The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-06-29

Gen. Hampton had left the city as
Sherman came in, thinking that there
would be less destruction if there
were no defenders, and that he had
come out to surrender it. In the
course of their conversation Col.
Stone said: "Mr. Mayor, you can say
to your people that they have moth
ing to be afraid Of, that they are as
safe as if there was not Yankee
within a thousand miles of them
About II o'clock the army entered
the city. On reaching the court house
it was disbanded and soon the streets
were alive with soldiers, but they
were very orderly at first. About 1
O'Clock the fire alarm sounded. 1t
was found that about 60 bales of cot
ton which had been rolled out into
the street were on fire. A few Of the
citizens rushed to the spot and sue
ceeded in putting it out. Just as it
was about extinguished drunken
soldier ran his bayonet into the hose;
instantly others joined in and soon
the hose was entirely demolished.
This was the cotton which Sherman
in his official report accused Gen.
Hampton of setting on fire and in
this way starting the fire which de-
stroyed the city. Gen. Hampton has
proved beyond the shadow of doubt
that he did not. An extract from
Sherman's memoirs will show the
reason for this report: "In my Of
ficial report of this conf1agration l
distinctly charged it to Gen. Wade
Hampton and confess I did so point
edly to shake the faith of his people
in him, for he was, in my opinion, a
braggart and professed to be the
special champion of South Carolina. :"
Bank Breakers.
About 2 O'Clock the soldiers began
breaking into the banks and stores
and the destruction of valuable prop
erty was beyond description. There
were usually only three banks in the
city, but all the banks of Charleston
and all of those in the interior, with
the possible exception of one, had
been moved there, as it was thought
to be safe from attack. These banks,
about Il in number, were filled with
boxes of silver plate, bonds, deeds
and all kinds of valuable papers
brought there by the refugees. These
were too bulky to be carried out of
the city and there were no teams to
be had so that accounts for the large
amount of destruction.
At about o'clock in the evening
three rockets were seen to go up
from different parts of the city. 1t
was soon known that it was signal,
for in a few minutes fires broke out
in several places. A high wind was
blowing and spread the fire from
house to house. Where the distance
was too great for it to spread in this
way the soldiers, armed with pots of
kerosene or turpentine and torches,
set fire to the houses, which, how
ever, were always rifled first. All
night long the fire ragged, and when
morning came there was only one lit
tie cottage left on Main street.
Eighty-four squares containing 366
acres had been destroyed. The streets
were filled with homeless people,
standing guard over all that remain
ed of their worldly goods. The beau
tiful city lay in ruins, notwithstand-
ing the fact that Gen. Sherman had
promised that not fingers breadth
should be burned.
The Roman Catholic ,convent had
shared the fate of the rest OF the
city, although it had the promise OF
special protection. The mother su-
perior, who had educated Gen. Sher-
mans daughter, wrote to him while
he was in Savannah imploring him to
spare their institution and his answer
assured her that it would not be de-
stroyed. It is true that guards were
placed over it but they were among
the first to begin plundering it.
On Monday morning Gen. Sherman
heard that Gen. Hampton had also at
tackled the advance Of his army at
Killian's Mills, ten miles north of
Columbia. That caused the hurried
departure of the main body earlier
than was intended, and no doubt was
the reason that many doomed estab-
lishments were spared.
Food for Starving.
Before Sherman's departure the
mayor asked him to l1ave them
something with which to feed the
thousands of people who were in the