The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-09-25
THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA.
A DARK CHAPTER OF UNwRITTEN
HISTORY.

A DARK CHAPTER OF UNwRITTEN
HISTORY.
Appointed to Collect Tcstimony-Scene
In tho Stricken City-Incidcnts OF tho
Night OF Terror Caused by the Great
Conasgration.
By J. P. Carroll, Chairman ofthe Committee Of
CSti=ens.
The Committee who were charged with
the duty of collecting the evidence in re-
lation to the destruction of Columbia by
fire on the 18th of February, 1865, submit
the following report: By the terms of
the resolution appointing them the COM
mittee do not feel authorized to deduce
any conclusion or pronounce any judg-
ment, however warranted by the proofs,
as to the person responsible for the crime.
Their task will be accomplished by pre-
senting the evidence that has been OBJ
tained, with an abstract of the fact estab-
lished by it. More than sixty depositions
and statements in writing, from as many
individuals, have been placed in the
uduQ5 VI JuO OOmullktCCs 4hO dI1uy Va
witnesses is impressive, not merely be-
cause of their number, but for the high
tone and elevated character of some Of
them, the unpretending and sterl-
ing probity of others, and the gen.
eral intelligence and worth of all. The
plain and unvarnished narrative SUBJ
joined is taken from the testimony refer
red to solely and exclusively, except SO
much as refers to certain declarations of
Gen. Sherman himself, widely circula-
ted through the public press, and to the
ravages of his army in this State after
their departure from Columbia; matters
of such notoriety as, in the judgment of
the committee, to dispense with the nec-
essity of formal proof. The forces Of
Gen. Sherman's command while in
Georgia seem to have anticipated that
their next march would be through
South Carolina. Their temper and feel
ing toward our people, witness, Mrs. L.
Catherine Joyner, thus describes: "The
soldiers were universal III their threats.
They seemed to gloat over the distress
that would result frora their march
through the State. / conversed with
numbers of all grades belonging to the
Fourteenth and Twentieth corps. Such
expressions as the following were of hour
ly occurrence Carolina may we'll fear
US ;she brought this war on, and shall pay
the penalty. You think Georgia has
suffered; just wait until ne get into
Carolina; every man, woman and child
may dread us there" OF Gen. Sherman
himself the same witness informs US that,
addressing himself to lady of his ac-
quaintance, he said to her: "Go off the
line of railroad, for will not answer
for the consequences where the army
passes"
A HARVEST OF DEsoLAT1oN.
The threats uttered in Georgia were
sternly executed by the troops of Gen.
Sherman upon their entrance into this
State. For eighty miles along the route
of his army, through the most highly
improved and cultivated region of the
State, according to the testimony of in
telligent and respectable witnesses the
habitations of but two white persons re-
mained. As he advanced, the villages
of Hardeeville, Grahamville, Gillison-
vile, McPhersonville, Barnwell, Black
vile, Midway, Orangeburg and Lexington
were successfully devoted to the flames;
indignities and outrages were perpetra-
ted upon the persons of the inhabitants;
the implements of agriculture were bro
ken; dwellings, barns, mills and gin
houses were consumed; provisions of
every description appropriated or de-
stroyed; horses and mules carried away,
and sheep, cattle and hogs were either
taken for actual use or shot down and
left behind. The like devastation marked
the progress of the invading army from
Columbia through this State to its north
ern frontier, and the Towns of Winnsboro,
Camden, and Cheraw suffered from like
visitation by fire. If single town or
village or hamlet within their line of
march escaped altogether the torch of
the invaders the committee have not
been informed of the exception. The
line of Gen. Sherman's march from his
entering the territory of the State up to
Columbia, and from Columbia, to the
North Carolina border, was one continu-
Gus track of fire. The devastation and
ruin thus inflicted were but the execution
of the policy and plan of Gen. Sherman
for the subjugation of the Confederate
States. Extracts from his address, at
Salem, ILL.,, have appeared in the public
prints, and thus he announces and vindi-
Gates the policy and plan referred o:"We
were strung out from Nashville clear
down to Atlanta. Had I then gone
on stringing out our forces what danger
would there not have been for their at
tacking the little head of the column and
crushing it? Therefore, 1 resolved in
moment to stop the game of guarding
their cities, and to destroy their cities.
We were determined to produce results,
and now what were those results? To
make every man and woman and child
in the South feel that if they dared to
rebel against the flag of their country
they must die or submit" The plan of
subjugation adopted by Gen. Sherman
was fully comprehended and approved
of by his army. His officers and men
universally justified their acts by declar-
ing that it was "the way to put down the
rebellion by burning and destroying ev-
erything." Before the surrender of our
town the soldiers of Gen. Sherman, off,
GERS and privates, declared that it was to
be destroyed. at was" deposes a wit
ness Mrs. Rosa ]. Meetze,) "the common
talk among them lat the village of Lex:
ington) that Columbia was to be burned
by Gen. Sherman" At the same place,
on the 10Th of February, 1865, as deposed
by another witness, Mrs. Frances T..
Caughman, the general officer in COM
mand Of his cavalry forces, Gen. Kilpat-
rick, said in reference TO Columbia: !:
"Sherman will lay it in ashes for them"
at was the general impression among
all the prisoners we captured" says a
Confederate officer, Col. j. P. Austin, of
the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, chat Col
umbia was to be destroyed"
SMELLING SOUTH cARoL1NA's CAPITAL.
On the morning of the same day FEB
ruary 16, 1861 some of the forces of Gen: