The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-06-13

But the reign Of, terror did not fairly
begin till night. IN some instances,
where parties complained of the misrule
and mulberry, their guards said to them,
with D chuckle: "Tkis is nothine.s Wait
till lso-Right, and you'll see hi"
Amrpg the firgt fires at evening was one
about dark, which broke out in o filthy
purieu of low houses, Of wood, on Ger
yais street, occupied mostly rs brothels.
Almost ut the same time, body of the
soldiers scattered over the Eastern out
skirts OF the city and fred number OF
dwellings,. There were then some twenty
fires IN full blast, in as many different
quarters, and while the alarm sounded
from these quarters, similar alarm Was
sent up almost simultaneously from Cot
ton Town, the Northernmost limit of the
city, and from Main street in its very
centre, and some others, in the heart of
, the most densely settled portion of the
town. The men engaged in this were
well prepared with nlf the appliances
; essential to their work. They carried
with them, from house to house, pots
and vessels containing combustible
: liquids, and with balls of cotton satu-
rated in this liquid, with which they also
! overspread hoers and walls, they con-
veyed the flames with wonderful ra-
pidity from dwelling to dwelling. Each
had his ready box of Lucifer matches,
and, with scrape upon the walls the
, flames began to rage.
The work, begun thus vigorously,
went on without impediment and with
hourly increase throughout the night.
Engines and hose were brought out by
the tremen, but these were soon driven
from their labors-which' were indeed
nSf cto IS
pertinacious hostility of the soldiers
the hose WAS hewn to pieces and the fire
men left the field in despair. DIean-
while, the flames spread from side to
side, from front to rear, from street to
street, and where their natural and inevi-
table progress was too SLOW for those
who had kindled them, they helped them
on by the application Of fresh cbmbusti-
bles and more rapid agencies of confla-
grafton.
just before the contlagntion began,
about the dusk Of evening, while the
Mayor was conversing with, one of the
western men from Iowa, three rockets
were shot mp by the enemy from the
capitol square. AS the soldier beheld
these rockets, he cried out: '.Alas! alas.
for your poor city! It is doomed. Those
! rockets are the signal. The town is to
NC uIcu. IN less Cnan twenty minutes
after, the flames broke out in twenty dis
tinct quarters. Similar statements were
made by other soldiers in different quar-.
terra of the city. In more than one in
stance, we are told: 1--WE are going to
burn this id town. We've begun, and
we'll go through. This thing began here,
,, and we'll sack the houses and burn the
town."
A lady in one of our upper districts,
expressing surprise at the treatment of
Columbia in the nineteenth, or boosted
century of civilization. was answered
''South Carolina has been long since the
promised boon of Sherman's army"
Masonic brethren told others in the city
that an order had been issued to the
troops before they crossed the river,
giving them license to sack, plunder and
destroy for the space of thirty-six hours,
and that Columbia was destined to de-
struction. A sick Federal soldier, who
had been fed. nursed and kindly treated
by city lady, told her. on Friday morn
ing, that the place would be destroyed
that night.