The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-03-06
,ity. This is proved by anumber Of witnesses

dated December 49, 1864, from MajorGeneral
II. w. Halleck, in Washington, to General
Sherman. then III Savannah: "Should you
capture Charleston hope that by some acct
if a little salt should be sown upon its
site 1t may prevent the growth of flu
ture crops of modification and secession
Are not the anin!us and the intention OF
these words perfectly clear That they were
understood and cordially concurred in by the
officer to whom they were addressed is appar-
ent from General Shermans reply to them,
which. dated December 81, 1864, contains
these words: 81 will bear in mind your hint as
to Charleston, and don't think salt will be
necessary. When I move, the Fifteenth corps
will be on the right OF the right wing, and
their position will bring them naturally into
Charleston first and if you have watched the
history OF that corps, you will have remarked
that they generally do their work up pretty
well. The truth is, the whole army is burning
with an Unsuitable desire to wreak vengeance
upon South Carolina. l almost tremble at
her fate, but feel that she deserves all that
seems i'll store for her. look
upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston"
Genera Sherman here fully indorses the
suggestion for the destruction of Charleston.
and is careful to add, II look upon Columbia
as quite as bad as Charleston"
2. General Sherman marched into Columbia
the very corps (Howard's, fifteenth, corps
which he said would destroy city He got
full possession of the city at O'Clock in the
out simultaneously in different parts of the
city.
3. In his testimony before the ''mixed
claims commission" General Sherman said
that his men were under perfect discipline,
and he could have restrained them, but that
while he feared they would burn Columbia he
would not restrain them to their ranks to save
every city in South Carolina.
4. In the presence'of Governor Orr and sew
eral other witnesses, in,the governors office in
Columbia in 1867, General q. o. Howard said
to General Hampton that General Sherman
knew perfectly well that he (Hampton) did
not burn Columbia; that no one was
authorized to say that "our troops did
not set fire to it, for l saw them do it myself"
Governor Orr testified concerning the CONVEX
sation: General Howard said, in substance,
that the city was burned by United States
troops; that he saw them fire many houses"
Colonel Kennedy of the sllirmish line, which
5. EnteredColumbia at 9so'clock that morning
and one of General Sherman's fayorite wit
nesseS testiies as follows: 81 cannot, for my
life, see how Wade Hampton and Beauregard
are 80 positive that Sherman's soldiers first set
fire to the cotton, for not one was near it when
the fire first started, and certainly neither
Hampton nor Beauregard were with
in gunshot of either the cotton
the state house" This "swift witness
proves too much for his chief, who was trying
to connect Hampton with the burning of the
cotton.
But. Colonel Stone, who received the surren-
der of the city from the mayor as early as 10
o'clock, testifes in the most emphatic manner
that the fire did not begin until O'Clock that
night, and that then: CAN at once fifteen or
twenty flames, from as many different places
along the river, shot up, and in ten minutes
the fate Of Columbia was sealed"
6. Adiutant Byers, in his "What I Saw in
Dixie; or Sixteen Months in Rebel Prisons"
says of the scenes Of that fearful night: "The
boys, too, were spreading the conflagration by
firing the city in a hundred places"
AS General Sherman witnessed these scenes
he doubtless rejoiced in the thought that his
prophecy to Halleck had been fulfilled, and
that the Fifteen corps had "done their work up
pretty we'll"
=. Mr.. Whitelaw Reid in his "Ohio in the
War" says of the burning of Columbia: at
was the most monstrous barbarity of the bar
barous march, and few calm students of the
facts will doubt his statement.
8. Colonel Stose5 in a letter to the Chicago
Tribune, says that during that day he chad in
timation that the union officers released by us
from the city prisons had formed a society, to
which had been added many members from
our soldiers and the negroes, the object of
which society was to burn Columbia" And
yet neither he, nor Sherman, nor Howard, nor
anyone N authority took any steps whater to
prevent what they knew was impending.
9. General Sherman suppresses, in his Off
cial report, all his correspondence between the
10Th and 2lst February, 1865, and there is thus
left very strong presumptive proof that his
tanned matter at variance with his subsequent
statement concerning the burning of Column
bia.
TO- The testimony of Captain Rawlins
Lowndes Hampton's A. A. g., that so far from
issuing orders to burn the cotton (as Sherman
asserts) Hampton sought authority from Gen
eral Beauregard and issued orders that the
cotton should not be burned, and the state
ments of General NJ. G. Butler and other con-
federates who were the last to leave Columbia,
Qs IN oH in hat no
was fired or was burning when Sherman's
army entered the city, are perfectly conclusive
on these points
''The pure and gifted chancellor, j. B. Car
roll who, as chairman of the committee ap-
pointed to investigate this whole question
wrote the report, based ON very large amour,
of unimpeachable testimony, has an able and
exhaustive statement of the case see S. ii. S.
papers, vol. VII. PIP. 202-214] which, beyond
all question, fixed the responsibility of the
burning of Columbia on General Sherman, and
adduced in proof facts which cannot be de-
MED. / have space for only the following
brief extract, witch will serve to show the
character of the report;
That Columbia was burned by the soldiers of
General Sherman, that the vast majority of the in.
cendiaries sober that for hours they wee seen
with combustibles firing house after house, without
any afectatiOn OF concealment, and without the
slightest check from their officer is established by
prooffu to repletion, and wearsome from its very
superfuity. After the destruction of the town his
officers and men openly approved of its burning and
exalted in it, ~ saw" deposes the mayor, every
few drunken soldiers that night; many who APP
peared to ympathise with our people told me that
the fate and doom of Columbia had been common
talk around their camp-tires ever since they left
savannah 1t was said by numbers of the soldiers
that the order had been given to burn down the
city. There is strong evidence that such order
was actually issued in relation to the house of
General John A. Preston.
1T seems that General Sherman does not pro-
pose to let this question rest-that having ut
terly failed in his attempt TO iniure Hampton
with his people" and having his malignant
nature constantly aroused 10y seeing the gal
liant South CaroIinian occupy the highest posts
within the gift of his devoted people, he means
to reiterate his base SANDER until, possibly, he
may persuade himself and his brother John to
believe it.
Well let him continue his course. The his
toran of the future will rank this alongside of
the SANDER he uttered against
President Davis, and for which
he received so mercilesS an excoriation at
the bands of the confederate chief, and in
which he pilloTies Sherman for all time by say
ing: 81 have in this vindication, not of myself
only, but also of the people who llonored me
with the highest official position in their gift,
been compelled to group together instances of
repeated fasehoods, deliberately spoken and
written nv General Shorman-fha blair BOst