The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-09-04

be spared, therefore the house was packed
from basement to tho attic with the
furniture of our neighbors sent hither for
protection; but. alas the Demon OF
Destruction was no respecter of persons
or property, and at o'clock in the
morning I took a little bird in its cage,
which / could not bear to leave to the
flames, in one hand and my little child's
hand in the other, and walked out from
under our burning roof into the cold and
pitiless street. Hundreds, nay thousands,
were there before me; some not so we'll
of as I, for they we're invalids. None OF
us had any pillow but the frozen ground,
nor any covering but the burning heav-
ems.
The terrified lowing of cattle, the
frenzied flight of pigeons circling high
above their blazing cotes, the ribald jests
and brutal assaults of our drunken con.
ouerors, the dun clouds of despair rolling
between us and the plying eye of God,
made up picture whose counterpart can
be found only in the regions of the
eternally lost.
A Federal officer said to me next day !:
"I knew when General Sherman sent for
the seventeenth (Logan's) army corps,
that he had black work for it to do"
eve vICrIs."
On Saturday morning we took refuge
With some kind friends in the suburbs
whose house had been overlooked rather
than spared, and not until Sunday did
we venture back to look at the ruins of
our once. beautiful home.
Oh ! the utter, utter desolation of q
city in ashes and its people wanderers
Even the very landmarks were lost, and
you stood a stranger or your own
threshold. Nothing was left but the
smokeless chimneys, keeping ward over
the widespread ruin. Hundreds of
Yankees, with ramrods aud bayonets,
were proddlipg the still smoking soil in
quest of buried treasure.
On Tuesday morning the blue lines
formed and the invaders left Columbia
city once synonym of all that was
beautiful and elegant-a heap of ruins !;
her living homeless and scattered, her
dead insulted and desecrated. To me
the curse of the broken.hearted sounded
above their steady tramp and martial
music. Confusion and terror went before
them and want and despair lowered in
their rear. Ne Nictis may not have been
inscribed on their banners, but it was
written in characters of blood and living
fire on the hearts and homes of con-
quered people.
I remember going, a few Sabbaths after
the destruction of the city, to hear one
of our ministers. He was one who bad
been personally abused by the Vandal
horde in their mad riot on that fatal
night, and just and holy indignation
still burned in his clerical bosom.
'My friends" said he, warning in his
discourse, "Let US be faithful in following
our Divine Master until we come to the
New Jerusalem, the golden city, not q
desolate place like this, but ever bright
and fair, and I assure you, my friends,
there will be no villanous Yankees there"
Then remembering that he was pledged
to preach doctrine of forgiveness, he
added reluctantly and doubtfully, "Un.
less they have entirely new hearts"
I could not refrain from adding men
tai amen to this sentiment.
Necessity is said to be the mother of
invention. Ii this be true ColumbiaDs
should have been the most inventive
people on the face of the earth during
that, spring of eighteen hundred and
sixty.fve, for their needs were certainly
great.
Left without shelter, clothing or food,
and with no means to obtain either, their
condition was indeed deplorable. /
heard of many persons sustaining life for
several days upon the corn picked up
around the feeding troughs of the Yam
kees' horses.
A lady whom had known in her days
of prosperity came to me, with the tears
streaming down her cheeks and said:
"If you have anything divide with me
my little children are at home crying
for bread"
Alas, was but little better OF.
LOYAL AND NOBLE NEGROES.
To the eternal honor of the negroes be
it spoken, that many of them aided and
sustained their former owners 10 these
irving times, with devotion as surpris-
ing as it was noble.
One old fellow brought store of pro.
visions and laid it before his former
master, saying: "Massa, it nearly
breaks my heart to see you in dis old
shanty, but it would break entirely to
know you were hungry and couldn't get
nothing to eat"
"But, Peter, my good fellow" returned
his master, II cannot take these things
from you and leave you and your children
to etarve,"
"No danger of dat. Peters used to
helpin hisself, and dat. massa, you never
could do, you nor ole miss neither.
"Peter," said the master with sus.
picious moisture about his eyes, "we have
fallen upon evil days; but, perhaps, l
might live to repay you"
"You's done dat already, massa you's
took care of Peter a good many years,
and rs sure it's his time to take care of
you and ole miss"
All honor to Peter; and to all, who
like him, did not forget
1.-THE tender grace of day that is dead"
Ny friend, Mrs. H., with whom we had
taken refuge, had some negroes left in
her charge by relative who had fled
from the city. 1t became serious ques.
tion how they should be fed, as she did
not care to drive them away, and they
showed no disposition to leave.
"I'll tell you what I will do, said she,
"I will 90 to Sherman and demand food
for them. Will you go with me?"
although disagreeable mission, |
did not like to refuse, so with few other
ladies, who, like myself, were refugees,
we oct out to find Gen. Sherman's head
quarters. I believe they were in the old