The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-01-31
COLUMBIA.
Wednesday Morning, Jan. 81, 1866
coIu,nDln In Lo..flOi,.

of the LOnfOH 1tReS, VINO Is travel
ING in the South, is dated at Co
l,mbia, S. c., and gives u vivid ac-
count of the track Of Sherman's army,
and the ruins of Columbia. We
would publish the whole letter, but,
evidently, as ''The Sack and Destruc-
ton of Columbia" published from
this office, has furnished him with
most of his facts, we will not republish
them. We make some extracts The
writer says:
Columbia had the repute of being
one of the most beautiful cities on
the continent, and even amid its
broken walls, should go further, and
say that it must have been the most
beautiful. 1t is as startling, there
fore, to come upon the ruins of fine
city in America, as it is to SEQ, on a
sudden, the outlines of beautiful
temple in the desert which surrounds
the old capital of the Moguis. Co
lumbia asserts her supremacy still,
amid all her unequaled desolation.
Her streets are broad and long, and
planted with row of fair trees Oh
each side, and often another row
down the middle. She stands on u
hill, SO that a commanding view of a
picturesque country around may
easily be gained from any part of it.
But now, turn where one will, there
is absolutely nothing to strike the
eye but shattered walls and pillars of
churches, schools, and private dwell
lngs. People who go to Pompeii to
see the fragments of destroyed city,
should come to Columbia, and see
one still standing stark and unburied
IN the sunlight Ii any one can
imagine good English town of
$4,000 inhabitants left with not a
third of its houses standing in it, he
may form some idea of the appear
ance of this unfortunate city You
walk down streets, between groves of
trees, and see nothing but ruins of
houses and large buildings on either
side. Nor were these houses frail
wooden structures, easily burnt down.
They were built of stout red brick, or
granite, with marble steps leading
into many of them, which the flames
left black and shivered.''
AS to the destruction of our city,
he appears to be very we'll informed.
He writes:
cat the highest part of the town,
there was a handsome edifice known
us the State Capitol, of which not one
stone stands upon another. Near
this was new capitol, nearly finish
ell, built of marble, the pillars and
cornices of which were torn down and
hammered into fragments that now
strcw the ground. Three or four
splendid churches and as many
chapels, 4 spacious convent, in which
many poor ladies fled for shelte1@ill
they were driven forth by the sol
dicly, a State library, many schools
all were burned to the ground. There
were nearly 1,4O0 houses thus de
stroycd, the rich and the poor sharing
IN the common wreck. The miserable
work was accomplished on the day
and night Of the 18th February last,
and the horrors of that night can
never be forgotten by those who wit
messed them. More than $4,000
persons, mostly women and children,
many of them sick, took to the out
skirts, with hardly rag to cover
them, and with not Il mouthful of
food to cat. Gen. Sherman promised
to leave behind him cattle enough to
sustain them, but the cattle he left
dled at the rate of twenty head each
day, from sheer exhaustion, and
those that were killed were feshless
and bloodless.'
The following incident is true in
every particular:
cit should be understood that the
city had offered no resistance to
Sherman's approach, but that, on
the contrary, the small Confederate
force within it all withdrew the day
before, and the Mayor drove out some
miles with white flag, to meet the
invaders. He carried with him a
letter to Gen. Sherman, surren. ering
the city, and asking for it's citizens
the usages of civilized warfare.
That same night Sherman said to
the Mayor, Not q fingers breadth,
Mr. Mayor, of your city shall be
harmed. You may lie down to sleep,
satisfied that your town shall be as
-sE';ITc in my hands, as if.wholly in your
own.
TO our own sorrow and deep afflic-
ton, we know that some of the scenes
represented below were actual facts,
as we were sad witnesses of them:
"Some cotton had been set on fire
IN the streets during the day, but it
was extinguished by the firemcn of
the city, until the soldiers cut their