The Seventeenth Army Corps remained all day on the south
bank of the Congaree river, near the Saluda cotton mills, while the Fifteenth
Corps early this morning crossed the north fork, the Broad river, on pontoons,
having laid them during the night, and moved down upon Columbia. But when they
entered the place they found that the rebels had already left it. In the
meantime the Thirteenth Iowa Regiment, being on our skirmish line in front of
the city, crossed the river in skiffs and after a little skirmishing succeeded
in placing their flag on the State House before any of the Fifteenth Corps even
got into town.1 So a part of the Seventeenth Corps was the first to
enter Columbia.2 Our corps crossed the forks late this afternoon and
went into camp a short distance from town.
_______________
1 This is precisely the substance of the original
entry of Mr. Downing's diary. In the following footnote, after almost fifty
years, he explains the flag episode more fully and also speaks Incidentally of
the burning of Columbia, though he makes no mention of it in his original; that
he did not is, however, not to be wondered at, since such burnings were common.
In his revision fifty years later he does not enter into the discussion of “Who
Burned Columbia,” but makes a single statement, which seems to hold the
Confederates responsible. — Ed.
2 It was a bright sunshiny day with a high wind
blowing from the south. From where we were, on the south bank of the river just
opposite the city, we could see men on foot and on horseback in the main street
of Columbia, lighting the cotton bales which they before had piled up in the streets
for defenses. In the forenoon, a detachment of men from the Thirteenth Iowa
Regiment crossed the river, and driving the enemy's skirmishers into the city,
they placed their regimental flag on the State House, thus having the honor of
being the first to place the Stars and Stripes on the capitol of the first
state to secede from the Union.
The Thirteenth Iowa was in Crocker's Brigade, or the Third
Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps. The boys of the
Thirteenth Iowa made the mistake of not placing a guard about their flag, for
about an hour after they had raised their flag, the Iowa Brigade in the
Fifteenth Army Corps entered the city from the west, and the Thirtieth Iowa
Regiment of that brigade, being on the skirmish line, naturally made for the
State House. Upon approaching the capitol and seeing no Union soldiers around,
they proceeded to investigate a little, and upon entering the building and
finding no guard, they took down the flag of the Thirteenth Iowa, and put up
their own instead. They then left a guard to defend it. The Thirteenth Iowa was
without a flag for two or three days, when the Thirtieth Iowa finally returned
to them their flag.
Our corps, the Seventeenth, moved up the river, and by dark
had crossed the forks, the Saluda and Broad rivers, on the pontoons. As soon as
we had stacked arms, I left for the city to replenish my haversack, which had
become rather flat, and I did not get back to our bivouac until 2 o'clock in
the morning, and then without anything to eat in my haversack. On entering town
I passed by the abandoned Confederate commissary department, and seeing a great
abundance of food stuffs, I thought that I would go down into town for a while,
and then on my way back would fill up my haversack. But when I returned, I
found the building in flames and food and all was In ashes before daylight.—A.
G. D.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 253-4
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