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For the next few months , we ’ll be covering the final days of the Civil War exactly 150 years afterward . This is the second instalment of the series .
February 17-18, 1865: The Burning of Columbia
After conduct his army on its illustrious march through Georgia to the ocean in November and December 1864 , lay wastefulness to chiliad of square miles as they advanced , in January 1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman breathe his army in Savannah and receive fresh supply from the Union Navy , letting Confederate commanders guess what his next move would be . At last in February 1865 he head north into the Carolinas , intending to squeeze the remain Confederate force between Georgia and Virginia and eventually fall in forces with Ulysses Grant ’s army laying siege to Petersburg , Virginia .
The cradle of the uprising , South Carolina was held in special contempt by Sherman and his human , who blamed the state for the Civil War and now felt it their right and duty to mete out a harsh penalty — even harsh than the one they delivered in Georgia , if that was possible . The terrible climax of Sherman ’s march through South Carolina was the burning of the state chapiter , Columbia , on the night of February 17 - 18 , 1865 .
As Sherman ’s United States Army of 65,000 men go up the cap , the State Department political science prepared to take flight along with grand of panicked residents , terrorize by study of Union depredations in Georgia and the southern part of their own state . One percipient , Emma LeConte , described the chaotic scene in her journal :
On February 17 , the only defenders , a small force-out of Confederate cavalry , withdrew from the urban center and Sherman ’s Union troops marched in unopposed . With most of the remaining inhabitants cower in their home base , the street were filled with of thousands of free Union prisoner of state of war and former slave , while Sherman ’s troops before long helped themselves to any liquor they establish , only lend to the chaos . One Union officer , Major Thomas Osborn , recalled , “ when the brigade occupied the town the citizen and Black brought out whiskey in buckets , bottles and in every conceivable manner handle the men to all they would pledge . ”
What happened next remains a subject of public debate to this day . Sherman take that he never ordered the city ’s destruction , and in fact explicitly ordered his artillery not to shell the city before it was engage to protect lives and property . Union officers also blamed the Confederate air force officer for throng bales of cotton in the street to be burned before retreating . However many of the city ’s residents record attend Union soldiers purposely setting fire to buildings with torches — and Sherman ’s failure to prevent his man from gain access to plentiful quantities of alcoholic beverage seems negligent , at considerably .
Whoever was to find fault , as darkness fell on the night of February 17 , 1865 , flame were seen come up from several areas in downtown Columbia . Now chaos condescend as Union soldiers , free slaves , and crook looted in a drunken frenzy . LeConte painted the scene with bright imagination in her diary :
Their attempt were aided by nature , as a strong steer had begun vaunt that afternoon , fueling the fire that leapt between the Ithiel Town ’s many wooden building . LeConte continued :
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Many percipient note on the disaster ’s salient quality . Another woman , S. A. Crittenden , later call back : “ We stood in the lookout and saw these fire … kindle , one by one , along the horizon ’s verge . Soon they flashed out of the dark , nearer and nearer , come up higher and higher , spread wider and wider , until nearly the whole city became one seething sea of billowy fire . ” While these woman obviously watch the burning of Columbia as a disaster , for his part Osborn found it beautiful :
By the time the wind finally began to subside around 4 a.m. , just about a third of Columbia , include all the business district area , had been completely destruct , get out some 30,000 residents dispossessed .
Some of these would join the growing column of refugees , dim and livid , postdate in the wake of Sherman ’s regular army . At the same time vast numbers of freed slave and dispossess whites were simply roaming the countryside expect for intellectual nourishment and shelter . Although some Union troops tried to aid , there was fiddling they could do as long as fighting proceed , and their motive for supply often put them at odds with freed hard worker . One former slave , Harriet Smith , fall back everything : “ I was present when the Union Army came and take all our supply — they take everything they could set their hand upon — I saw them take all my Sir Francis Bacon — they did not spare either white nor calamitous — The articles were all take openly in unspecific daylight . ”
Another freed slave , Robert Falls , recalled the bedlam and confusion : “ I remember so well how the roads was full of folks walking and walk along … Did n’t know where they was lead . Just going to see about something else somewhere else . Meet a physical structure in the road and they require , ‘ Where you going ? ’ ‘ Do n’t know . ’ ‘ What you going to do ? ’ ‘ Do n’t know . ’ ” In the same vein Ezra Adams tell an interviewer : “ Yes , sir , they soon found out dat freedom ai n’t nothin’ , ’ less you is pose somethin’ to know on and a place to call home . Dis livin ’ on indecorum is lak young folks livin ’ on love after they gits married . It just do n’t work . ”
Despite the rancour of defeat , business , and the release of their property , at least some former masters were tolerant to their former slaves . One freed hard worker female child , Hannah Plummer , remember :
See the former entryhere .
