The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1916-01-14
CITY AUTHORITIES y Johnson. r,"r.
WILL ENFORCE LAW
THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA.
An UnintentiOnal Confession by One
of Sherman's Bummers.

The Columbus, Ga, Sun and Times
published the following letter, which
was found in the streets of Columbia
Immediately after the army of Gen.
Sherman had left. And the original
of which has been preserved and can
be shown and substantiated.
Camp Near Camden, S. G..
Feb. 27, 1865.
My dear Wife:
have no time for particulars, we
have had a glorious time in this State,
unrestricted license to burn and plum
der was the order of the day. The
chivalry of the State have been
stripped of most of their valuables-
gold watches, silver, pitchers, cups,
spoons, forks, ETC., are as common in
camp as blackberries. The terms of
plumber are as follows: The valuables
procured are estimated by companies;
each company is required to exhibit
the results of its operations at any
given place. One-fifth and first choice
falls to the share of commander-in-
chief and staff-one- fifth to the corps
commander and staff, one-fifth to field
officers of regiments and two-fifthS to
the company. Officers are not allowed
to Join these expeditions without dis
guising themselves as privates. One
of our corps commanders borrowed
suit of rough clothes from one of my
men and was successful in this place.
He got a large quantity of silver
among other things an old time milk
pitcher and very fine gold watch
from Mr.. De Saussure of this place.
DeSaussure is one of the F. F. VS. of
S. G. and was made to fork over lib
orally. Officers over the rank of cap
tain are not made to put their plunder
in the estimate for general distribu-
ton. This is very unfair and for that
reason and in order to protect them
selves, subordinate officers and pri-
Yates keep back everything that they
can carry about their person, such as
rings, ear rings, breast pins, etc., of
which, if | ever live to get home,
cave about quart. am not joking;
te, have at least quart of jewelry for
J6u and all The girls and some No.s1
diamond rings and pins among them
Gen. Sherman has silver and gold
enough to start bank. His share in
gold watches and chains alone at CO.
lumbia was 275.
But | said | could not go into par
ticulars. All the general officers and
many besides had valuables of every
description down to embroidered la.
dies pocket handkerchiefs-I have my
share of them, too. We took gold and
Il L.
to have redeemed their internal cur
rency twice over This the currency
whenever we come across it we burn
as it considered it utterly worthless.
/ wish all the jewelry this army has
could be carried to the Old Bay State.
1t would deck her out in glorious
style but, alas, it will be scattered all
over the northern Middle States. The
d niggers as a general rule prefer
to stay at home, particularly after
they found out that we only wanted
the able bodied men and to tell you
the truth, the youngest and best-look-
ing women. Sometimes we took off
whole families and plantations of mig
gers, by way of paying secessionists.
But the useless part of them we soon
managed to lose, sometimes in cross
ing rivers and sometimes by other
ways.
shall write you again from Will
mington, Goldboro or some other
place in North Carolina. The order
to march has arrived and | must close
hurriedly. Love to Grandmother,
Aunt .Carlotte. Take care of yourself
and the children. Don't show this
letter out of the family.
Your affectionate husband,
Thomas j. Myers. Lieut., etc.
p. 81 will send this by the first
flag of truce to be mailed unless I
have an opportunity of sending it to
Hilton Head. Tell Sallie | am saving
a pearl bracelet and ear rings for her.
but Lambert got the breast pin and
rings of the same set. | am try
ing to trade him out of them. These
were taken from Mrs. Jamison, daugh-
ter of the President of the S. C. Sc
cession convention. We found these
on our trip through Georgia.
This letter was addressed to Mrs
Thomas j. Myers, Boston, Mass.
The above letter was copied from
an old scrap book now in the possess
sion of citizen of Columbia and was
borrowed by a relative living in I'm
ion. This scrap book is full of in
tensely interesting things and from
time to time we intend to reproduce
the best of them.