Year: 1865

4


equipment of their roads. 1t has a


length daWned upon the Southern min,


that the North is Indispensable to tn
lSouth. There is no recovery for thei
land except through the help of the mud


slIls and greasy mechanics they one,


affected to despise.


The old business men, who have lived


q partially active life, are managing il


one way and another to get along, bu


the change falls most heavily upon thost


who were once the wealthy. And this il


true throughout the South. They have
| lived in ease and idleness all their lives


and have no knowledge whatever of bust


ness or labor. They are at an utter loss


to know how to start in any matter that


VIII afford them support Some are
keeping boarders- where Yankees can be
found to board; some are teaching school;


the wives and daughters of many are


giving music lessons-all right and hon


orable enough, but a great change for


them. The great effort is to manage to


live, if possible, without manual labor


Even those who have land are very 10th


to aid In Its cultivation. But their pride


has received terrible blow, and they
may yet become profitable members of
society e---ls 5.--.'..'.sl m.


The universal lack of currency would of
itself cause utter stagnation in business
matters, even if the people possessed un-


bounded activity and enterprise. Except
the few In the State who have cotton to
sell, there is nothing on hand to turn into
money. The banksa are dead (; their assets
being almost wholly absorbed In Confed-
crate bonds. There is far less specie in
the hands of the people than has been
supposed, and so far as the wants of So
clety are concerned it is not worth men
tioning. A few, along or near the lines of
railways. manage to dispose of a little
fruit to passengers, or to sell the small
amount of produce they can spare, by the
strictest economy, to the company But
even this is not common, for everywhere
the problem is how to save enough pro-
duee, which, when all told, will carry the
owner through the coming winter Then,
but few of the roads have unbroken COM
munication with a market, and very little
is done in purchasing produce of any kind
Those who live at a distance from the
railroads have no means whatever of OBJ
tanning currency 1z


And for year to come, at the very least,
this state of things must continue, for the
crop now maturing will all be needed for
food there viii be no surplus whatever.
Columbia is situated on the left bank of
the Broad river, opposite the mouth of





the Santee. The town lies upon an ex-
tensiVe and elevated plateau, from which
the ground slopes rapidly away on all sides
exeent the North. The streets are very
wide, regularly laid out, finely shaded with
three rows of trees, and with a roadway
on each side of the grass plat which con-
taiHs the center row. Before the war it
was considered the most beautiful town in
the South yet its elegance consisted
rafbar in ;ts Aov1o-s t,.oas s,,J s1,,.,, La,.x,
than in the character of its buildings


Main street, from the point where the
Winnsboro road enters it to the State
House, is probably mile in length. On
each side of this street, the buildings,
with a very few exceptions, are burned to
the next adjoining streets. The hotels,
banks, public buildings, and business
houses were nearly all situated here, while
among them and upon the first blocks of
the cross streets, were many dwellings
with beautiful grounds about them. The
Jail, where at various times many of our
officers were confined, was consumed. In
the Northern portion of the town the
arsenal and its adjacent buildings, used as
a branch of the State Military School,
were destroyed. From the State House,
Main street extending nearly half mile
in the opposite direction, is uninjured, and
the town on either side also escaped the
confagration.


1t wasa sad sight to wander through
what were once the well kept grounds of
the wealthy, and see them overgrown with
noxious weeds, mingled with the choicest
shrubs and flowers, just as rank treason
sprang up here amid elegance and wealth.


Here was stramonium and rag weed,
poke weed, briars and thistles, growing
thickly with cape myrtle and box, mock
Non 1-kacy
were thus tangled, until it was difficult to
find a way through where smooth and
nicely bordered walks had been. Then
in the midst of all these, among the
scorched and Withered shade trees, were
the chimneys of the old mansion house.
Hundreds of these yards had been plowed
up, the choice shrubbery all destroyed,
and corn planted to guard against starva-
ton. From some directions the town
seemed great corn field flied with ruins.
In many places roads and foot paths have
been opened, where none but the proudest
and the wealthiest had ever set their feet
until Sherman passed that way. Standing
at the State House, and locking North, it
is difficult to number a dozen houses
standing, though many more are there,
the position and the trees both aiding to
conceal them. In the midst of it all is a
cemetery, with its fences destroyed, its
shrubbery ragged and broken, and its
walks and yards oVergrown with briars
and weeds. a saz
6 The State House was IN course of con-
struction at the opening of the war and
was nearly ready to receive the roof. The
building itself was uninjured except as 1t
bears the marks of a few shells which
struck it when our guns opened on the
city from Lexington Heights, opposite and
across the river It was designed to be
by far the finest public building in the
South, and will if ever finished on the
original plan be surpassed by few if any
at the North. It is of light marble with
extensive corinthian porches. But al
though the building was saved, a vast
amount of prepared marble and granite
coping was destroyed by the burning of
where it was stored.


These sheds contained square blocks of
marble of several colors for the flooring
of the building, which had long engaged
the work of a steam mill, erected for the
purpose of saving them. There were also
panels of choice marble in endless prOfu-
sion; railihgs of polished breccia, and
balusters of the same columns of choice
marble with capitals wrought in Italy,
and much carved work from the same
source. Besides these, the sheds covered
a large supply of huge granite blocks for
steps and cOrnices. The burning of the
buildings ruined every foot of stone ex-
posed to the heat. It would take years to
supply this loss, even if the State had the
money and the will to go on with the
work. The scene called vividly to mind