The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-03-16
BONES OF WAR VICTIM.
Uenarth Relic of Sherman's Visit at
University of South Carolina.

Wednesday as workmen were eXca-
waiting in the northeastern corner OF
the campus of the University OF
South Carolina, just inside the wall,
they came upon skeleton far ad-
vanced in decomposition. Prof. b..
l.. Green, of the University faculty,
who is an authority on the history of
the university, says that there is no
doubt that the bones belong to one
of the corpses buried in this section
of the campus just after the burning
Of Columbia by Gen. Sherman.
A little pamphlet published in Co.
lumbia in 1895 by William A. Nichol-
son, of Union, gives a graphic ac-
count of the burial of Confederate
wounded who had died at the hos
pital which the college buildings then
formed. He says:
THE duty devolved upon me to
make preparation for the burial OF
the dead that had been accumulatlng
since the occupation of the city on
the 18th. l found, on examination,
II corpses. 1t was impossible to pro-
cure planks to make coffins, and 1t
was with the greatest difficulty l was
able to get trench dug to bury them
in There was no white help I could
call upon, and the negroes were de-
fiant and insolent and refused to aid
in digging the graves. l was, under
the circumstances, compelled to use
arbitrary measures. I selected a few
of the hospital attendants, armed
them with muskets and went into
the city and impressed such able
bodied help as we met and marched
them to the field in the rear of the
presidents house in the universl-
ty campus and had trench dug
sufficient to lay side by side those
II men. AS I stated, l was unable
to procure planks or nails; all l was
able to do for them was to wrap their
precious forms up in a sheet, and
wherever it was possible for me to
learn their names, l would mark the
grave, or rather the position they oc-
cupied in the trench, with such ma
terial as l could get, in order that
their friends might remove them, ii
they desired.
"The day following l was COM
PEELED to go through like experience
and bury II more. 1t was while en-
gagged in this duty that an unpleas-
ant incident occurred. One of the
negroes employed in digging the
trench took a pistol from his pocket
and commenced firing and using very
strong and defiant language. L ask
ed him to desist, as the occasion was
too solemn a one to be engaging in
such boisterous conduct, even if he
meant no harm. I asked him to give
me his pistol. This he refused to do.
1 was equally determined that he had
to show more respect to the dead
then lying in their shrouds. l called
on one of the guards to take the pis-
tol from him, but when he saw the
guard reach for his gun he ran like a
horse through gateway in the rear
of the presidents house and down
the middle of the campus and the
guard after him. He refused to halt,
and was likely to get the better of
the race. The guard, equally de-
termined to teach him a lesson, took
aim, fired and brought him down: l
hurried to the spot and found he was
wounded in the arm. He was re-
moved to a building in the rear of
Prof. Reynolds house in the cam
pus. Informed DR.. Thomson of the
occurrence, who went at once to see
him and gave his wound prompt and
careful treatment. While we deeply
regretted the wounding of the man,
the incident had a very salutary ef-
feet.
ION the day following we buried
seven. One of this number was a
most worthy female attendant, a
widow, leaving two helpless children.
I had in a manner become accustom-
ed to sad sights, but when I realized
that it would be my painful duty to
consign her uncofined to the grave,
I felt then the terrible horrors of
war. We laid her away in a grave by
herself. If ever genuine tears of sor-
row were shed it was over the grave
of this poor woman. Her children
were not present and l have no
ground for thinking that they ever
knew where their mother was buried.
AS matters began to settle down,
those that died later on were decent
ly inferred. It was my melancholy
4lo &;r,o tho oifv u-oc do