Columbia was almost completely destroyed by fire last night.
Only a few houses in the outskirts are left standing, and many people are
without homes this morning. Collumbia was a very nice town situated on the
Congaree at the head of navigation. Three railroads run through the town. A new
stone State House was being built, which it is said was to have been the
capital of the Southern Confederacy. Last night I passed by the sheds where the
fine marble columns for the building were carved and stored, and this morning
they were all in ruins and the sheds in ashes. It is a sad sight to see the
citizens standing in groups on the streets, holding little bundles of their
most valued effects and not knowing what to do. It is said that some even came
here from Charleston to escape Sherman's army. The people certainly have paid
dearly for the privilege of seceding from the Union. The Seventeenth Corps
passed through Columbia this morning and we were more than three hours in going
through town. Our division marched out northwest along the railroad, destroying
it all the way, and went into bivouac about six miles from town.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s
Civil War Diary, p. 254-5
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