Sunday, March 12, 2023

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, April 2, 1866

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION                
OF THE MISSISSIPPI,        
ST. Louis, Mo., April 2, 1866.

Dear Brother: I know the railroad depot and three large bridges were burned before a soldier of ours had entered Columbia, and I know that six hours before the real conflagration began I saw half-a-dozen piles of cotton on fire in the streets one large pile near the market house where the great conflagration began, which fire our soldiers were putting out as I rode by it. . . . Wade Hampton defended Columbia as long as he dared, and then ran away, leaving the city full of cotton blowing about like flakes of snow. So that trees and frame houses and garden fences were literally white. Of course a mayor could expect no terms. Being helpless, he took what he could get. I told him, of course, I had no intention to burn or destroy anything except what my previous orders defined. I saw Wade Hampton's cotton order printed in a Columbia paper, but kept no copy, as it was notorious; for he openly declared that Yankee footsteps should not pollute his threshold, and he commanded everything like corn fodder, etc., to be burnt, lest we should get it. . . .

They boasted that we would find a Moscow and its consequences.

The treatment of our officers, prisoners at Columbia, was enough to have warranted its utter annihilation, and after the fire began it required all our efforts to prevent its extending to the suburbs, including the Old Hampton house, now owned by Preston, brother-inlaw of Wade Hampton, which was saved by John Logan.

Affectionately yours,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 267

No comments: