Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, February 19, 1865

We marched out on the railroad today and destroyed seven miles of track, then returned to camp, where we had left our knapsacks. We heard the sounds today of heavy explosions down in Columbia, and it is reported that our men have blown up the new State House.¹

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¹ The sound of the explosions in Columbia, which we heard on that day, was due to the destruction by our men of the fixed ammunition found there. General Sherman saved the beautiful new state capitol building, though it bore some of the ear marks of our shot and shell. The burning of Columbia resulted from the Confederates' setting fire to the bales of cotton in the streets; then at night some of the Union soldiers, getting too much poor whisky and burning with revenge, set fire to some of the vacant houses, and the high wind soon spread it over the whole town. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 255