The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-06-13
prove their truth or their falsity. lam,
dear sir, very fespe ectfd1ly. &c., 'A'' '''''''
ROBERT K. SCOTT.
CQIUMBIAss.C.
.suaaay Moraing, June q, 1875,


Sunday Morning, June 10, 1876.
Sherman. SeIf.confessed SIanderer.
There have been some terrible exco-
riations of Sherman's Memoirs, notably
by George Wilkes, .ex.President Davis,
tho New York Day Book. Gen. Boynton,
Montgomery Blair and Gen. Hooker;
but nothing they have uttered prints
the man in suoh black and damning CO.
iors as he has portrayed himself. Take
this sample, referring to the burning of
Columbia, from his recently-published
''3Iemoirs:"
Many of the people thought that this
fire was deliberately planned and exc
cuted. This is not true. It was acci-
dental, and, in my Judgment, began
with the cotton which Gen. Hampton's
men had set fire to on leaving the city,
(whether by his orders or not is not ma
terial, which fro was partially subdued
early in the day by our men; but when
night came. the high wind famed it
again into full blaze, carried it against
the frame houses, which caught like
tinder. and soon spread beyond control.
In my official report of this con
fagratiqn, I distinctly charged it TO Gen.
Wade Hampton, and confess I did so
pointedly TO shake the faith, of his people
IN him, nr he was, in my opinions a
braggatt, and Prafessed to be the special
champion of South Carolina"
Quoting the above paragraphs, the
New Orleans Times thus phnottres the
General of the Armies:,
cs.He says..iI tie extract above quoted,
and lA clest and unmistakabIe Language,
that when he Officially charged General
Wade Hampton With burning up his ma
tive place, he, General Sherman, knew
him to betnnoasnt He acknowledges
to have said this solely to ipjure gal
liant soldier and gentleman with his own
people, I'd every true soldier who wore
the blue, this statement of General Sher-
man must, be- mqrtifying in the extreme.
How can 1t be otherwise, when an officer
have knowingly misrepresepted o man
whso had done no wrong to hin,2'
1t required no publication from Sher-
man, nor even denial from Hampton,
to decide the question of who was re-
sponsible for the pillage and burning of
Columbia; The military exploits of these
two commanders will tell the tale.
Hampton's march in Maryland and
Pennsylvania shows how he regarded
the rights and property of enemies
Sherman's march to the sea is in marked
contrast thereto. Towns sacked, houses
burned, farms despoiled. property stolen,
women outraged-a broad black tnck of
desolAtion and ruin marked the route of
Sherman from Chattanooga to the sea,
and from Savannah to Raleigh. But
with all these horrid rccollections, We
were not prepared for the unblushing
and shameless confession of baseness
and falsehood which is contained in tho
above extract from Sherman's Memoirs
A self-confessed falsifier, to injure man
who had done him no wrong, will rob
his writings of every sting with which he
has attempted to wound the most humble
and the most sensitive of those who may
have provoked his wrath. It is to be hoped
that this perjurer and slnnderer, before
he is called to his long home, will con-
fess the whole truth-that the burning
cotton. (set fire to by Sherman's men
about noon, several hours after zhe re-
treat of the Confederate forces, had no.
! thing to do with the destruction of the
houses; that the cotton fire was extin-
guished at an early hour in the after
noon; that the houses were deliberately
! fired, in different sections of tho city,
by men in blue uniforms; that the frame
buildings of which he speaks were in an
opposite direction to that from which the
wind was blowing; that when he (the
champion house-burner) at half-past 8,
on Saturday morning, February 1S, Or
dered stop to be put to the destruction
of property by the incendiary's torch, it
was done. The following extracts, from
the "Sack and Destruction of the City
OF Columbia, S. c." prepared shortly