left drawing room would be where Jefferson Davis would hold his final war council with John C . Breckinridge , his Secretary of War , and senior military officials . Before the War , the wide double doors would open to create a ballroom from the entire front area . The only additions to the house after the War was a bathroom and a northwest corner wing , which provided extra kitchen space . Most of the furnishings are from the 1850s and 1860s . It was built in the 1830s by David Lesley , a local attorney , judge , planter , and Presbyterian Church elder . Lesley had seen a house in the north that he liked , and chose that house as the prototype for his own . He sent a man named Cubic , a slave that was also a master carpenter , to look at the prototype house , and he then oversaw construction of Lesley ' s .