Looting and Burning of Columbia
One hundred and forty-three years ago this week, the women, children, infirm and elderly citizens of Columbia, South Carolina, were the victims of war crimes so vicious and inhuman that many modern historians pretend they never occurred.
They did occur, and they were recorded in detail for future generations by eye-witnesses, some of whom were prominent writers of the day.
William Gilmore Simms, a Columbia resident, was known and respected both in the United States and Europe until his works were black-listed by northern revisionists. Simms wrote a volume describing the carnage created by the army of MG William Tecumseh Sherman on a defenseless city and its residents over a two-day period. The book is titled The Sack and Destruction of Columbia, South Carolina.
In a nutshell, these words summarize the contents of Simms’s book:
“In late 1864 and early 1865, 62,000 battle-hardened Northern soldiers, under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman, marched through Georgia and South Carolina, destroying everything in their path.
“Sherman had promised that he would ‘make Georgia howl’ and ‘punish South Carolina as she deserves for her ‘sins’ against the Union. With the blessings of President Abraham Lincoln, Sherman’s troops destroyed civilian homes, desecrated graves, raped and murdered helpless women and children, and left thousands, both white and black, in their wake to forage through the destruction for what food they could find. Simms’ book details the horrors experienced by the citizens of Columbia, South Carolina, at the hands of their cruel invaders.”
On the morning of Friday, February 17, 1865, Mayor T. J. Goodwyn and a delegation from city council under a white flag headed south of the city to the Broad River and delivered a letter addressed to Gen. Sherman to Col. Stone commander of the forward unit of the advancing army. The letter read in part:
“The Confederate forces having evacuated Columbia, I deem it my duty, as Mayor and representative of the city, to ask for its citizens the treatment accorded by the usages of civilized warfare. I therefore respectfully request that you will send a sufficient guard in advance of the army to maintain order in the city and protect the persons and property of the citizens,”
The letter was signed: “Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
T. J. Goodwyn, Mayor.”
“Hardly had the troops reached the head of Main Street, when the work of pillage was begun. Stores were broken open within the first hour after their arrival, and gold, silver, jewels and liquors were eagerly sought.
“The authorities, officers, soldiers, all seemed to consider it a matter of course. And woe to him who carried a watch with gold chain pendant, or who wore a choice hat, or overcoat, or boots or shoes. He was stripped in the twinkling of an eye. It is computed that from first to last, twelve hundred watches were transferred from the pockets of their owners to those of the soldiers. Purses shared the same fate.”
The Mother Superior of the Ursuline Convent in Columbia had been a college friend of Sherman’s wife. This gave her some comfort that the convent where many women and children had taken shelter would go unmolested. Her hopes were soon dashed. The Irish-Catholic troops of Sherman’s army were kept outside the city and the convent was plundered along with the other churches and private homes.
“Ladies were hustled from their chambers – their ornaments plucked from their persons. It was in vain that the mother appealed for the garments of her children. They were torn from her grasp and hurled into the flames.”
“Men and women bearing of their trunks were seized, despoiled, in a moment the trunk burst asunder with the stroke of axe or gun-butt, the contents laid bare, rifled of all the objects of desire, and the residue sacrificed to the fire.”
“Regiments in successive relays, subjected scores of these poor women to the torture of their embraces, and - but we dare not further pursue the subject. There are some horrors which the historian dare not pursue.”
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