The Burning of Columbia
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...we were mounted and ready
for orders on Blanding street, in front of the Preston mansion, with the
head of the column facing west, when to our dismay we witnessed the sad sight
of Logan's Fifteenth Army Corps marching down Main street. Words fail me
to express how these battle-scarred veterans looked. They were ready to spill
every drop of their life's blood in defense of the helpless women and children.
Some said it was time to fight, let us charge; while others said how glorious
to die defending our beautiful city.
- U.R. Brooks, of Butler's cavalry
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Hampton, like Lee, didn't send his willing men to die after
all was lost,and they retreated, following Hampton's orders. That night,
as they camped tweleve miles away, they watched their city burn.
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The work [by Yankee soldiers of setting
Columbia on fire], begun thus vigorously, went on without impediment and
with hourly increase throughout the night. Engines and hose were brought
out by the firemen, but these were soon driven from their labors - which
were indeed idle against such a storm of fire - by the pertinacious hostility
of the soldiers; the hose was hewn to pieces, and the firemen, dreading
worse usage to themselves, left the field in despair...
- William Gilmore Simms
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... together with other firemen endeavored
to check and extinguish the flames, but the hose of their engine was cut
and pierced by axes, bayonets, and other instruments in the hands of the
Federal soldiers, so that the engines were rendered useless.
- From deposition of William Thompson, a fireman,
May 24, 1866
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... the city was being set on fire
in many places by soldiers with torches. Our engines were broken and our
hose cut, and our city by 3 o'clock in ashes.
- Columbia Mayor T.J. Goodwyn
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In 1912 while I was Governor of South
Carolina I had a hard fight to keep history from being adopted for our schools
which contained the sentence that ``Hampton or his soldiers burned Columbia.''...
- Cole L. Blease, Governor of South
Carolina in 1912
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Sherman did not burn Columbia ...
- Marion Brunson Lucas, Sherman and the Burning
of Columbia, 1976
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Withdrawing from the city that day, Wade
Hampton's Confederate troops plundered many homes and businesses.
- Michael Fellman, Citizen Sherman, 1995
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