The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-09-25
Sherman that I think it impossible that
the latter conld helm hearing him. he

the latter cOulu nelp nearing niui, He
said: "You may rest satisfied, Mrs.
-, that there will be nothing of the
kind happening tonight. The truth is,
our men last night got beyond our con.
troll; !; many of them were shot; many of
them were killed; there will be no repe-
tition of these things tonight. assure
you there will be nothing of the kind; to-
day will be perfectly quiet And it was
ouiet-peaceful as the grave-the ghost
of his predecessor" "The same day (l8th
of February Gen. Sherman" deposes the
mayor, "sent for me. I went to%see him
about1 o'clock. He met me very cordially,
and said he regretted very much that our
city was burned, and that it was my
fault. I asked him how? He said in
suffering ardent spirits to be left in the
city after it was evacuated, saying ::
who could command drunken soldiers? p
There was no allusion made to General
Hampton, to accident, or to cotton"
THE SUFFERING CAUSED BY THE FIRE.
On the succeeding day-Sunday, Feb
ruary 10, 1895, the mayor and six of the
citizens visited Gen. Sherman in ordor to
obtain food for the subsistence of the
women and children until communica-
ton could be had with the country. Gen.
Sherman, upon that OCCASION, talked
much. "In the course ofhis discourse" :"
deposes one of the gentlemen Edwin j.
Scott, ESQ., che referred to the burning
of the city, admitting that it was done by
his troops, but excusing them because, as
he alleged, they had been made drunk by
our citizens, one of whom, a druggist, he
said, had brought pail full of spirits to
them on their arrival. Again, on our
leaving the room, he expressed regret
that the liquor had not been destroyed
before his men entered the place; but he
never mentioned or alluded in any way
to Gen. Hampton or the cotton, nor gave
the slightest intimation that they were
instrumental in the destruction of the
city. At that time" deposes the same
witness, "the universal testimony of our
people was that Sherman's troops burned
the town. Since then I have been in the
habit of daily intercourse with all classes
in and about Columbia, high and low,
rich and poor, male and female, whites
and blacks, yet l have not met with
single person who attributed the calami-
ty to any other cause" "If," be adds,
"a transaction that occurred in the pres
esence of forty or fifty thousand people
can be successfully falsi6ed, then all
human testimony is worthless" AS
evidence of the general distress and
suffering which resulted from the sack
and burning of our city, and the desola-
tion of the adjacent country, the COM
mittee refer to the fact established by
unimpeachable testimony, that for about
three months daily rations, consisting
generally of pint of meal and q small
allowance of poor beef for each person,
were dealt out at Columbia to upwards
of eight thousand destitute people.
The committee have designed by the
preceding summary of the more promi.
nent events and incidents connected with
the destruction of Columbia to present
only an abstract of the numerous deposi-
tions and proofs in their possession. The
proprieties imposed upon them by the
very nature of the duties to which they
have been assigned have precluded their
doing more. In the evidence thus col
lected may be read in all its pathetic and
heartreuding details the story of the
tragic fate that has befallen our once
beautiful city. Impressed with the his
toric value of the proofs referred, to, and
their Importance to the cause of truth,
and with a view to their preservation,
the committee respectfully recommend
that they be committed to the guar
dianship of the municipal authorities
and be deposited with the archives
of the town, trusting that in after and
better times they will yet be found
effectual as we'll to vindicate the lnno-
cent as to confound the guilty.