The Seventh cross
Broad River and go into camp near the doomed city. We can now see the great
conflagration. Oh! how terrible those sweeping elements, causing innocent ones
to cry as they behold their childhood's place of play crumbling into ashes. But
such is war! Terrible in its legitimate vengeance, powerful in its tread, it
hearkens not to the cries for mercy. The question is now asked, "Who will
be held responsible for the burning of the capitol of South Carolina." The
impartial historian will tell the world that Wade Hampton burned his own city
of Columbia by filling the streets with lint, cotton and tinders, and setting
fire to it, which was spread by the raging wind. But it matters not with the
seventy thousand who will be charged with the burning of South Carolina's
capitol, for this great army who had swept a continent thus far, smiled and
felt glad in their hearts when they beheld this city laid low in ashes, where
rebellion was born, and where pampered and devilish treason first lifted its
mad head and made its threats against the Union and freedom.
SOURCE: abstracted
from Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, p. 297-8
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