Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-06-12


the early days of the truce, to guard against
the accident of having too little transporta-
ton when the truce was about to close. +
This advice they disregarded and the con-
sequence was suffering and Inconvenience, /
and this, however, to no great extent. |
From Rough and Ready to Lovejoy Station,
| think l can safely say, under my orders,
they were moved as comfortably and safely
as possible. The unfortunate people who
were driven from their homes, receiving in
formation from you that the government
was being embarrassed by the heavy de-
mands made upon the acting commissary of
subsistence at Lovejoy, [ arranged with the
Federal authorities to supply the exiles with
five days rations on their application to
Colonel LeDuc, quartermaster goth army
corps at Atlanta This [ am in
formed, was done. The apportionment of
transportation among the different corps
was made as you directed. On receiving
your order I sent for Major Mason, the
qUartermaster IN charge of the transpOrta-
ton, and read the first as well as the sup
elemental order to him, and directed him to
carry it out literally. This he, as well as
Capt. John Mclaughlin, his assistant, in
formed me had been done. Having been
informed that six teamsters belonging TO
Captain Clark's train had deserted while the
train was at Trough and Ready, I made a
formal demand for them of the Federal flag
of truce officer He assured me- that they
would be returned if found, at the same
time stating to me that thirteen of the Fed
eral guard and teamsters had deserted to our
lines Too much praise cannot be bestowed
upon Colonel Anderson, in command Of the
guard from our army on duty at r ough and
Ready for the rigid discipline he at all times
/ maintained. l am respectfully your obedi-
! ont servant, w. CLARE,
! Major and A [. G..
| General Sherman exhibited here an orig
/ inal report of Colonel William G.. LeDuc
/ United States quartermaster, Goth Corps,
! recently commissioner of agriculture, show
| inc that the persons sent South were 705
/ adults, 70 servants, $40 children; total,
/ /, G51, with the full name of each, with the
number of packages for each, aggregating
/ .G51, all of which was transported by the
/ United States troops twenty miles, and not
a single piece was broken or molested
! Again, continued General Sherman, Mr.
+ Davis records that the officers and men sent
. to escort and convey them TO Rough and
Ready Station ''robbed them of the few
articles of value they had been permitted to
untrue, and Mr. Davis ought to have known
it to be 50, for Major Clare of the Confed-
crate Army, bore public testimony to the
kindness of the escorts; and General War
ner, since Senator from Alabama, well
known and universally respected who is
/ still living IN Alabama was then and is still
responsible, and is far better qualified to
testify to the facts than Mr.. Davis who was
a thousand miles away. [ am responsible
for the ordOr Of removal and it was right.
1t was eIninently humane to remove non
combatant population from the theatre of
war. 1t produced the effect | intended and
hastended the conclusion OF the war-a
bloody war, which Mr. Davis, according to
his own account, would never have terni-
mated as long as he could have saved his
own life. AS to the burning of Columbia,
he intimates that I have underworld to
escape the responsibility for that act, and
refers to the excess of Wallensteln's army
in the Thirty Years War Mr. Davis was
not IN Columbia during that fire, nor was
General Hampton. | was, and so was
General 0. q. Howard. So were General
John 4. Logan, General William b. Wood,
now Justice of the supreme court, and
his brother, General Charles Wood, and
fourteen thousand honest, good, true Union
soldiers
Mr. Davis ignores all these, and adopts
the solitary statement of Wade Hampton,
who got away and was not there at all, after
his troops had set fire to the bridges, depots
and cotton in the streets of his own city, al
of which were burned down. or were burn
ing, when our troops entered the city. The
house occupied by me (BlantOn Demeans
was still standing when the army left. The
Preston House. known as the Hampton
Mansion, occupied by General Logan, was
still standing, and the college, where Gene
raj Howard was quartered, was not burned
The fire originated in Richardson street
near where [ saw with my own eyes burning
cotton bales, which had been set on fire by
the Confederate cavalry [ was supreme il
command inside of Columbia during the
night OF the confagration, and [ allow no
man, not even jeff. Davis, to question my
statement of fact as seen by myself. The
fire in Columbia on the night of February
II, 1865, III my judgment then and now,
was caused by particles of burning cotton
blown against fences and sheds, which
spread to houses, and finally consumed the
centre, but not the whole of the town.
The cotton was unquestionably set fire to
by Confederate cavalry, which fire was
partially subdued by our troops in the day
time, whilst the trains of General Logan's
corps (15th) were passing, but after the
trains had passed and night began the men
ceased to carry water. The fire spread
anew, and finally reached a shed or fence,
and the houses, built of pitch pine, burned
with rapidly and fury under a tornado OF
wind. What of Columbia remained the
next morning was wholly due to General
Logans troops. Without them not house
would have escaped Almost identically the
same thing occurred in Richmond | made
a report of the facts to my government
which was accepted, and there my RESPONSE
bility ended Still [ cheerfully admit thai
history may go further, provided actua
truth be sou ht, for l want to know the
truth as much as any man. Had l intended
to burn Columbia, [ would have done it JUS
as l would have done any other act of work
and there would have been no concealment
about it. [ may have said, aud now repeat
that should rebellion again occur in South
Carolina and it should be my office to cross
the Congaree, opposed by Hampton's cavalry,
and in my simple Judgment the interest OF
the government demanded
But it so happens in this instance my or
ders were made two days before we entered
the city. They were in writing, and must
be still in Gen. O. o, Towards possession.
They are recorded in the War Department
and have been often printed. These orders
were purpOSely most merciful because |
have none but the most kindly feelings
toward South Carolina by reason of old asso-
clates and friends made before the civil war,
g. III,